The Takarazuka Revue celebrates centenary with MLA Mini
Published: ASIA
JAPAN: A Martin Audio MLA Mini system has been used to support The Takarazuka Revue’s performance of The Rose of Versailles. The system was specified by rental company Woody Land, who recently purchased it and who regularly supports the Takarazuka Musical, to help reinforce the ‘historic grand romance between Count Axel de Fersen and French Queen Marie-Antoinette’.
The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in the county's Hyogo Prefecture and originally founded a century ago by Ichizo Kobayashi, president of Hankyu Railways. In celebration of its centenary, the recent performance saw the group revisit The Rose of Versailles, which was first turned into a hit by the theatre back in 1974. The troupe is still a division of Hankyu Railway today, and all members are employed by the company.
Woody Land opted to ground-stack eight MLA Mini cabinets on top of two MSX subwoofers on either side of the stage, reportedly achieving ‘excellent intelligibility both at the FOH position, under the balcony and at the top row seats on the second floor’.
‘MLA Mini is fantastic because of the consistency of the sound throughout the venue – from the front row to the end,’ remarked Mr Kurashige, sound engineer for Woody Land. ‘It is also nice that we can change the directivity of the array – not physically but electronically – using different parameters, even though the rehearsal may have already begun.’