“We sing together, we dance together, we look sexy together,” says Timmy X. This could also be a succinct description of the Korean fashionable music phenomenon often called Okay-pop usually, however in any case it neatly sums up most of what occurs — and far of what’s interesting — in “KPOP,” a present on stage at Broadway’s Circle within the Square Theater. Right after Timmy X (Joshua Lee) says this, he and the seven different members of the boyband often called F8 sing and dance and look horny collectively within the electrifying “Amerika (Checkmate)” (see video beneath), one of many present’s eighteen unique high-energy musical numbers, sung in English and Korean.
I beloved “KPOP” once I noticed it 5 years in the past Off Broadway, however the “KPOP” on Broadway is just not the identical present because the one in 2017, regardless that it has the identical title, the identical e-book author and songwriters (and most of the similar songs), the identical director and choreographer, even the identical storylines. It’s nonetheless thrilling, generally thrilling — but it surely’s a packaged leisure quite than an journey in theater.
The 2017 “KPOP” was an immersive theater piece that took over your complete A.R.T./New York constructing on West 53rd Street to simulate a Korean pop music manufacturing facility. The premise of the musical was that the house owners of the report label, intent on breaking into the American market, had been taking the viewers (potential American buyers?) on a tour of the phases, rehearsal rooms and dressing rooms of the manufacturing facility. Divided into small teams, we went from room to room, watching the celebs carry out, overhearing their complaints and arguments backstage, and witnessing their interactions with their keepers and taskmasters, together with a vocal coach to excellent their singing; a dance grasp to excellent their dancing, an in-house plastic surgeon to excellent their appears to be like. “We built you this factory from scratch,” one of many house owners instructed his costs. “We’re not asking for much in return. All we want is for you to be perfect.”
On Broadway, the viewers stays put. The manufacturing facility tour is gone, as is the in-house plastic surgeon. The new model hasn’t deserted a framing gadget, but it surely’s a weaker one (and fewer enjoyable): A movie crew is taking pictures a live performance documentary because the performers put together for a one-night solely live performance in New York, with an obnoxious American director named Harry (Aubie Merrylees) inflicting friction and making an attempt to sneak in some candid footage. “KPOP” now feels much less like a musical concerning the folks and course of behind the Korean music trade, and extra like a Okay-pop live performance. The present appears aimed primarily at (present or potential) Okay-pop followers, with amped up manufacturing values, tight synchronized dancing, flashy lighting, fixed colourful costume adjustments, all of the outsized results you’d anticipate from a stadium pop live performance (an indication outdoors the auditorium warns of “strobe lighting, lasers, smoke and haze effects.”) The rating by Helen Park (Broadway’s first Asian American lady composer) is usually tuneful, however usually feels in service to the staging: It’s the pulsing, the dancing, the design that transfix.
Admittedly, turning a cutting-edge immersive theater expertise right into a industrial Okay-pop live performance is sensible virtually and economically for a transfer to Broadway, particularly since there are a lot of extra Okay-pop followers within the U.S. than there have been 5 years in the past.
A tip-off to the shift is that the central character of MwE, the Okay-pop star, is now portrayed by Luna, who’s an precise Okay-pop star, “best known as the main vocalist and lead dancer of the K-pop girl group f(x) who act as inspirational leaders of contemporary K-pop,” as her playbill bio places it. She is considered one of three precise Okay-pop group alumni within the 18-member solid, solely a handful of whom are holdovers from the Off-Broadway manufacturing.
MwE, pronounced like a moist kiss, is the main focus of the biggest of the three plot threads in “KPOP.”
She has been coaching because the age of 9 to be a star, pushed by Ruby (Jully Lee), the proprietor of her report label, which ends up in MwE’s track “Windup Doll,” one of many few within the present whose lyrics have any connection to the tales being instructed. But now, after twenty years, she’s fed up; she desires her freedom; she storms off the stage; will she return in time for the live performance? In flashbacks, we see simply how a lot Ruby has tried to regulate her life. When MwE proposes marriage to her boyfriend Juny (Jinwood Jung), Ruby is outraged: “I thought you two were just childhood friends who hugged a lot. MwE, do you see this man? He is a civilian. You are famous.”
