Kei Aran
Kei Aran (安蘭 けい, Aran Kei, born 9 October) is a current top star otokoyaku (an actress who plays male roles) for the Japanese musical theatre group Star Troupe, part of Takarazuka Revue. She joined the revue in 1991 and became the top star in 2007, five years after fellow classmates (Sumire Haruno, the former top star for Flower Troupe and Hikaru Asami, former top star for Snow Troupe) became top stars.
She is original from Shiga-ken, her birthday is October 9 and her nickname is Touko.
She is of Zainichi Korean descent([1]) and the first from such background to become the top star of the company. (But she is not the first non-Japanese to be top star of the company. Rei Ootori, who is of Chinese descent, is the first to do so.)
Troupe history
- 1991 - 2000 Snow Troupe
- 2000 - Star Troupe
Trivia
Graduated in the first rank for her class (1991), she is the last of her class to reach the top star status, which is late comparing to fellow classmates such as Sumire Haruno, the former top star for Flower Troupes and Hikaru Asami, the former top star for Snow Troupe. Also she is the first otokoyaku who is first of her class to be top star since Hibiki Takumi.
She is one of the promising young stars that were promoted by the company in 1999 along with Haruno and Asami. Also, before she was promoted to top star, she was considered as one of top-stars-in-waiting along with Kei Takashiro, the former top star for Cosmo Troupe, Yūga Yamato, the current top star of Cosmo Troupe, Jun Sena, the current top star for Moon Troupe, and Natsuki Mizu, the current top star of Snow Troupe in 2004.
The last name of her stage name, Aran is from the protagonist of a Korean legend Legend of Ariran.
Starting her career in Snow Troupe, she developed her singing and acting along with legends like Yu Todoroki, Yoka Wao and Tatsuki Kouju. With the 1996 production of Elisabeth, she became the first actor to be in the title role Der Tod in the new actor production. Later on, she participated two Bowhall performance starring Yoka Wao (Grand Shanghai and Wuthering Heights), which she was in the second tier roles. In 1998, she got her first Bowhall lead performance Icarus.
In 1999, along with Hikaru Asami and Kouki Naruse, the three had a performance at the Bowhall The Wonder Three. Even such trio within the younger batch could be found among the Flower Troupe (Haruno, Sena and Mizu) and Moon Troupe (Ōzora, Kiriya and Yamato), they were the only trio that was considered official. This trio was also the major cast for the special performance of Arch of Triumph, which is the first case (and is the only one up to the date) for Takarazuka to have 3 versions of cast (major cast led by Yu Todoroki, new actor cast and the special cast led by Hikaru Asami) for one performance.
In 2000, she was transferred to Star Troupe and became the second man for Ko Minoru, Tatsuki Kouju and Wataru Kozuki. When Kozuki had Song of the Kingdom (Aida) as her top star debute in 2003, she was casted in the role of Aida, which is one of her greatest applause. In the same year, she also had her own leading performance like Singin' in the Rain and Ganryuu.
Marking the 90th anniverisery for the company, she had a special appearance for Cosmo production of Lightning in the Daytime (replacing Mizu in the Tokyo performance) and Phantom, rejoining Yoka Wao and Mari Hanafusa, former troupe mates from Snow Troupe as Count Philippe de Chandon in 2004.
In 2006, she had special appearance in the Snow production of Rose of Versailles, this is the first performance with classmate and former troupe mate Hikaru Asami since the troupe transfer and is the last with the resignation of Asami.
Notable roles and performance
Snow New Actor era
- Elisabeth - Der Tod (her role in the regular production is young Rudolfe)
- Natasha of the Rainbow - Sanjou Kaoru
Snow era
- Grand Shanghai - Wong Jin-Shun (Bowhall performance, starring Yoka Wao)
- Wuthering Heights - Edgar (Bowhall performance, starring Yoka Wao)
- Frozen Tomorrow - Bonnie and Clyde - Jeremy Methvin (Bowhall performation, starring Tatsuki Kouju and Hitomi Tsukikage)
- Icarus - Icarus (First leading performance at Takarazuka Bow Hall)
- Arch of Triumph - Hyrne Alvarez (regular cast)/Boris Morosow (special cast)
- Gone with the Wind - Ashley Wilkes
- Hanafubuki Koifubuki - Ishikawa Goemon (Second leading performance at Takarazuka Bow Hall)
Star era
- Rose of Versailles: Oscar and Andre, Hans Axel Von Fersen
- Gone with the Wind - Ashley Wilkes
- The Prague Spring - Jan Palach
- A Song for Kingdoms - Aida
- Singin' in the Rain - Don Lockwood
- Ganryuu - Sasaki Kojiro
- Lightning in the Daytime - Edmond de Lambrouse (Special appearance, replacing Natsuki Mizu in the Toyko run)
- Phantom - Count Philippe de Chandon (Special appearance for Cosmos Troupe)
- Ch'ang-an, Full of Swirling Flowers - An Lu-shan
- Shigure Hill Road in Nagasaki - Rasha
- The Dragon Star - Ryuusei (Last leading performance before being top star)
- Rose of Versailles: Fersen and Marie Antoinette - Andre (Takarazuka run)/Oscar Françoise de Jarjeyes (Tokyo run)
- Rose of Versailles: Oscar - Andre (Special appearance for Snow Troupe, shared with Wataru Kozuki, Sumire Haruno, Natsuki Mizu, Jun Sena and Kei Takashiro)
- Too Short a Time to Fall in Love - Anthony Randolph
Star Top Star era
- Hays Code - Raymond Woodrow (Top Star debut)
- Secret Hunter - Dagobert (Top Star debut at Grand Theater)
Personal concert
- The Wonder Three
- Rough Time
- Late Show
- Sense
A note for Oscar
Like Mizu, Rose of Versailles plays an important part for her Takarazuka career. However, she is the very few that has been in roles of Oscar, Andre and Hans Axel Von Fersen