Playzone is a Japanese musical production. It used to be presented annually from 1986 to 2015 under the auspices of Johnny & Associates. The lead role was played by Shonentai until the 2008 performance, after which it was played by junior members of the Johnny's in turn. It is supervised by Johnny Kitagawa and produced by Tsuyoshi Yamato.
Overview An original musical that premiered at the Aoyama Theatre in the summer of 1986, the year after Shonentai's debut, and was performed every summer. 2005 summer marked its 20th year, and 2007 (its 22nd year) marked its 900th performance. Playzone starring Shonentai ended on August 31, 2008. The total number of performances by Shonentai was 957, with an audience of 1,380,465. Since 2009, Playzone has been performed by junior members of Johnny's, but in 2015, with the closing of the Aoyama Theatre, the show also ended. The total number of performances was 1,232, and the number of audiences reached 1,737,450. The performers are mainly celebrities and trainees from the Johnny & Associates, but also include outside dance teams and people from theatrical troupes. All the stories are original stories, except for West Side Story, which was staged in 2004. After 2011, the main structure of the show was singing and dancing to famous Johnny's songs and new songs, and the theatrical part of the show disappeared. Due to copyright issues, no video productions are available for 2004. The 2007 performance was not made into a video because Akira Akasaka, the performer, was arrested for drug possession after the performance and fired from Johnny's, but it was made into a video for the first time in the Shonentai 35th Anniversary Best Playzone Box 1986-2008 in 2020.
Production history From 1986, when the show was first performed, until the 2008 performance, the Shonentai members starred in the lead roles. From 2009 to the final performance in 2015, the show was starred by junior members of the Johnny's.
1986 Playzone '86 Mystery The title of the performance was Playzone '86 Mystery. It ran from July 5–27, 1986 for 30 performances. The choreography was partly by Michael Peters. Higashiyama later said that the three members of Shonentai took eight hours of lessons from Peters every day leading up to the premiere. Uekusa later said that the Aoyama Theatre has a very deep Trap Room, and that at the time he was afraid of falling into it, and it even came to him in his dreams. Michael Peters choreographed the songs "Mystery Zone" and "Diamond Eyes" performed in the play. In addition, 50 members of the Kayoko Nakura Jazz Dance Studio performed in the film, and Nakura herself choreographed songs such as "Say Hello New York".
Story Three young men, Kazu, Nori and Hide, who yearn to see a Broadway musical, each work part-time to save money for the trip and finally go to New York. However, as soon as they arrive, they are robbed and everything is stolen. They take up residence at the mansion of a gentleman, Magical Mystery Dad, who passes by and offers to help them, and while taking dance lessons, they take on the dubious jobs they are asked to do. When the three of them become friends with his daughter, Fairy Mary, they accept her request and go to her runaway sister, High School Lullaby, to convince her to come home.
Cast/Staff +CastStaffWriter/director by Toshihiro Nagatsuka Choreography by Michael Peters, Kayoko Nakura Creation/Composition by Hiroyuki Moriizumi Music by Takashi Inoue
1987 Playzone '87 Time-19 Performed under the title Playzone '87 Time-19. The show ran from July 3–26, 1987 for 30 performances. A musical version of the movie "19 Nineteen" starring Shonentai. During the performance period, Uekusa was involved in a traffic accident and was unable to perform for three days, but Nishikiori and Higashiyama learned the lines instead and followed up.
Story Near future. Three young men, Tsuyoshi, Kazuki and Jinichi, are bored in a country called "Outland". All kinds of fun are forbidden here. The world is governed by a group of women called the Metropolis Police. Sentenced to death for violating the rule that they must spend no time on anything other than work and rest, they propose to save this food-starved world by going to the past in a time machine with the three of them, bringing back dinosaurs and breeding them as food. This is listened to and they set off on a journey through time.
Cast/Staff +CastStaffComposition, direction and choreography by Taku Yamada Composition and screenplay by Sunao Kato
1988 Playzone '88 Caprico - Angel and Devil Rhapsody - Performed under the title Playzone '88 Caprico - Angel and Devil Rhapsody -. It was performed at the Aoyama Theatre from July 4 to July 31, 1988, and at the Osaka Festival Hall from August 23 to August 31, 1988. A total of 51 performances. The total number of performances reached 100.
Story One day, Shohei Konan, assistant to private detective Akechi Koroku, wakes up from a strange dream and finds himself lying in the middle of Ginza. On the way to work, a fortune teller prophesises that "a devil will soon take up residence in your body" and sells him a medicine that will help him get help from an "angel". Shohei gulps it down in one gulp. The fortuneteller also predicts that he will fall in love with a beautiful girl, and disappears. Then the devil, who is Shohei's "shadow", and the angel, who is his "conscience", appear. The angel and the demon are only visible to Shohei. The butler of the Zaizen Pearl Co. visits the detective agency and comes to discuss the fact that the Zaizen family has received advance letter from the thief Mikesh to steal the Blue Star, a diamond with a market value of 700 million yen. Shohei meets and falls in love with Julian, the Zaizen family's daughter.
Cast/Staff +CastStaffWritten and Directed by Sunao Kato Only "The Show" is written, composed and directed by Johnny Kitagawa Choreography by Kayoko Nakura
1989 Playzone '89 Again Performed under the title Playzone '89 Again. It was performed at the Aoyama Theatre from July 6 to July 30, 1989, at the Aichi Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan from August 3 to August 7, 1989, and at the Festival Hall from August 13 to August 19, 1989. 53 performances in total.
