Note Bene: Please note before reading this that it is NOT the same musical Hamlet
which is currently playing at the Seoul Arts Centre in Seocho District.
Hello, hello!
I will slowly be moving on to Shakespeare's musicalised Hamlet. If I remember correctly, it seems to have its origins in Scandinavia where it may have debuted as a musical.
I must confess, though, that this will not be quite as detailed as Ben Hur. As I mentioned before, my Korean is not that great, plus Shakespeare isn't necessarily easy for English speakers. Thus, I'm not sure if they used a mix of modern and archaic Korean words. Furthermore, I only saw this one twice back in late June and early July.
First, I want to talk about the characters. Following a quick search, I found an offshoot site from the University of Southern Florida with this list from the original play:
CLAUDIUS king of Denmark
HAMLET son to the late, and nephew to the present king
POLONIUS lord chamberlain
HORATIO friend to Hamlet
LAERTES son to Polonius
LUCIANUS nephew to the king
VOLTIMAND a courtier
CORNELIUS a courtier
ROSENCRANTZ a courtier
GUILDENSTERN a courtier
OSRIC a courtier
A Gentleman
A Priest
MARCELLUS an officer
BERNARDO an officer
FRANCISCO a soldier
REYNALDO servant to Polonius
Players
Two Clowns, grave-diggers
FORTINBRAS prince of Norway
A Captain
English Ambassadors
GERTRUDE queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet
OPHELIA daughter to Polonius
Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants, etc.
Ghost of Hamlet’s Father
It's quite the list as I look at it now.
Here's the musical's character list according to the ticketing website:
Hamlet
Ophelia
Claudius
Gerturde (sic)
Laertes
Polonius/Gravedigger
Horatio
Helena
The Ghost of Hamlet's Father/The Player King
*Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were not listed separately in the casting, but they are definitely recognizable on stage.
As you can see, the lists are rather different. To be honest, I didn't study Hamlet in school, so my memory of the play is rather vaguely remembered as the modernised 2000 Hamlet with Ethan Hawke. Thus, I'm not sure if Shakespeare's original cast list is in order of appearance or, as I suspect, order of importance. If it's the latter, you can see that importance of the characters differ between the two mediums. For example, while Ophelia is on both lists, she was much more important in the musical than in the play itself.
As you can also see, the man who played Polonius also plays the Gravedigger. The actor is relatively well-known, so I'm not sure if this comes from wanting to use this actor as much as possible or if the original musical book always had double-cast him. Hamlet's Father and The Player King is also the same actor, so it must have been much easier for Uncle Claudius to imagine him as his late brother.
Also, Helena is a new role. She was Ophelia's closest attendant.
This cut in characters can be no surprise though as the once five-act play (20 scenes between all five acts) is now a two-hour and fifteen-minute, two-act musical.
Moving away from the characters, there was an interesting shift in where the story begins. Instead of being some time after the death of Hamlet's father and having his ghost seen by two officers, it begins with Hamlet brooding before the funeral procession enters. Hamlet watches as his mother mourns his father and his uncle is crowned king in a matter of minutes. But I should stop on that point as I don't want to give too much of the plot away.
I have one more thing to say before I leave you with the trailers. Please notice that Fortinbras of Norway is not on this list. From what *I* understood, his plot never came into the musical. Definitely there was no man who enters at the end of the musical to be recognised as a prince from any country, be it Norway or Mozambique. But again, is it really a surprise for a five-act play to be cut down into a two-act musical?
I am planning on writing about Hamlet next. Like Ben Hur, while the major plot events remain the same, there are still some differences. After all, Shakespeare's five-act play, Hamlet, has been cut down into a two-hour, two-act musical.
It was played earlier this year at the D-Cube Art Centre at Sindorim Station (Lines ONE and TWO).
I really do apologise profoundly for the lateness of this post. Ben Hur successfully ended last Sunday, much to both the happiness (for a successful first run) and sadness (that it's over) of the cast, the crew and the fans.
So without further ado, the last half of Ben Hur.
