"It is doubly disappointing to walk next door to the Takarazuka Theatre and see the travesty which the Japanese themselves have chosen to regard as kabuki's successor. Female emancipation, theatrically speaking, went to the heads of the post-Meiji Japanese much as it did in England after the restoration. [...] This exploitation of the feminine, of which Okuni would wholly have approved, produced such transvestite manifestations as the Girls' Opera, which regularly attracts huge audiences, themselves mostly women, as well as all-women kabuki. [...]
"The pundits dismiss new kabuki as contemptible, and for once the pundits are right. Not that the actresses are to blame; they are elegant, decorative, even talented. But their material is sadly inferior. [...] The first sight of the stage is ominous. There is a full Western orchestra, including the ultimate horror, an electric organ. [...]
"The performance, in fact, combines the worst features of kabuki and Western musical comedy. [...] Its emotions are as synthetic as its costumes, which glitter but have no weight; it is as banal as a picture postcard of Mount Fuji.
"Some things work well. [...] By cabaret standards the dancing is well done, particularly by a chorus who parade along the runway with lanterns on their heads. For half an hour in a night club it might pass. [...] There are even fans in the audience who shout their favorites' names, in approved style. But their cries ring false, as if they were not so much applauding the actors as trying to convince themselves. These delusions of grandeur show up the shoddiness of the whole proceedings. [Kabuki] should now admit a third [category] to describe an offshoot which is cheap, glossy and all too obviously factory made."
(from The Theatres of Japan, Peter Arnott, Macmillan and Co. 1969.)
... особенно умиляют ужасный электрический орган и фальшивые крики фанатов.