Ruby’s machinations are usually not restricted to MwE. In the freshest of the three storylines, Ruby has kicked out Leo, one of many founding members of the F8 boyband, and changed him with Brad (Zachary Noah Piser, who just lately starred in Dear Evan Hansen.) Brad is American-born, which Ruby figures would assist the band break into the American market. Brad can also be of blended race. It’s not fully past the pale to invest that Piser could also be serving a lot the identical operate in “KPOP” that Ruby intends for Brad: American-born and blended race himself, Piser is the one performer moreover Luna to get any solos (Luna will get 4.) Piser’s is “Halfway,” which he makes essentially the most of, however it’s not about being bicultural. (“Can you meet me halfway, baby?/The more I hold you close you drift away.” ) With a character that’s a flavorful mixture of susceptible and unbearable, Brad tries to curry favor with director Harry on the expense of his bandmates. All this irks them, particularly Jun Hyuk (Kevin Woo), and so they initially ostracize and undermine him. But all of them work it out in one of many longer scenes within the present (not very lengthy) – the one the place Timmy X, enjoying mediator, makes the remark about how they’re meant to sing and dance and look horny collectively.
The third and least developed plot thread includes the brand new five-member lady group, RTMIS. We see them projected on screens one after the other breaking apart with (unseen) suitors, as a result of they’re too busy aiming to be stars. (This is one instance of the intensive use of video and venture design, which, added to the flashing lighting, could make “KPOP” appear like a sport present.). The younger girls really feel harassed each by Ruby, who threatens to take them out of the New York present “if you don’t fix yourselves,” and by MwE, as a result of when she stormed off, she put their debut in jeopardy; if she doesn’t comply with carry out, there will likely be no New York present
These tales are introduced awkwardly, generally with complicated flashbacks, and largely really feel like filler between the musical productions. The solid is innocent. They are adept at dealing with the few moments of humor and the abrupt drama in these dialogue scenes. Luna, who has to hold a lot of the present, is a professional (a veteran of South Korean productions of such Broadway musicals as “In The Heights” and “Legally Blonde.”) But she and the remainder of the solid unquestionably shine brightest within the musical numbers — a lot brighter that one could query why the inventive workforce didn’t simply dispense with these largely cliched storylines.
If they’re imagined to offer us a glimpse of the tradition of Okay-pop, or much more usually of South Korean tradition, “KPOP” accomplishes this extra successfully in its musical numbers, like “This is My Korea” and “Shi Gan Nang Bee ( 시간 낭비)”
KPOP
Circle within the Square Theatre
Running time: 2 hours and quarter-hour together with an intermission
Tickets: $104.50 to $248.50
Book by Jason Kim; music, lyrics, music manufacturing and preparations by Helen Park; and music and lyrics by Max Vernon.
Directed by Teddy Bergman, choreography by Jennifer Weber
Music route by Sujin Kim-Ramsey.
Scenic design by Gabriel Hainer Evansohn, costume design is by Clint Ramos and Sophia Choi, lighting design by Jiyoun Chang, sound design by Peter Fitzgerald & Andrew Keister, projection design iby Peter Nigrini, Hair & Wig Design by Mia M. Neal, Makeup Design by Joe Dulude II & Suki Tsujimoto,
Cast: Luna as MwE, Julia Abueva, BoHyung, Major Curda, Jinwoo Jung, Jiho Kang, Amy Keum, James Kho, Marina Kondo, Eddy Lee, Joshua Lee, Jully Lee, Lina Rose Lee, Timothy H. Lee, Abraham Lim, Min, Kate Mina Lin, Aubie Merrylees, Patrick Park, Zachary Noah Piser, Kevin Woo, and John Yi.
Photos by Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman
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