Now we get to meet Pilate and his ridiculous harem. He sings an ode (sic) to Caesar ("시저 만세" / "Hooray Caesar"), yelling during a break, "Caesar, I love you!" and chanting, "Caesar! Caesar! Caesar!" In case, you couldn't tell between this song and his all-male harem, Pilate is definitely gay. Which, historically, is not a big stretch.
After the song, the arrival of Quintus is announced. Pilate is surprised, but extremely welcoming. Judah enters, wearing Roman garb, with his adopted father, but looking extremely sombre and cold.
As military men, I'm sure they know each other fairly well. Judah suddenly speaks up during their reunion, and Quintus remembers to introduce him, but before he finishes his sentence, Pilate says, "No, no, no. You don't need to introduce him. He's famous," and goes on to explain to Judah ... who Judah is and what he's done. It seems that they went to ask Pilate for a favour in their (fathers always help their children) plan for revenge. After explaining a little bit about Messala and asking for his help, Pilate seems to say it's not possible because Judah's face falls, and Pilate exclaims, "What's happened to your face?! Breathe! Breathe in, breathe out!" Quintus thanks him anyway and says he'll send Pilate a gift. Pilate says it's unnecessary because "[he] likes [Quintus]". They leave with Pilate's strange harem, and it looks like Pilate's going with them when he suddenly hangs back and stops laughing.
Pilate starts talking to no one, but Messala quickly comes out of the shadows. Pilate confirms the truth of what Judah had said before reminiscing about the younger Messala. He leaves Messala on stage alone, and Messala says, "Back then, I was a coward." Then he sings a song, probably along the lines of his past self, while beckoning (and paying) assassins ("나 메셀라" / "I'm Messala").
We see Esther standing alone, bound. As she sings, other slaves (all men) dragged next to her. She is at a slave market, so while the slaves - Esther included - sing, they have to turn around so that possible buyers can see their full bodies ("그리운 땅" / "The Land that I Miss"). Some of the slaves are sold, but by the end of the song, Esther is still up there.
(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 IVY.)
Which actually turns out to be a good thing for her because Judah enters with a couple of Pilate's concubines. We hear him tell them, "He had no interest [probably in these sex slaves], but one of them says that the best men are here. Judah happens to glance over and sees Esther. She starts crying and runs to him. "Master, master!" she sobs. Judah tells the sellers that they must have made a mistake; she's not for sale. The sellers think he just wants her for sex as they don't know (and wouldn't care about) the backstory. While protecting her, Judah's recognised as Quintus's son and a famous gladiator. At first, they try to tell her to him, but it quickly turns to violence. Of course, since he's a gladiator, you can guess how that went. However, as he's fighting the men, hooded figures come up behind them and free the other slaves. One of them grabs Esther. When she resists, he lowers his hood so that she can see his face. She recognises him and goes with him willingly. Judah finishes the slave sellers off and runs after Esther.
He calls her name in a dark place, and the leader attacks him. Again ... gladiator, so the leader is quickly on the losing side. Just before Judah kills the leader, Esther yells, "No, don't! You don't recognise him? It's Tito!"
That's right. It's the little boy at the beginning, all grown up. Judah's thrilled to see that he made it out alive and grew up, but the same cannot be said for Tito. He calls Judah a traitor and yells other things at Judah, but Esther intervenes and tries to explain something to him. Tito's not having any of it. Eventually, Esther has to slap him, exclaiming, "Tito, please!" He looks crushed, says one more thing and then leaves. Esther cries and tells Judah, "Please understand him. It's been really hard for us." Then she realises he's bleeding and tries to help him, but he tells her he's fine.
She finally looks around and asks where they are. Judah answers, "Catacombs" and explains what they are. Esther's surprised that Rome (also) has such a place. They sing a song, probably professing their love for each other (because nothing's more romantic than being surrounded by dead bodies) called "카타콤의 빛" / "Catacombs' Light". Tito and his men come in at the end of the song, and Tito looks so hurt and sad when he sees the two of them together, again making me wonder what the relationship between Tito and Esther is.
(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 and SI-HA AN as Esther.)
