Kim Longinotto in Person

Dream Girls is a fascinating portrait of the Takarazuka Music School and Theater in Japan, whose shows rival Las Vegas for glitter and Hollywood for romance. What makes female audiences buy tickets months in advance is the perfection of the fantasy offered by Takarazuka's men-because they are all played by women. Dream Girls follows the routine at this much-sought-after school where the focus is on training-dance, voice, and discipline for its own sake. After two years on stage, stars and chorines alike return to society, where men are coarse and, it is said, women who have been men at the Takarazuka make better wives.