After the chariot race, Judah goes to find Messala amongst the injured. We can hear him before we see him because, as usual, he's screaming like a spoiled child. However, this time there is sufficient cause as he yells, "I can't see a damn thing!" Yes, that's right. His literal fall from grace caused him to be blinded. Once on stage, he seems to sense Judah's presence. "Wait a moment. My friend is there. Stop! I said, 'Stop!'" They stop ... and let him fall out of the stretcher he had been carried in. He wobbles up and turns away from Judah. He stands up straight, laughing, "Who's this? If it isn't today's winner and my old childhood friend, Judah Ben Hur?" "Where are they? Where's my family?" Judah asks, dead serious. Messala realises he's made a mistake in the direction he's facing and quickly turns around on guard. "You're family? They're lepers. Your mother and sister caught leprosy." He sings a final reprise ("나 메셀라" / "I'm Messala") before he suddenly attacks with his dagger-sword. Judah, whose eyes work properly, has no problem fending off his attack. Messala backs off, laughing like a maniac, and uses his body as his dagger-sword's sheath. Messala's last words are, "Congrats, my friend," before dying. "No ... no! No!!" screams Judah. Messala's body is dumped on the gurney as Judah rushes over to where the lepers are.
As Judah tries to check each leper he passes to see if it's his family, Esther's voice suddenly rings out, "Master, you can't be here!" Judah looks confused. "Esther? Why are you here?" Realisation starts to hit him, "And why can't a son search for his mother?" Esther confesses her knowledge of his family being here. He wants to know why she didn't tell him they were alive and here. She tells him that she promised his mother that he wouldn't tell him that they were here and that Judah's mother didn't want him to know. "That doesn't make any sense," he responds. "Master, please!" She starts to sing ("희망은 사라져" / "Hope Is Gone") and physically fights with him (or "fights" in his case) in order to prevent him from going further into the lepers' colony. Eventually she grabs his sword and threatens to kill herself with it. She gets distracted while singing, and he easily wrestles it from her grasp. When his sister rushes out and says, "I heard my brother," Esther pushes him down behind a well, out of his sister's sight. His mother follows his sister, "Do you miss your brother that much?" "Yes," she responds sadly. "I miss him, too, but that person ... you know." "Yes," she says again. Judah inadvertently makes a noise, which his mother hears. "Who's there?" Esther stands up. "Is it you, Esther?" "Yes, it's me. That person has come back. Let's go." "Wait a little bit. We'll be right out," his mother answers. Both Judah's mother and sister go back into the leper colony, and while they're gone, Esther sighs out of frustration, "Master, please!" His family is already ready to go, "Esther, let's go." "Yes, after you." Esther continues to look over her shoulder at Judah, silently begging him to stay hidden. He watches and cries before heading back to his headquarters.
I'm not exactly sure what's happening here in the headquarters, but it seems that it's about Jesus's arrest and Pilate's sentencing of him. One of the men says it's over. I'm not sure if they're angry at Judah for being in the chariot race and not preventing this from happening, the fact that their Messiah is capable of dying, or something else, but all of his followers are definitely leaving. Judah's quite upset and says, "I have to meet him!" before running off-stage. Tito runs after him, yelling, "Master!"
Now we see Jesus carrying a legitimate wooden cross. As Christians know, he's being jeered at by the crowds and whipped by the soldiers. Judah makes his way through the crowds to Jesus, who has collapse, and is saying something to him via song ("골고다" / "Calvary [also called Golgotha]"). The soldiers push him away, but he follows as Jesus is picked back up and handed his cross again. The next time Jesus collapses, the soldiers pick Jesus up and hand Judah Jesus's cross. Judah follows behind Jesus with the cross, still speaking to him. Eventually Judah's song hits the climax, and he throws the cross down. A collapsed Jesus drags himself over to Judah and whispers in his ear for a while. The soldiers whip him again, and he falls down before he's dragged away with his cross by the Roman soldiers. Judah can't believe whatever it is that he's heard. He sings some more, and when he finishes, we hear the sound of nails being pounded, a thunderclap and rain. With the thunderclap, the background changes from a red sky and black landscape to a grey sky with three crosses on a hill.
(This video is not from the musical. It's from the press conference they held in early August. I'm posting it so you can hear the song. This is Eun-tae BAK as Judah.)
