Stage report on the first night performance of the stage "Wake Up, Girls! Memories of Aoba" with laughter, tears and new songs!　Many photos are also included!

The first stage "Wake Up, Girls! Memories of Aoba", which will be performed from January 19 to 22, 2017. The evening performance on the 19th, the first day of the show, was also a great success.

The story of the stage follows the 2014 movie "Wake Up, Girls! Seven Idols.

Greenleaves Entertainment, an entertainment agency whose last talent ran away, came up with the idea of forming an idol group to overcome the crisis and held auditions. The group gathered a group of unique members, but they decided that they did not have the right person to be the center of the group, so they recruited Mayume Shimada, who used to be a core member of the popular idol group "I-1club" but graduated from the idol group and now lives in Sendai... This is the story of how WUG was formed.

Naturally, the acting and singing of the members of WUG have matured considerably since their debut, but there were many advantages to performing the story of their origins on stage that were different from those of the movie. For example, the struggle of Mayu Shimada to stand up again after quitting the idol world for certain reasons, for which Maasuke Yoshioka played the role with great care and emotion, and the scenes of quarrels among the members of WUG, which may be quite natural, were very well acted, but the characters themselves were so much better than the movie. The scene where the members of WUG fight with each other in the middle of the show may be a matter of course, but the characters themselves were just as good!　I felt as if the characters from the anime were directly on stage.

Of course, there were many interesting things that only the stage can offer. The audition scene was filled with ad-libs and other funny scenes, and the interaction between President Tange and manager Matsuda, as well as the Ota group, who are fans of WUG, all made me laugh with their exquisite timing and direction that only a stage can provide. In addition, there are plenty of powerful live scenes of WUG and I-1club. There is singing, laughter, and excitement. It was a stage that offered new possibilities and fun.

Wake Up,Girls! performed their new song "Yukimoyo Koi no Moyo" [lyrics by Natsumi Tadano, music composed and arranged by Keiichi Hirokawa (MONACA)] and I-1club performed their new song "Knock out" [lyrics by Natsumi Tadano, music composed and arranged by Hidekazu Tanaka (MONACA)]. Girls! sang "Bare Faces and KISS ME," Mr. Yoshioka started the show by saying, "Normally, there is no MC here," and congratulated Airi Nagano, who celebrated her birthday on that day. Ms. Nagano commented, "I turned 24 years old, and since I am the second oldest in WUG, I hope I can lead WUG." The stage closed with WUG and I-1club singing "Gokujo Smile" together.

(Reporting and writing by Makoto Kashima)

Memories of Aoba" setlist for the evening performance on the 19th

Yukimoyo Koi no mo yo / Wake Up, Girls!

Knock out / I-1club

KISS ME with bare face / Wake Up, Girls!

Gokujo Smile / Wake Up, Girls!