Zombies at the Kabuki-za?

Went to Kabuki-za again this time with a colleague of mine from graduate school. It was an array of pieces ranging from dance plays to a new piece about zombies...really...I am not kidding.

Ayatsuri Sambaso  - a fantastic dance play where the main actor dances as a puppet.  Utterly astounding movement technique.  My legs hurt just thinking about it!
See : http://homepage3.nifty.com/NAHKI/senwaka-kai/eng/descriptions/ayatsuri.htm

Nozakimura - and act of the piece I worked on at the University of Hawaii. Really fun to see it with Lei - who had played Osome - the lovely daughter of a pawn broker...Really interesting to see it live at the kabuki-za!

Migawari Zazen - a dance play from a kyogen farce...with the fantastic Toziwazu Mozibei as #1 shamisen player!  Very funny - if a bit sexist!

Oedo RibbinguDeddo (The Oedo Living Dead) - say "living dead" with a heavy Japanese accent and you get "ribbingudeddo"- I am all for experiments and fusion...I love it and support the whole idea even if the experiment fails.  Kabuki has always been about the "new" and "different" but this was...well...just really really bad.  Written and directed by Kudo Kankuro (who is a famous writer, actor and director for shogeki and TV) it featured an incredibly talented kabuki cast who spent 90 minutes shuffling around the stage and grunting as zombies.  A total waste of amazing talent.  Kabuki is all about dance and music and heightened language - and this had bad pop tunes, VERY facile choreography and text with the sophistication of a quickly slapped together highschool play.   I felt sorry for all those brilliantly trained actors.  Can't see that this director/writer had even seen a kabuki - or cared to use the skills these artists have.  Rantrantrant. I hate to see such a wasted possibility!

But...tickets for the day program are COMPLETELY sold out for the entire month.  Average price about $100.  So the producers knew what they were doing. There you go.

Also see: http://www.kabuki-za.co.jp/english/program.html