AMERICAN THEATRE | Large Emotions and Large Musicals in Seoul

Whereas others have been baking bread and doing puzzles, I obtained hooked on Korean tv throughout the pandemic. My pandemic interest turned Korean language classes. After three years of examine, my Korean will not be fairly adequate to know Korean musicals fully, however that was not going to cease me from seeing a number of reveals on my latest journey to Seoul.

At somewhat over 20 years previous, the modern Korean theatre trade continues to be fairly younger in comparison with main business markets like Broadway and the West Finish. For years, translated Western musicals have been the staple there. Composer Frank Wildhorn’s work is especially standard. However there’s a rising effort to develop homegrown musical materials (with some eye in direction of export).

In contrast to open-ended productions elsewhere, Korean musicals often run for a set couple of months. They’ve rotating casts for the lead roles, so when reserving you wish to ensure you will have chosen a efficiency the place the actor you wish to see shall be on. You’re more likely to see well-known Korean TV actors or Okay-pop idols within the solid of musicals alongside artists finest recognized for his or her musical theatre work. Throughout the board, the musical performers I noticed have been top-notch and the productions have been well-funded and modern.

As an English-speaking viewers member with restricted Korean fluency, I may solely take up sure components of those reveals. However I feel there’s a precious expertise in letting go of language typically and connecting to the theatre by manufacturing, efficiency, and theatricality. Whereas sure specificity and nuances are misplaced, there’s a form of foundational expertise available (particularly after a lot disconnection all through the pandemic) in taking a purely emotional and visible experience by theatre.

For one, design decisions can stand out extra. A woefully underlit scene in The Depend of Monte Cristo musical had me straining in my new eyeglass prescription. When watching a Korean translation of Samual Adamson’s play Spouse, I observed a scarcity of situational sound design (and possibly longed for something however the silence on this stilted manufacturing).

However seeing a duplicate manufacturing of Les Misérables in Korean made me actually recognize the narrative lighting design (this system credit lighting designer Paule Constable, in addition to the collaborative designer for the Korean manufacturing, Simon Sheriff). On a redesign of the set by Matt Kinley, projections styled to seem like work by Victor Hugo created a moody, abstracted house to consider the historic backdrop of the story.

For different reveals, I loved getting swept up within the performances, even when the underlying materials itself won’t have been my cup of cha. The plot of the musical The Depend of Monte Cristo will not be significantly delicate, however that was solely useful given my restricted language expertise. After watching numerous Korean TV reveals, I can see why this present has confirmed standard in Korea (it has had productions in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2020). Standard themes in Korean TV embrace corruption, injustice, and revenge. It’s no exaggeration that I’ve realized the Korean phrase for revenge (bogsu, 복수) from watching TV. With music by Frank Wildhorn and guide and lyrics by Jack Murphy (Korean lyrics by Park In-seon and Kwon Eun-ah), and directed by Kwon Eun-ah, the vengeance-focused musical, tailored from the Alexandre Dumas novel, slots in effectively to this cultural vernacular.

With the appears to be like of a Disney prince and a hovering tenor, Kim Sung-cheol was value seeing as Edmond Dantès, the vengeful hero, who returns from an unjust jail stint to search out that his finest good friend has married his one-time fiancée. Sung-Cheol has a beautiful higher register, shifting from jubilant lover to brooding, wronged man with ease. In a comedic combat scene, he additionally confirmed he can exude a witty allure. He has performed some candy second leads on TV, nevertheless it was good to see him getting a meaty half on stage.

This lush new manufacturing makes use of a rising corkscrew turntable and leans closely on detailed projections that may make it seem like there’s a lapping tide onstage, or that Dantès is swimming up from the underside of the ocean, or a cave has collapsed. A Venetian carnival with overdone ornament in set and costuming appears to be like a bit cheesier. However Monte Cristo is a stable present to get your ft moist with, for the reason that plot is straightforward to comply with and it is filled with massive emotional songs for the results in belt.

One other perennial favourite in Korea is Dracula, additionally with music by Wildhorn, and lyrics and guide by Don Black and Christopher Hampton (Korean adaptation by Kim Su-bin, Lee Ho-jeong, Korean lyrics by Jeong Han-sol and Received Mi-sol). It has been produced 5 occasions in ten years in Korea.

Among the many rotating solid, I got here to see Shin Sung-rok within the position of Dracula. A TV star who’s continuously in musicals (he’s additionally performed Dantès in Monte Cristo, in addition to Maxim de Winter in Rebecca and the title position of Sweeney Todd), he has a putting presence (this clip is from a previous manufacturing he was in, not the one I noticed), and it’s not onerous to think about him because the magnetic however undead vampire.  

However even having tried to look at a nasty bootleg of the Broadway manufacturing to organize myself to comply with the present, I discovered it totally convoluted. On this case, not understanding every little thing really may need been a blessing. As finest I can inform, Dracula is trying to transfer to London, the place he’s inexplicably drawn to his British actual property lawyer’s fiancée, Mina (Jeong Seon-ah). When Mina’s finest good friend Lucy (Choi Web optimization-yeon) marries considered one of Mina’s many suitors however is bit by Dracula, her suitors—together with vampire hunter van Helsing (Park Eun-seok)—set out after the vampire. However Lucy rips down all of the protecting garlic and crucifixes they’ve surrounded her with so she will be able to totally succumb to Dracula, in a really bodice-ripping form of method. All of the whereas Dracula and Mina are in some way nonetheless in love, regardless that he turned her bff right into a vampire, and there’s a lot of “resisting” till there isn’t.

