Fridge / Elisabeth

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Fridge Brilliance:

• During the wedding, we never hear Franz Joseph agreeing to marry Elisabeth. The Archbishop asks for her "I do," she says "Yes," and then Death chimes in from above with "Yes," capped by an evil laugh as the lovers below are separated. In a way, this means that as far as he is concerned, Death is Sisi's legitimate husband, and the one she is ultimately bound to.
• Rudolf's coat displays his status and duties as the Crown Prince.
  • Kind oder nicht: He is taken to see his mother in shirts and slacks, bare and vulnerable as a child. Count Gondrecourt, under Sophie's command, puts the coat on him and buttons it up - forcing him into the reins of duty, to train him to become an Emperor.
  • Mama, wo bist du?: His coat is on and buttoned, just like his father's. Notably, in this song Rudolf unknowingly echoes Franz's sentiment about wanting to be good rather than lawful, and a Kick the Dog action (Franz having the man who cried "Freedom!" executed, and Rudolf's killing of a cat) - both men having been raised by Sophie. Sisi must have been disappointed that her son is not a free spirit like her, and stayed away from Rudolf, who was by then virtually a mini-copy of the husband she once loved, both physically and mentally.
  • Die Schatten werden länger: Rudolf is pushed onstage by Lucheni, rumpled, his coat flaps hanging open, revealing the shirt underneath. This symbolizes the fraying of the princely veneer, Rudolf's frustration with being in a position of power without having any real power, and his emotional vulnerability - leaving him open to Death's thrall.
  • Rudolf, ich bin ausser mir: At the end of Die Schatten, Rudolf purposefully and smartly buttons his coat up before meeting Franz Joseph. He wishes to be seen as princely, legitimate, presentable, and most of all justified in his actions, taken seriously by his father rather than having his efforts for progress being deemed meddlesome child's play.
  • Mayerling-Walzer: As the death waltz plays, Rudolf quickly unbuttons his coat and throws it aside to enter the frenetic dance with the angels. At this point, he is no longer the crown prince, but simply a desperate young man pushed to breaking point. ^note The Hungarian production pushes it further by having a dancer - possibly Mary Vetsera - strip him so that he's half-naked when Death kisses Rudolf. The Toho production has Death stopping Rudolf from running away, and two angels strip him.
  • Alle Fragen sind gestallt [Reprise]: Rudolf makes a post-mortem reappearance among the nobles crawling on the deck of the sinking world, but does not have any line of dialogue or interaction with other characters. His coat is once again on and buttoned. Death emphasizes that this is Franz's nightmare, meaning that it is all in his head, so this symbolizes the dysfunction between Rudolf and his parents - he has never been their child, but a rebellious, dead, unsatisfactory heir who they have never truly understood and never will.
• Some parts of the musical really aren't historically correct, blatantly biased even. It all makes sense if you think of this: Lucheni is the narrator, and everything is seen through his eyes!
  • On that note, look very closely during the Prolog where the ensemble is dancing oddly while Lucheni is walking on the catwalk while holding a pole. Looks quite a bit like a puppeteer controlling a marionette, doesn't it?
• In "Maladie/Die letzte Chance", Death dresses up as a doctor to see Elisabeth. At first this seems weird and out-of-nowhere — he's Death, and he's never had any difficulty speaking to Elisabeth before, so why the costume? Then you realise that Elisabeth knows how unhappy Death is about her marriage, so if he just appeared one day and told her, "Your husband's cheated on you and given you syphilis", she would probably think it was some ploy. He pretended to be a doctor so she would be more likely to believe him!
• Death's snazzy Hell-Bent for Leather ensemble in the tour and revival, besides practical reasons of making the actors look very attractive, is meaningful on a symbolic level. Leather requires the death of animals to make.
• Tamaki Ryou's Death wears a ring on his right (dominant) hand's pointer finger. Signet rings (denoting noble status) are worn on the pointer finger, and said finger is associated astrologically with Jupiter (power, leadership, authority).
• The duet dance ^note although it's in the finale, which is considered to be separate from the show even though the actresses are still in costume at the end of Takarazuka productions symbolizes Elisabeth and Death's "courtship" ^note as Zuka tends to be firmly on the Todsisi ship.
  • 2018 (Tamaki Ryou and Manaki Reika): She flees from him, he captures her and seduces her with gentle gestures, she gets away, they chase each other in a circle (a literal rondo/round of love and death) with Sisi running and Death purposefully striding, she takes his hand, he lifts her up and spins her around (her death and ascension as queen of the underworld).
    • Generally, the top combi are dressed similarly (color and even cloth pattern) for the duet dance. In this one, Death is dressed in black and Sisi in white. It's a happy coincidence, as it's Manaki Reika's taidan ^note final show before graduation from the Revue and it's traditional for taidan duet dances to have the top combi dressed in black and white. This makes him the yin to her yang - Thanatos and Eros, the death drive versus the life drive. A figure whose job is death and destruction versus a character whose defining motivation is that she loves herself, and life, too much to be controlled by anyone. Her white dress also recalls the Star Dress.
  • 2016 (Asaka Manato and Misaki Rion): Sisi tries to break away from Death, but still ends up clinging to him, and his caresses/embraces brings smiles to her face. He is her solace.
  • 2014 (Asumi Rio and Ranno Hana): They're dressed very similarly, and the choreography is joyfully flirtatious. This is the meeting of two kindred beings in love.
  • 2009 (Sena Jun and Nagina Ruumi): Death stays on the staircase and Sisi runs up to him, rather than him approaching her. Sisi stays calm and collected, in control throughout the dance - she only kneels and submits to him because she wants to - with a smug, coy expression that says she knows something he doesn't.
  • 2007 (Mizu Natsuki and Shirahane Yuri): The dance is sinuous and almost serpentine (helped by both wearing green), alternating between a mild seduction and a battle for dominance between two predators, looking at each other keenly. At the end, Sisi clings to Death, but does not kneel all the way to the floor - retaining her identity and agency.
  • 2005 (Ayaki Nao and Sena Jun): The duet dance is not solely for Death and Sisi. At the start of the music, Death dances with Franz Joseph, Lucheni, and Rudolf's actresses, leaving the final dance for Sisi. (She is also the fourth person to dance with him.) Sena's Sisi is also slightly smug and controlled, but also clearly having fun.
  • 2002 (Haruno Sumire and Ootori Rei): Death starts the dance with his back to Sisi, minding his own business, and then she catches his attention (just as she did in the show by dying the first time). The dance is controlled, hesitant, delicate, almost uptight.
  • 1998 (Shizuki Asato and Hanafusa Mari): The dance begins with both parties hesitant (the camera zooms in on Death hovering at the last step of the staircase, and Sisi is wide-eyed, seemingly scared stiff), but as it proceeds both of them started relaxing and smiling. It culminates in Death offering her his hand in a hilarious nonchalantly matter-of-fact way, and her taking it.
  • 1996 (Asaji Saki and Shiraki Ayaka): Similar music and choreography to 2016.
  • 1996 (Ichiro Maki and Hanafusa Mari): Being the first Zuka production, it has a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness - Icchan is out of character, and sings Ich gehör nur mir/Watashi dake ni with different lyrics. It's a sweet, out-of-context dance.
• The Hungarian revolutionaries (Jula, Stephan, and Batthyany) meet up with the Austrian Szeps, making four. Their sign is Szeps reading from the Book of Revelation, which describes the four horsemen and the apocalypse.^note The original song in German is titled "Die fröhliche Apokalypse" (The Merry Apocalypse). They meet up with Death - the fourth horseman - and ask him to be their comrade in a revolution (War) to combat Famine ("Milch") and Pestilence (Franz Joseph mentions a typhoid epidemic in "Elisabeth, mach auf mein Engel").