Judah cries. His mother, his sister, Esther, Esther's father and Tito all arrive. I think he thinks he's gone mad and is seeing things. Each actor (and it varied by performance as well) reacted to this sight. However, eventually he realises that it's really his mother and that she (and his sister) has been cured of leprosy. He hugs her tightly and calls for his sister. She also calls out, "Big brother!" Esther also joins in on the hug as Judah yells out to God, "Thank you!" They all cry with Esther's father looking at them and Tito looking at Jesus on his cross.
Another screen with English words comes up which says something similar, but not the same as these words from the 1908 original Ben Hur novel:
If any of my readers, visiting Rome, will make the short journey to the Catacomb of San Calixto, which is more ancient than that of San Sebastiano, he will see what became of the fortune of Ben-Hur, and give him thanks. Out of that vast tomb Christianity issued to supersede the Caesars.
We see a ship being rowed again, but Judah is the captain. He sings the last song ("운명 Reprise" / "Destiny Reprise").
Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed your extremely long, will-never-have-another-weeklong-two-holiday-combo holiday break!
We start back with half-naked, belly-dancing men as they perform for Pilate, Messala and us. Pilate and Messala talk about Caesar amongst other things. A man is about to put a lit candle in his mouth when Pilate notices him. "Hey!" he shouts. "You're handsome. Come here. How old are you?" The man responds in an unexpectedly deep voice, "42." Pilate is surprised ... and not in a good way. As the rejected man exits, Pilate yells after him, "Hey! Blow those candles out! They're hot!" The men return to their conversation. Messala tells Pilate that he will fight Judah if he's still alive. "How?" Pilate, the teacher, asks Messala, the student. Messala reveals his plan, which I assume is the famous chariot race. Then he takes his leave. Pilate says something is refreshing followed by, "Everyone, let's plaaaaaay!!" Immediately the men shout happily and more half-naked dancing ensues for Pilates' (and our) pleasure.
Next, we see Judah's mother and sister struggling to go back home. His sister hates how they have to avoid everyone (due to their leprosy). His mother says they have to go on no matter what.
Judah has returned to his childhood home. He sings as he walks around ("그날의 우리" / "That Day's Us"). When he goes up the stairs, his mother and sister also arrive. "Mother, why did we come home?" his sister asks. His mother is responding, "I just wanted to take one last look at it," when she sees Judah on the staircase. "Who is that? Isn't that my son? Isn't that your brother?" His sister wants to greet him, but his mother says they can't reveal themselves to him. "We're lepers," she reminds her daughter. His sister is really sad (not that her mother isn't) while his mother is probably explaining how he's better off not knowing their fate ... except that's the moment when Esther walks in with a jar of water. "Madame! You're alive!" she exclaims as she goes to greet them, but Judah's mother puts her hand up to stop her and says, "We're lepers!" She begs Esther to not tell Judah, and all three women cry together for a moment before Esther has to head back in, still crying. Judah's lost in memories, so he doesn't notice her tears. However, he does notice when she starts to move things about and yells, "Don't touch anything!"
As she watches from the shadows, Judah's mother continues the heart-wrenching song Judah started and is joined by his sister. Soon Judah also starts singing as well as Esther, making it a quartet. Judah must be thinking about how much he just wants to see his "dead" mother and sister again. His sister, in the shadows, sings, "Dummy, look ..." His mother starts the last line, "My son ..." and they all sing together the rest of the line, "Together, let's stop crying."
(This video is not from the musical. It's from the press conference they held in early August. I'm posting it so you can hear the song. This is KAI as Judah, Ji-yeong SEO as Miriam (Judah's mother), Na-yun GWAK as Tirzah (Judah's sister) and Si-ha AN as Esther.)
Men gather - I think they're the tribal leaders meeting to discuss something (maybe Jesus). Judah and his men, formerly Tito's men, hide behind a short wall and watch. Tito comes, and I think Judah explains how he wants to start a fight between the natives and the Romans. "We need to go inside," Judah says. Tito replies, "But only Roman soldiers can go inside. How will you get inside?" Judah and his men throw off their cloaks to reveal ... shiny Roman soldier uniforms. "You surprised me!" Tito yells.
They go in fighting, and Messala comes out in his pajamas, yelling as always, "What's going on here?!" Judah sees him and shouts, "Messala!" while trying to strike him with his sword. Messala replies, "Well, look who it is! If it's not my childhood friend!" They trade blows, both physically and verbally. Judah eventually overpowers Messala, but just before he's about to kill him, Messala blurts out, "Your family is still alive!" "My family is dead." "That's probably what you heard - the way I wanted it to seem." "Where are they?" Then Messala brings up the chariot race and says that if Judah wins, he'll tell him where his family is.
