(Not to be confused with the musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim)
Company is a musical put on by the Takarazuka Revue in 2018, starring Tamaki Ryou as Aoyagi Seiji, Manaki Reika as Takasaki Minami, and Miya Rurika as Takano Haruka. It is based on the novel Company (Ibuki Yuki).
The musical follows Aoyagi, a widower coping with the death of his wife, working an oppressive job at Ariake Pharmaceuticals. After a scandal at the company, he takes the blame and is transferred to the Shikishima Ballet Company to act as the producer of Swan Lake in honor of the anniversary of Ariake Pharmaceuticals' rebranding. In out of his depth, he meets Takano, who is an internationally renowned ballet dancer. Due to a sudden injury, Takano is unable to perform the lead role in the ballet. He has a different idea that he presents to Aoyagi instead, which causes friction with the higher-ups who would prefer a more traditional performance. As Aoyagi continues to manage the production, trying to find a compromise between passion and his job, he finds himself alive for the first time in years, discovering, once again, what it is to be in a company.
This work provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Segawa
- Adaptation Deviation: The show has killed off Aoyagi's wife while she is alive and well in the book, in the process of divorcing him. Aoyagi also changes his name from Seiichi to Seiji. (The first characters of his name in Japanese are identical, but the second character for the book version stands for the number 'one', while in the musical the second character of his name stands for the number 'two'.)
- Age Lift: Aoyagi is supposed to be 47 in the book, while the musical certainly de-aged him a good fifteen or more years.
- Almost Kiss: Takano is about to kiss Aoyagi when he tries to explain the plot of the New Swan Lake to him in a dance, but Aoyagi stops him in the last second.
- All Musicals Are Adaptations: The musical is based on Ibuki Yuki's novel of the same title.
- Dream Ballet: In the musical, company members act out the plot of Swan Lake as it's being described. Takano's brief demonstration of the New Swan Lake crosses from this trope into "reality" when he conscripts Aoyagi as a dance partner.
- Casting Gag: See Dude Looks Like a Lady - as is the norm for all Takarazuka productions, Takano (and the rest of the male characters) are played by women. However, Miya Rurika (Takano), despite generally being an otokoyaku note has played women and nonbinary characters.
- Compressed Adaptation: A 350-page book was adapted into a 90-minute long, single act musical.
- Cool Old Lady: Mizuho
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Wakisaka
- Cross-Cast Role: Takano is approved to play the villain of the New Swan Lake, Rothbart as well as Rothbarth's female form, the Black Swan.
- Death by Adaptation: Aoyagi's ex-wife in the source material, Etsuko, has her name changed to Tomomi and is killed off-stage by the adaptation before the musical even began.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: When Mizuho agrees to Takano dancing both Rothbart and the Black Swan in the New Swan Lake she comments it would be a perfect fit because Takano has been often mistaken for a girl from a young age.
- Hard Work Fallacy: Works for almost the entire musical, but especially Minami's weakness during live shows, and Segawa's dream to make it to the top of the world as a renowned volleyball player being crushed in her teens.
- Hates Being Touched: Takano (expanded upon in the book), despite being a world-class ballet dancer.
- Hidden Depths: Most of the characters do not know that Aoyagi is very skilled in the art of calligraphy and has an inclination for poetry and (Japanese) literature. He also practices karate and judo which is how he is able to catch the thief who pickpocketed Minami on the busy commuter train.
- Making the Masterpiece: The musical portrays how the New Swan Lake comes to existence.
- Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Rothbart in the New Swan Lake masquerades as Prince Siegfried's tutor and "seduces the Prince with his genderless beauty".
- Performance Anxiety: Minami is described as a "queen" during rehearsals and a "stray kitten" on stage by Takano in the book.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Wakisaka
- Race for Your Love: Aoyagi and Segawa running after Takano to fetch him after he abruptly left for Vienna and convince him to return.
- Soul-Crushing Desk Job: Aoyagi's life as an ordinary salaryman before he gets transferred to the ballet company.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Takano leaving the performance and going back to Vienna after he finds out that he'd be partnered up with not a ballet-dancer but an idol from the BARBARIAN group as his Prince for the show.
- Tamer and Chaster: In the book, Nayuta asks some male ballet dancers if they stuff their tights before a performance then goes on to ask if they ever get turned on when dancing closely with someone who's their type, which were both cut from the musical. As well as the long and passionate kiss he shares with Sara in the toilet - which was downgraded to a peck on the cheek.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Nayuta is supposed to be the youngest member of the BARBARIAN, somewhere in his late teens or very early twenties.
- The Everyman: Aoyagi.
- The Gambling Addict: Mizuho claims to be one when agreeing to add a lift to Nayuta and Sara's pas de deux at the very last minute.
- The Perfectionist: Minami
- Undying Loyalty: Segawa and Aoyagi's loyalty to Takano
- You Don't Look Like You: Takano is described as taller than average and rather muscular in the musical, and hair just long enough to tie up after he refuses to go to the hairdresser for a few months. His musical counterpart is fairly short and his hair goes way below his shoulders.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: While the musical does not outright mention this, in the book it is implied that Segawa's injuries that forced her to retire from her volleyball-player career were caused by overworking herself.
