What Muscles?

The theater for the nationally famous Muscle Musical has long tantalized me. The building is a ten-minute walk from our school in Minatomirai, but the tickets are at Broadway prices, so I'd despaired of ever seeing it.

Finally the school provided free tickets; normally their students prefer to watch noh or bunraku, and show little interest in something this plebian. But this year's group are particularly anti-intellectual, with me naturally among the worst. I was excited.

But my anticipation was in vain. The "Muscle Musical" is a dance-and-acrobatics performance, emphasizing feats of strength and agility. But it's just not that good. In terms of challenging and dazzling acrobatics, I think every professional performance I've seen anywhere was more impressive, whether in the US or in China. I've seen more talent and creativity out of New York street performers.

For example: In one segment, everything is upside down. Some baseball players are standing around on their hands, and some more walk past on their hands. And that's all! No upside-down baseball game. In another segment, construction workers play musical notes by banging their hardhats (heads included) into metal girders. If this were the Blue Man Group, they'd have played an entire song, and with perfect timing. But this bunch quits after a couple of scales.

Maybe it was just this particular show, called "Dogs," where the performers were clothed in costumes modeled on Broadway's "Cats" (currently running in Tokyo). I believe the cast of Cats probably could have put on this show without much extra practice. Their Christmas Extravaganza had more PR -- maybe more effort went into it.