Story Ken loses consciousness during a gig at a live music venue and finds himself in an unknown place. From the angels around him, Ken learns that he died by mistake. However, because it was a mistake, god ordered him to adapt the "Again System" and Ken was allowed to return to the lower world in the body of a girl. The rules of this system are that if Ken helps the humans he meets find meaning in life by removing their problems, he will be granted eternal life, failing which he will be sent back to heaven. As a girl, Ken visits Mummy's Cafe, a restaurant in a corner of downtown. The owner, Mummy, looks after many orphans. Ken talks to Joe, the leader of the group, and Ryu appears, who says he is in love with the girl Ken is borrowing a body from. Ryu is the son of Mr Fox, a powerful man in the town, who are at odds with Joe and his friends. Meanwhile, Ken succeeds to regain his own body through the "Again System". When Ken, concerned about Joe and Ryu, visits Mummy's Café again, the shop is about to be dispossessed by Mr Fox, who wants to redevelop the entire surrounding area.
Cast/Staff +CastStaffScreenplay by Mie Hirano Direction/Screenplay by Toru Hanabusa Choreography by Kayoko Nakura and Bobby Yoshino
1990 Playzone '90 Mask Performed under the title Playzone '90 Mask. It was performed at the Aoyama Theatre from July 7–29, 1990 and at the Festival Hall from August 11–19, 1990. A total of 42 performances. The play Hamlet was directed by Yukio Ninagawa. The total number of performances reached 200.
Story While talking backstage after the final performance of Shonentai's musical, member Nishiki tells them that he is going to New York by himself for a while. Higashi and Uekusa are surprised and angry at the sudden news. Their manager, Mie, has noticed that Nishiki is hiding something. In fact, only Nisiki knows that Uekusa is suffering from a serious illness that even Uekusa herself does not know about, and in order to give Uekusa a break, Nisiki has been playing the role of a traitor. Unsatisfied with Nshiki's self-serving behaviour, Higashi and Uekusa drank and got drunk. In a strange dream Uekusa had, Nishiki appears. After Nishiki leaves for New York, Higashi performs in a play by Yukio Ninagawa. When he is surprised to see the face of one of his back-up dancers as Nishiki, the real, jolly Uekusa appears and together they perform a scene from Hamlet.
Cast/Staff +CastStaffWritten, composed, directed by Johnny Kitagawa Directed by Yukio Ninagawa (Hamlet) Choreography: Kayoko Nakura, Tony Tee, Bryant Baldwin, Bobby Yoshino.
1991 Playzone '91 Shock Performed under the title Playzone '91 Shock. Performed at the Aoyama Theatre from 4–28 July 1991 and at the Festival Hall from 10 to 14 August 1991. 41 performances in total. The musical Shock, starring Koichi Domoto, premiered in 2000 and continued every year until 2024, but the prototype for Shock was Playzone in 1991, and Domoto later said that he and Shock would not be where they are today without Shonentai.
Story In 1981, three men, Nishiki, Higashi and Uekusa, are back-up dancers for a star called "The General". Their manager Yamamura delivers them a schedule for a national tour as "Shonentai", and the three begin their activities. Summer 1983. Shonentai and backing band "Shigeyuki Nakamura and Tokio" continue touring. Nishiki, fed up with the travelling days, declares that tomorrow they will travel by motorbike and invites Uekusa to join them. They set off in bad weather and the motorbike falls off a suspension bridge on a mountain road. Nishiki's injuries were minor, but Ueksa was seriously injured. However, Higashi insisted that the show must go on no matter what, and Shige, who was a member of the backing band, took Uekusa's place on stage. In 1985, Shonentai's popularity rises with Shige in the band. Meanwhile, Uekusa was recuperating in a place with a view of the sea. Higashi visits him, but Uekusa continues to spend his days staring at the sea and looking for whales. He compares his inability to walk to that of a legless whale. The play The Moby-Dick. Nishiki, now Captain Ahab, takes on the white whale in an attempt to avenge his left leg, which was bitten off in a battle with a giant whale.
Cast/Staff +CastStaffWritten, composed and directed by Johnny Kitagawa Composer by Henry Krager Choreography by Kayoko Nakura, Bobby Yoshino and Jeffrey Amsden
1992 Playzone '92 Farewell Diary Performed under the title Playzone '92 Farewell Diary. Performed at the Aoyama Theatre from 11 Jul - 2 Aug 1992 and at the Festival Hall from 12 Aug - 16 Aug 1992. 39 performances in total.
Story In the near future, the capital is in ruins due to indiscriminate attacks by unmanned security aircraft that have gone out of control. Two soldiers (Higashiyama, Uekusa) use a bio-reactor to discover an old man (Nishikiori) wandering alone. The old man says that he can see a theatre called ‘Apocalypse’ in the ruins and that his friends are in it, and leaves. A diary is left behind, which is picked up by one of the soldiers (Uekusa). The diary describes the days of the old man's youth. His name is Ken, and as a young man he was one of the core members of a dance troupe called Apocalypse. Shaw (Higashiyama), Jun (Uekusa) and Ken (Nishikori) and other friends celebrate the theatre company's fifth anniversary foundation day. Shaw gives a commemorative speech and tells them that, as usual, the troupe will disband after tomorrow's performance and reassemble the following year. While everyone is excited, Ken tells them that he will not be able to come tomorrow. He says that he will be working for two years in his father's company to save money for their dream of building their own theatre.