A Japanese all-female troupe turns America's most famous gangster into an extravagant prison confession with bourbon and show tunes.
Takarazuka Snow Troupe 2015 production based on the life of Al Capone. The year is 1929, in a prison in New Jersey. Here, wearing a Divan watch too extravagant for the setting, sits one man: Al Capone. As everyone knows, he’s an American gangster. In a cell arranged especially for him, he gulps down law-prohibited bourbon, next to him sits the script for a new Hollywood screenplay that is in production. The title is “Scarface.” It is plain that that word represents Al. Before the writer of this script, Al begins to tell the lesser known “truth of Al Capone.”
Acting
Women playing hypermasculine gangsters with zero irony, maximum commitment.
Production
Prison cell as glitzy cabaret set—extravagance clashing with confinement.
Costume
That Divan watch: period-perfect detail screaming 'mobster peacocking'.
Director
Harada Ryou
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Takarazuka's otokoyaku (male-role performers) deliberately heighten masculine gestures to almost parody—making gangster tropes feel knowingly theatrical rather than imitative.
The real Ben Hecht did write the 1932 'Scarface' in 11 days, barely researching actual Capone—this production hilariously corrects history by making Capone his own consultant.
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