Fridge Horror:

• Die Schatten werden länger has a lot of seduction overtones. Why? Because Der Tod is trying to get Rudolf to commit suicide!
• The More than Mind Control becomes unsettling fast when it's an openly villainous Death. In "Wenn ich tanzen will," he tells Elisabeth that she has altered the world to the way he wants it (by endorsing Hungarian independence, which would - among many other reasons - lead to the collapse of the old world order, best symbolized in the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the end of Habsburg rule). And she's the one most capable of fighting him in the show. ^note It's also quite possible that she thinks she's having her own way while playing straight into his hands. What would have happened had Rudolf become Emperor, counseled/influenced/controlled by an inhuman force intent on seeking destruction? The two World Wars certainly gave Death a lot of work...
• For most versions of "Die Schatten", Death tends to take the melody and Rudolf the Creepy Monotone backup - implying that Death is in control of the situation and Rudolf is parroting his words. The Toho version switches it around, with Rudolf singing the melody and Death the backup. It seemingly gives Rudolf a little more agency, with Death being merely a subtle influence in the background. However, this is also the version with the most obvious More than Mind Control subtext (that borders on text). Shirota Yu's Death ends the song on a high note that sounds like a scream, either triumphant or anguished. Rudolf's anguish - made all the more heartbreaking since the switch implies that his suffering is not just Death's doing but the result of a dysfunctional family situation - will end in Death's triumph. And Death has the last word in this discussion, both in that final note, and his interaction with Rudolf: the Prince stepping up to Death and stands at attention, as if he was a soldier called to service, and Death stroking his hair/face tenderly, but possessively. This song marks the moment Rudolf completely falls into Death's thrall.

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