It’s all very sexy and ridiculous. Why precisely does Mina have to suck Dracula’s blood from his chest? And why does this not additionally make her a vampire? (As an alternative she simply appears to be like somewhat nauseous.) I used to be actually confused in regards to the dramaturgy of vampires. Does Dracula change into a vampire as a result of he stabs a crucifix in rage? Really some issues have been misplaced to me, and I don’t suppose the language barrier can take all of the blame. David Swan’s staging doesn’t do the fabric enormous favors: At one level Dracula’s coffin descends from the rafters after which simply…rises once more. Do vampires have an elevator to heaven?

The present’s costuming additionally gave me pause. Perhaps as a result of the Christmas season was on my thoughts, however when Dracula entered one scene as an previous man with lengthy white hair and a purple velvet gown, carrying a sack of infants to feed his minions, he regarded to me like probably the most perverse Santa ever.

As bizarro as all of that is, Shin Sung-rok is so dedicated and riveting you is perhaps forgiven for getting swept up in it. He throws himself wholeheartedly into this character. I had numerous enjoyable watching him fly from vampiric rage to lovesick woe, and would do it once more.  

I needed to attempt to be extra adventurous and see extra Korean-developed musicals. The earlier yr in Seoul, I noticed a musicalized model of the smash Korean TV sequence Crash Touchdown on You, which I beloved. With out mimicking the TV present, the stage solid managed to keep up a lot of the allure of the unique work. However I had the good thing about realizing the story.

This time, I noticed a brand new Korean musical not based mostly on pre-existing materials, Il Tenore. Gordon Cox’s latest Jaques Substack report on Korean theatre notes that one of many present’s stars, Hong Kwang-ho, is Korea’s largest musical star. Proving this level, his performances Il Tenore bought out immediately when tickets went on sale. The brand new musical, with guide and lyrics by Park Chun-Hue and music by Will Aronson (the duo behind Perhaps Pleased Ending), is fictional however impressed partly by the true story of Korea’s first opera tenor.

The story is ready within the Thirties in Korea, towards the backdrop of independence activists combating towards the Japanese occupation. Web optimization Jin-yeon (Kim Ji-hyun) and Lee Su-han (Shin Sung-min) are attempting to covertly convey their anti-Japanese sentiments throughout through an Italian opera about Venetians resisting aggression. Yun I-seon (Hong Kwang-ho) is a nebbish medical pupil dutifully following his mother and father’ dream for him to change into a health care provider, however he finds he has a secret expertise and fervour for opera. He joins Jin-yeon and Su-han of their opera effort, and it adjustments all their lives eternally.

The subject material readily lends itself to musicalization. Because the activists wrestle to placed on a present whereas attempting to keep away from getting shut down by the censors, the present depicts a battle to search out an impartial voice whereas residing below a repressive regime. Throw in a love triangle and you’ve got massive emotions to sing about.

Although I surprisingly picked out some particulars with my restricted Korean, with a extra talk-heavy story it was more durable for me to comply with the plot. I may nonetheless hook up with the present’s emotional arc. The music is filled with longing, as these characters bubble over of their efforts to see their desires fulfilled towards the percentages.

Some components work higher than others. A big a part of the musical appears like it’s only a showcase for Hong Kwang-ho to soften your face off together with his voice and sing opera-inspired numbers, which he does with ease. However he’s additionally an adept actor: His slouchy, shy I-seon transforms fully when he sings, and we see I-seon blossom with self-discovery.

Whereas it’s significant to see a traditionally correct depiction of women and men within the independence motion, the love triangle aspect of the musical is much less efficient. And there’s a cloying framing gadget and a story “twist” that felt unearned. There’s a highly effective story inside this musical that simply must be excavated. It felt like I had peeked at a sculpture earlier than it was finished.

I noticed one play whereas I used to be in Seoul and it didn’t go effectively. I used to be curious that they have been reviving a manufacturing of Adamson’s Spouse. A narrative of queerness and marriage advised by a number of generations, it makes use of stagings of Ibsen’s A Doll’s Home as recurring motif. It starred an idol and TV actor I like, Sooyoung, in her first stage position. With references to honeymooning within the Lakes District, Enoch Powell, Part 28 (the U.Okay. regulation that prohibited the promotion of homosexuality), and Kirsty MacColl, the textual content struck me as deeply British (Adamson is from Australia however has largely labored within the UK). The fabric was translated into Korean (in a fairly literal method) nevertheless it remained in a British setting, regardless of some complicated moments of cultural cross-expression—a Korean drama chest-beating gesture, or pupil costuming that regarded extra Korean than British.

The Seoul solid regarded by no means relaxed onstage, save one actor, Hong Sung-won. He performed each a closeted homosexual man who fears being outed by his extra militant lover, in addition to a flamboyantly out actor who embraces public shows of affection. Sung-won’s genuine presentation of each of those characters stood out, in distinction to solid members who both regarded as in the event that they have been neutrally presenting the fabric with no connection to the textual content or have been enjoying uncomfortable homosexual caricatures. At occasions, I actually couldn’t hear the actors in any respect. I can not even bear in mind a stage efficiency the place this was a difficulty for me, apart from the intentional whispercore of Richard Nelson’s performs.

So not all experiments yield the most effective outcomes. Nonetheless, it was heartening to see theatres stuffed with younger, passionate theatregoers, to find out about musical theatre stars I had by no means encountered earlier than, and to really feel inspired that if I maintain at my language research, sometime—at my sluggish price of studying, presumably 100 years from now—I may need even stronger opinions about these reveals.

Nicole Serratore (she/her) is a New York Metropolis-based legal professional and theatre critic. She writes for publications corresponding to The Stage, Selection, Time Out New York, BAMbill and Exeunt NYC.

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