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Now Blogging Afresh at Ad Orientem 西儒 - The Western Confucian



Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Korean Theater
From 'Les Miserables' of North Korea*:
    Perhaps not since Mel Brooks conceived "Springtime for Hitler" in the comedy "The Producers" has there been such an unlikely premise for a musical.

    Chorus lines of goose-stepping soldiers and emaciated political prisoners will prance across the stage when "Yoduk Story," a tear-jerker about a North Korean concentration camp whose name has the resonance of Auschwitz for some Koreans, opens here next month.

    Among the catchy tunes that South Korean theatergoers might soon be humming are "If I Could Walk Freely" and "All I Want Is Rice."
The author seems to be missing a point: just because the musical genre tends to be light-hearted in the US does not mean that it is in the rest of the world. The Korean musicals I have seen on television and the ones my father-in-law enjoys all seem to be tragedies.

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