Yoka Wao to play Dracula in musical

TOKYO —

Yoka Wao, 43, is set to play the dark prince in the forthcoming musical “Dracula,” Fuji TV announced this week. It is to be Wao’s first male role since leaving the Takarazuka Revue. “I get to suck the blood of various people when rehearsing. It’s fun. It might become a habit,” she said in a statement released by Fuji.

Wao came to the public’s attention as a performing artist for the Takarazuka Revue, where she specialized in playing male characters. The Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture. Actresses play male and female roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals. The theater company is a division of the Hankyu Railway company and all members of the troupe are its employees.

“Dracula” co-stars Mari Hanafusa, 38, and Natsumi Abe, 29, and will run from Aug 20 to Sept 11 at the Tokyo International Forum.

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