Looking down at The Globe Tokyo from the Google Maps satellites, it’s easy to see how the venue gets its name. The main building is decidedly hemispheric, its design inherited from London's own Globe Theatre. The interior is just as well-rounded, with a nicely-stocked
hide goods stand, as well as a separate booth for musical-related items. Also of note was a new
hide-themed guitar, of which only a few hundred had been made, set on display near the hall doors. By the hall’s opening at 1:30, the mostly female audience had taken to the lounge, sipping on iced teas while scouring through the provided promotional materials.
On entering the hall the audience met its first surprise: given the
Pink Spider title, the stage was neither as vibrantly pink nor web-themed as one might suspect. A pink spotlight with the musical’s kanji emblem illuminated the stage; white ramps were positioned at either side, behind which stood the instruments to be used for the musical. Barring pull-away stands or tables, this would be the setup for the show’s entirety. It was by no means a bad thing, though; this just meant the scene changes would happen quickly and efficiently.
At 2:00, the show began. First to appear were the musicians (primarily
defspiral, once known as
The Underneath and before that
Transtic Nerve). All the musicians present had known
hide personally prior to his untimely death in 1998, and as such all were welcomed warmly by the crowd. Some girls went so far as to call out the band members’ names, causing some to wonder if the girls had mistaken the musical for a live show. The cast and chorus slowly joined the musicians on stage, each holding a live ticket in their hands.
defspiral’s vocalist,
TAKA, and today’s male lead,
Gota Watabe, took center stage.
TAKA took his ticket and ripped it in half, with the entire cast following suit. With this, the first song of the day began:
DAMAGE.
For some fans, this may have been a peculiar choice. It wasn’t the most popular of
hide songs, though hardcore fans would have recognized it as easily as
ROCKET DIVE or
Pink Spider. As the song played, the audience learned two things within the first few measures: first, that for all intents and purposes the musical arrangements of today’s songs would be acceptably close to
hide’s original renditions. Perhaps they were a little “modernized,” given the need to stay fresh, but otherwise the songs were unchanged.
Second – and perhaps anyone experienced with musicals would have seen this coming – the vocal arrangements were markedly different. While some individual chorus members took to singing individual lines, others joined in for bridges and choruses, creating unexpected but often wildly brilliant vocal harmonies.
The lyrics to
DAMAGE were unchanged, as was the case for all the songs played. After
DAMAGE came the similarly obscure
A STORY, then the popular,
Pink Spider - the first of many times the song would appear. Four seemed a little much at first, but as the plot began, the repetition would come to make some sense.
Both the narrative voice in
Pink Spider and the musical's male lead, S (
Watabe) - share a desire to “grow wings." S used to be in a band, but his “inability to grow wings” prevented him from continuing his career, haunting him to this day (
DOUBT). S’s coworkers at their mundanely nondescript delivery company are unaware of this, if not apathetic. Instead he opts to regularly phone Mel (today played by
Hitomi Takahashi) a woman whose part-time job is talking to people like S. Mel’s friends are concerned about her job (
GOOD BYE), but it sounds safe enough; after all, there’s no way they could ever meet in person, right?
Wrong. A chance meeting on a train (
50% & 50%) leads to their promise to meet again at a live, despite Mel’s friends’ objections (
TELL ME). Incidentally, it’s about at this point where the musical begins to feel far more like a fantastic live than anything with a strictly coherent plot.
TAKA appears on-stage, offering S a chance (
DICE) to grow his wings in his mysterious “Psychommunity,” a pink spider brooch signaling this metamorphosis. S accepts and, over the course of five or six psychedelic ensemble performances, returns to the energetic rocker persona he once was. … but at what cost?
The large breaks between plot pieces clearly put the songs in front of the story, but chances are this was the plan from the start.
Rock Musical “Pink Spider” was designed to honor
hide’s memory, so a lack of a proper story arc is, for the most part, forgivable. A special cast appearance by
LUNA SEA bassist
J, including a performance midway through the performance, might not have fit in a regular musical but again, this is by no means a normal musical.
At risk of overstating, the highlight of the
Pink Spider musical must be the chorus members and their fantastic harmonies. Let’s overlook the fact that the leads only sang in a select few songs (though
MISERY near the end of the performance was done impressively). Songs like
TELL ME and
Junk Story featured moments which are likely unfathomable to even the most faithful
hide fans, yet every note heard was done with both purpose and skill.
After finishing their Tokyo run, the arachnids of
Pink Spider are set to perform several additional shows throughout Japan, concluding their tour in Nagoya on April 23rd.
Those of you who need their
hide fix but can’t make the trip can instead visit the new LEMONed Shop in Shinjuku. Alternatively, you can also purchase 1/8th-sized
hide guitars or his upcoming CD and DVD releases. For more information, visit
hide-city.com
