Trying to rate the energy levels of a troupe of Broadway performers is like looking at a group of ants and trying to work out which is walking the fastest. They all seem to be going at 120 percent.
But in last Friday's opening performance of the musical "Rent" at Tokyo's Akasaka ACT Theater, it was hard not to come to the conclusion that one particular cast member was jumping just a little bit higher, singing just a little bit louder, and putting just a little more oomph into her two-step, hip-grind, pelvis-thrust, head-bop and pigtail thrash than her otherwise uniformly accomplished colleagues.
Yuka Takara had reason to be giving it her all. Not only is she the sole Japanese cast member in this English-language production touring directly from Broadway, but "Rent," the 1996 musical about Bohemians in the Big Apple, is one of her personal favorites.