Judah, Esther, Tito and Tito's men go to Judah's home ... well, Quintus's home, and, upon arrival, Judah calls out, "Father, I'm home." Quintus quickly stumbles out and falls to the ground, saying, "Son, it's dangerous." Assasins attack Judah, Tito and Tito's men while Esther holds Quintus. Unfortunately, the assassins' leader (or maybe it's just a random assassin) soon has Tito as his hostage, threatening to cut his throat if weapons weren't dropped. Judah puts his sword on the ground slowly, and Tito yells, "Don't!" Again, the assassins forget he's a famous gladiator and attack him. Judah kills them all except one to whom he asks, "Who sent you?" The scared assassin simply begs for his life at first, but soom says, "Messala." "Who did you say sent you?" "Messala sent us." "Why [did you do that], Messala?" Judah lets him go, and Esther calls Judah over. He tries to save Quintus, but Quintus says, "Son, this is the end for me." "Don't give up," encourages Judah. Quintus gives some final advice to his son about Judah's destiny. "Father, this can't be the end for you." Sensing his imminent death, Quintus looks at the sky and repeats the words Judah said the day they met. "It's been a long time." "What?" Weakly laughing, he says something about the stars and being together with Judah. When Judah briefly looks up, Quintus dies. Judah sincerely mourns the death of this new father. The servants take his body away at Judah's order.
Judah finishes mourning, stands up and says, "Let's go [home]. Now, [something]. Let's go." Judah starts to sing about his destiny that his Roman father mentioned as he was dying ("운명" / "Destiny"). At one point, he rips off his Roman clothes and takes Tito's overjacket/shirt/thing, which Tito offered. Esther's father, Simonides, also appears out of nowhere, and offers him a sword, symbolic of being a future leader.
My assumption is that this song is saying how he's going to take his rightful place back home as ... a king? I know that in the original, he was a prince of, I assume, a tribe. But they had never called him a prince before - only "master". I think they sing about him being a king in Act II, but I'm not sure.
(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 all three men playing Judah. The first to sing (and in the middle) is JUN-SANG YU. The second one (and on the left) is KAI. The last (right) to sing is EUN-TAE BAK.
Let's waste no time and get down to business, shall we?
Act I is very long - 75 minutes if I remember correctly, so I'm unfortunately going to split it into two posts.
After the orchestra plays the overture, a voiceover comes on describing how the Romans were sent to Judaea, how King Herrod and the aristocrats "tolerated" the Roman presence, and how the commoners did not. This is in English on a screen, so you can read it without any problems. A little boy chases after a ball. That little boy is Tito.
Then we hear the sound of the marching Romans and the curtain comes up to show rows of them. Before it's too late, Judah Ben Hur swoops in and picks him up out of danger.
Together with the Roman slaves in chains, Judah sings of the Romans' cruelty, killing the babes of mothers and murdering other innocent people ("희망은 어디에" / "Where's Hope?").
(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.)
When the song ends, Judah delivers a message to the Romans. They are suspicious of him and believe (or maybe just "believe") he is a threat and check him for weapons. They try to arrest him just because, and he resists because he knows there's no reason. A few seconds of fighting ends when Messala comes out, telling them to stop because Judah's his childhood friend.
The guards immediately easy up and all but one leave. Judah can't believe his childhood friend is there out of the blue ... and wearing the uniform of a Roman commander. They have a nice reunion, but it's interrupted by slaves walking past, which makes Judah sad to see. Then Messala challenges Judah to a sword fight - a game they probably did as children and that Messala probably was never good at. They sing while they're "fighting" - this is a musical after all ("죽음의 질주" / "Death at Full Speed"), and something in the song changes to mood so that the men are fighting with some seriousness. Messala pushes Judah down to win and keeps the sword at his neck a bit too long. Judah ignores that and smiles at Messala, putting his hand out for Messala to help him up. He leaves, but not before turning back to look at his old friend quizzically. Messala also looks back as Judah's walking away with a more serious look on his face. The scene ends with him telling one of the soldiers to prepare his horse.
Esther waits by the road out of town. I assume it's because her father seems to have been on a business trip for a very long time (going by foot is rather slow). For some reason, I want to say it's been two years. Anyway, Judah sees her and strikes up a conversation. He asks her why she's there, and she asks him why he's also out. He pretends that he came out to see the stars, looking up. He says something like, "We can't see the stars tonight." They talk some more, and she goes in. Judah says, "The star I really wanted to see was ... you," before slapping himself.
