I'm a Journalist in Korea 9: BLUE RAIN: A Musical of Ideas

September 15, 2019

* Published in this blog only.

BLUE RAIN: A Musical of Ideas

Review by Kim Miso aka Rahel Limor

Lovers of philosophy, ethics, morals and classical and existentialist literature will want to see the musical “Blue Rain” now playing at the at the S Theater of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul until September 15th.

The musical, which won the Daegu International Musical Festival (DIMF) Creative Musical Award in 2018, is a reinterpretation of the novel, “The Brothers Karamazov”, by 19^th century Russian author Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky. This author gained a reputation for writing novels that explore ideas about religion, psychology and philosophy. The musical, “Blue Rain” stays true to the author’s style. We witness the interplay between a greedy, selfish and violent father and his two sons as well as their relationships outside the family circle. The story demands we examine family relationships and forces us to question and engage in interesting debate about morality, human values and testing the boundaries between good and evil.

True to Korea’s high quality of arts and culture, the actors in this musical are all imbued with extraordinary talent and tremendous singing voices. The cast includes actors Lee Chang-hee and Lee Ju-kwang as Theo, the son who is wrongly arrested, Lim Byung-geun and Park Yoo-deok as Luke, the son who becomes a lawyer to escape his father’s violent ways, Kim Joo-ho and Park Song-kwon as Lucifer, their selfish self-involved father, Kim Ryeo-won and Choi Mi-so cast as the girlfriend, an aspiring singer, Han Ji-yeon and Han Yoo-ran as Emma, their longtime housekeeper, and finally, Silas, an illegitimate child and once abandoned orphan is played by Lim Kang-sung and Cho Hwan-ji.

The music, composed by songwriter Heo Soo-hyun and choreography by Kim Byung-jin are, in my opinion, quite minimalist but extremely powerful on the stage. I actually enjoyed the song sung simply with an acoustic guitar and a few extra sounds on a piano. A fight scene comes through very strong. I would go as far as to say that the entire Korean production is quite “raw”, which seems to be exactly what this musical calls for. There is not much to offer in the way of set design or props however the lighting most definitely plays an important role in setting the atmosphere and highlighting the actors.