Tito, now in Roman uniform, comes running in and says they need to go. Roman soldiers are hot on Tito's heels. Messala, in case you forgot, is wearing his pajamas - not his uniform, so when he orders, "Arrest them!" the soldiers eagerly go to get ... Messala, not the two in Roman uniform. Messala gets so angry that he rips his shirt off. "I'm freaking Messala! Go after THEM!" After throwing a hissy fit, Messala sings a song about how he used to be a pathetic coward and how hard he worked to get where he is now ("나 메셀라" / "I'm Messala"). He does an on-stage costume change, which also represents going back in time to when he first met Pilate on the battlefield.
Messala is almost killed, but Pilate saves him. "Hey, where's your hometown?" he asks as he casually wipes the blood off of his sword. Stuttering, Messala replies. Pilate says something about Rome (maybe commenting on how far the Empire stretches), and Messala answers him with something about his Roman father. "Do you want to see your hometown again?" "Yes." "Then get it together and kill everyone here." Messala sees someone is about to kill Pilate, so he stabs him, screaming. Pilate says something along the lines of Messala having a crazy look in his eye - the kind Roman soldiers need. "What's your name?" "Good, Messala." "Messala? Kill everyone," Pilate order as he walks off-stage. "Yes, sir," responds Messala before turning to the line of soldiers getting ready to face off with him. "Come on - Come on!" he shouts. He sings his thoughts during the battle, then recounts his rise in the ranks as we come to the present. I'm not 100% sure, but I think he kills a Roman general in order to take his place as general.
(This video is not from the musical. It's from the press conference they held in early August. I'm posting it so you can hear the song. This is Min-seong BAK as Messala and Jeong-su YI as Pilate)
So back to the men who have gathered. Esther's father and Tito look at the "elders" and sings about what Judah wants to do, which is start a war ("게네사렛" / "[Lake of] Gennesaret"). Of course, the other leaders don't agree and say that he's a Roman citizen now. It sounds like Tito says, "But he's a king!" He gets upset and says Judah's fighting the Romans. The "elders" aren't hearing any of it. Esther's father tries again. Nope. None of it. The "elders" leave, and Esther's father and Tito talk. Esther's father hears from Tito that Judah will be in a chariot race with Messala, which causes him to think. He tells Tito something, and Tito replies, "I will keep that in mind."
Esther has gone to look for Judah's family where the lepers gather. When she finds them, Judah's mother scolds her, "Esther, what are you doing here? I told you to never search for us." "I have good news for you." It sounds like she's telling Judah's mother about Jesus and his miracles. "I've seen it myself." "Esther, really?" Judah's sister is really happy and grabs Esther's hands, "Thank you, Esther!" Then she realises what she's done - as does her mother - and immediately apologises, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know what I was doing." "It's okay," Esther replies as she reaches for Judah's sister's hands. However, Judah's mother prevents her from doing so and shakes her head. Esther sadly leaves with the promise, "I'll come again." Judah's mother sings another song ("기도" / "Prayer").
The time has come for the famous chariot race. There are six competitors representing different regions. Judah will represent Judea, and Messala Rome. Judah tells Messala, "Don't forget your promise to tell me about my family." "Of course. If you win." They continue back and forth until they walk off-stage. Pilate watches as the judge and holds up a red handkerchief to start the race. After it drops, the game's begun.
Personally, I found this scene amazing between the four robotic chariots, the way the chariots move around the stage, and the background that follows them from different angles. Judah and Messala are neck-and-neck while they sing a song ("죽음의 질주" / "Death at Full Speed"). Messala seems to be full of hate and anger towards Judah, and Judah seems to realise he might be the reason that Messala is the way he is now. But, his desire to see his family again doesn't allow him to go easy on his childhood friend. In the end, Messala ends up falling out of his chariot, and Judah wins, singing "I'm the winner!"
(This video is not from the musical. It's from the press conference they held in early August. I'm posting it so you can hear the song. This is KAI as Judah and U-hyeok MIN as Messala.)
