Wearing a headband and tracksuit, Satoshi Tsumabuki — the 31-year-old darling of the Japanese entertainment world — was easy to spot among a crowd of actors in a rehearsal studio in downtown Tokyo recently. He was there preparing for "Egg," Hideki Noda's new play, which opens Wednesday at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (TMET) in Ikebukuro in the first programme after the theater's 17-month refurbishment.
Tsumabuki is one of Japan's biggest TV-drama and film superstars. And though this is only his third stage role, judging from his first two forays — the Noda plays "Kiru" (2007) and " Minami-e" ("To the South," 2011) — many see no reason why he shouldn't reach dizzy heights in theater as well.
That's if he has time, of course. As is typical of many of Japan's in-demand actors, he's been busy. June saw the release of "Ai to Makoto" ("For Love's Sake"), a young-love movie in which he starred, while in November he heads-up the cast in a bank robbery suspense movie titled "Ogon wo Daite Tobe" ("Flying with Gold"). Then in January he will have a leading role in "Tokyo Kazoku" ("Tokyo Family"), a surefire-hit, big-screen homage to Yasujiro Ozu's epochal 1953 "Tokyo Story."
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