Korean "Hedwig"
The MBC Busan Center, which operates both as a theater and a television/radio broadcast center... probably several other things as well, I'd bet.
The seats filled up nicely over time, but here's a shot from our row (i.e. way back) around 20 minutes before the show began
No photos were allowed until the band came out to perform an encore. Note the throng of Koreans, arms upraised, like a scene from "Live at Budokan".
The Korean Hedwig, sans wig.
It's hard to look this badass when seeing a musical about a hermaphrodite, but somehow I managed. I only managed to steal one poster, by the way, so please don't make any requests.Shit... there's much about this day that I've forgotten at this point, and since this isn't the first time, I've decided to do something really pretentious and start carrying a notepad with me. It might be gay-ass, but if it means better and more vivid blog posts, then I'm all for it.
So I assume most of you are familiar with the John Cameron Mitchell musical/film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"?
Within my first week here, I had been seeing posters and banners for what looked like a Korean production of said show, and immediately I felt like it would probably be incredibly surreal (and thus necessary) to attend. After weeks and weeks of anticipation, Marie and I took an extended taxi ride (drivers tend to go down a lot of longcuts when driving foreigners around) to the MBC Busan Center to get our tickets.
Unlike most every building in Korea, the Busan Center stands apart from the rest of the high-rises in its own decadent acreage, and it acts as a broadcasting mecca. In Busan, you can find MBC's television station on Channel 11, I believe, and they also own two different radio stations, along with a whole lot of other shit, I'm sure. There's some sort of Museum of Television Broadcasting there that we didn't bother with, although I suppose it's possible we could have found ourselves on one of the billion Korean dating/dance shows. (A post on Korean television might come eventually; I can tell you that the rumors of a channel dedicated to Starcraft are true, and that I've seen "Tango and Cash" on the Action Network twice)
I didn't know what the crowd would be like for "Hedwig", but I figured there'd be some Westerners there... wrong! Just Marie and I, unless I had my blinders on and missed a Waeguk
walking around. The Korean audience seemed mostly university-aged, with a greater number of girls than I would have thought; little did I know that the guy who plays Hedwig (in drag, of course) is actually some sort of pop idol, or at least that's how it seemed from the wails of adoration coming from the female crowd. Maybe I'm a little naive about the following that "Hedwig" has elsewhere...
The musical itself was excellent when the band was playing, pretty dull when we had to listen to the monologues being delivered in a foreign tongue. The guy who played Hedwig was a little more pleasant and less of a bitch than Mitchell's performance in the film, but then again, I didn't know what the fuck he was saying most of the time. "Wig in a Box" inspired a wild sing-a-long with the Korean audience, but I could only hum it. I remember thinking that the girl who played Yitzhak, even when dressed as a man, was pretty hot. So the play itself was lack-luster given the 40,000 won price tag, although I'm sure if I was Korean I'd heartily disagree.
But after the show was over, the entire audience left their seats and charged the stage, demanding an encore... or maybe this is how things were supposed to go. The Angry Inch Band triumphantly returned to the stage and all of a sudden made the hefty price tag (alright, I know $40 isn't that much, but it's a lot to spend in Korea) well worth it. Marie and I stayed back in our seats away from the horde of Korean girls pogo-ing and punching their arms to the beat, but it was still the closest thing to a rock concert that I've seen here. The girl who played Yitzhak ran out in a Tina Turner wig and now confirmed my suspicion that she was smokin', and without the dress and wig, it was easy to see how Hedwig could be a heart-throb for all of the girls in the audience. They ended up playing two short sets of music, some of which we recorded on Marie's top-of-the-line digital camera-- I'm hoping to find a way to post some footage on here. The only thing that left me disappointed with this part of the show was that the band only played music from the play; it would have knocked me on my ass if they had played something from one of the artists who influenced "Hedwig" (Bowie, Lou Reed, whoever). Still a great time and definitely something I won't forget.
So I assume most of you are familiar with the John Cameron Mitchell musical/film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"?
Within my first week here, I had been seeing posters and banners for what looked like a Korean production of said show, and immediately I felt like it would probably be incredibly surreal (and thus necessary) to attend. After weeks and weeks of anticipation, Marie and I took an extended taxi ride (drivers tend to go down a lot of longcuts when driving foreigners around) to the MBC Busan Center to get our tickets.
Unlike most every building in Korea, the Busan Center stands apart from the rest of the high-rises in its own decadent acreage, and it acts as a broadcasting mecca. In Busan, you can find MBC's television station on Channel 11, I believe, and they also own two different radio stations, along with a whole lot of other shit, I'm sure. There's some sort of Museum of Television Broadcasting there that we didn't bother with, although I suppose it's possible we could have found ourselves on one of the billion Korean dating/dance shows. (A post on Korean television might come eventually; I can tell you that the rumors of a channel dedicated to Starcraft are true, and that I've seen "Tango and Cash" on the Action Network twice)
I didn't know what the crowd would be like for "Hedwig", but I figured there'd be some Westerners there... wrong! Just Marie and I, unless I had my blinders on and missed a Waeguk
walking around. The Korean audience seemed mostly university-aged, with a greater number of girls than I would have thought; little did I know that the guy who plays Hedwig (in drag, of course) is actually some sort of pop idol, or at least that's how it seemed from the wails of adoration coming from the female crowd. Maybe I'm a little naive about the following that "Hedwig" has elsewhere...
The musical itself was excellent when the band was playing, pretty dull when we had to listen to the monologues being delivered in a foreign tongue. The guy who played Hedwig was a little more pleasant and less of a bitch than Mitchell's performance in the film, but then again, I didn't know what the fuck he was saying most of the time. "Wig in a Box" inspired a wild sing-a-long with the Korean audience, but I could only hum it. I remember thinking that the girl who played Yitzhak, even when dressed as a man, was pretty hot. So the play itself was lack-luster given the 40,000 won price tag, although I'm sure if I was Korean I'd heartily disagree.
But after the show was over, the entire audience left their seats and charged the stage, demanding an encore... or maybe this is how things were supposed to go. The Angry Inch Band triumphantly returned to the stage and all of a sudden made the hefty price tag (alright, I know $40 isn't that much, but it's a lot to spend in Korea) well worth it. Marie and I stayed back in our seats away from the horde of Korean girls pogo-ing and punching their arms to the beat, but it was still the closest thing to a rock concert that I've seen here. The girl who played Yitzhak ran out in a Tina Turner wig and now confirmed my suspicion that she was smokin', and without the dress and wig, it was easy to see how Hedwig could be a heart-throb for all of the girls in the audience. They ended up playing two short sets of music, some of which we recorded on Marie's top-of-the-line digital camera-- I'm hoping to find a way to post some footage on here. The only thing that left me disappointed with this part of the show was that the band only played music from the play; it would have knocked me on my ass if they had played something from one of the artists who influenced "Hedwig" (Bowie, Lou Reed, whoever). Still a great time and definitely something I won't forget.
Ok... I'll leave this post on that note. All of my condolences to you Cardinals fans... I'll tip a 40 oz. of Hite for Busch tonight.
posted by Cool Boss @ 8:31 AM
1 Comments:
to my former teacher
from helms
you have some pretty effed up taste in music, I showed this to stauffer and he still has nighmares about it.
hope to hear from you soon -Dave
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