Features

‘Jekyll’ shows its other side in Korea

The hit Broadway musical “Jekyll & Hyde” has been remade into a concert with only three main characters. The troupe is coming to Korea, taking a break from its U.S. tour, to perform with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
As the licensed version of “Jekyll & Hyde” with the actor Cho Seung-woo has a great hit here ― the Korean production also performed in Japan ― Korean fans already know most of the songs.
At the concert, Robert Evan, who so far has had to deal with split personality disorder more than 1,000 times on Broadway, will sing songs as both Jekyll and Hyde, while Julie Reiber, who played Maureen in the national tour of “Rent,” will perform Emma, and Mandy Gonzalez, who played Amneris in the Broadway musical “Aida,” will sing as Lucy. They will sing a total of 29 songs. The composer of the musical, Frank Wildhorn, also directed the concert.

“Jekyll & Hyde is more than half my life,” Mr. Wildhorn said when he visited Seoul for a press conference on March 16. The show has been performed in 42 nations and in 13 different languages. Mr. Wildhorn said he has listened to the recording of the Korean version that features Cho, and that he thought Cho had a passionate delivery. He added that “it’s amazing” that the Korean production has performed outside Korea. Along with Leslie Bricusse, a songwriter, Mr. Wildhorn wrote about 65 songs for the musical, allowing producers and directors to choose different songs depending on the venues and actors.
As only three actors appear on stage, some of the songs are different from the ones used in the musical. Korean subtitles will be provided.
Mr. Wildhorn, who majored in history at college, said that he became interested in Victorian literature and Gothic topics after seeing the play “Dracula” at college. After reading the book “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson ― the book has no woman character ― Mr. Wildhorn and Mr. Bricusse decided to add a love story.

by Park Sung-ha

The concert will be held at the Olympic Hall at Olympic Park from April 7 to April 16 at 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 6:30 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets cost 66,000 won ($68) to 165,000 won. For more information, call (02) 3663-2468. For tickets, visit www.ticketlink.co.kr or http://ticket.inter-park.com. After the Seoul concert, they will head to Busan, Daejeon, Ulsan, Gwangju, Daegu and Jeonju through April 30.