Esther's father, Simonides, does indeed return, but he doesn't see his daughter first. He goes to see Judah's mother, Miriam ("가문의 축복" / "Family Blessings"). Actually, I'm a little confused on this relationship because Esther called Judah "Master" earlier, but Miriam treats Simonides as an equal as she invites him to dine at their table like you would a guest. Judah's sister, Tirzah, also comes in, and it seems as if she's grown a lot since he last saw her.
Esther comes in, delighted. "Father!" "My daughter!" they both cry. Tito, the little boy from earlier, also comes in somewhat soon afterwards with Judah. He describes how Judah saved him from the "bad guys". On another note, I also don't know what his relationship is to the family. I thought he was Esther's little brother, but later in the story, it looks like he's in love with her. In any case, they all sing happily together about family and sit down to dinner. The sound of the marching Romans can be heard, and Tirzah gets extremely excited. "Let's go see them together," Judah tells her. She calls him an idiot and runs upstairs with Tito to watch. Esther accompanies them, and the "adults" talk. This leads to Judah telling his mother that he saw Messala. She's happy to hear that he's back ... until Judah tells him of his Roman status. With each word, her face gets graver, yet he still mentions that they play-fought. She tells him that he shouldn't do that anymore and that he should be wary of his childhood friend.
Suddenly, we hear the sound of something breaking, immediately by the sounds of an angry crowd. Tirzah rushes in with everyone behind her saying, "[she] did something wrong." Miriam tries to hide them all, but only Simonides and Tito have time to get into the hiding place before the Romans break in. Judah pleads with Messala, but I think he sentences Tirzah to death. Judah gets angry, fights the soldiers and makes it over to Messala, whom he tries to kill. Due to his Jewish principles, he can't make himself kill Messala in cold-blood. Messala has not drawn a weapon and tells Judah to kill him - for it will be his only chance. Judah tries again, but can't. I think he offers to give himself up and take the blame if Messala promises him something (maybe letting his family and Esther go). "I promise," Messala says. Judah gives up and allows himself to be taken captive. The women are led away as Judah watches helplessly.
Judah is now a slave. Roman soldiers lead him - with other slaves - across the desert. Tired and thirsty, he falls down, despite the beatings of the soldier. Jesus happens to be passing by and gives Judah his water. Judah only manages to get a sip before the Roman soldier takes it away while giving him a meaningful look. Judah gets back up and continues walking.
Changing to the next scene is a bit cool. The screen in front of the actors displays the ship's exterior, but you can still see through it to the ship's interior. Inside, we see a man, who's supposed to be telling the oarsmen when to row by the sound of his drum; two rows of oarsmen, who are wearing nothing but giant diapers; Roman guards and a Roman general (I say "general" loosely as I'm not sure if he's usually the leader of an army or the navy.) named Quintus.
Quintus gives commands to the oarsmen before an impending battle with ... someone. At the end of his speech, one of the oarsmen coughs. Obviously, this sick man is of no further use to the Roman army and he's led away screaming, "Please save me!" Usually when I hear this in similar contexts, that means he's going to die. Luckily, this leaves a spot open on the rowing ... row, so Judah is brought in. He's asked some questions, but Quintus does not like his answers, so ... he's punished [read: whipped]. Again.
Suddenly, the lookout sounds a horn, and the enemy attacks. Soldiers fight while the rowers row. Quintus is at a disadvantage, but before the enemy kills him, Judah sticks his oar in the sword's path, giving Quintus time to stab the enemy. I'm a little fuzzy on the order of what happens next, but the basic gist of it is that Judah frees the other rowers, and they escape as the ship is hit. It sinks quite rapidly.
Now, I know armour is quite heavy, so I'm not sure if Quintus just doesn't know how to swim, or if his armour weighs him down, so he's stuck. It could be both. However, Judah jumps in and saves Quintus. They're on a large piece of the ship together (See, Jack? There was plenty of room for you.) when Quintus wakes up. Judah pretty much sums up what happened and looks up at the sky. "It's been a long time," he says. Quintus asks, "What?" to which Judah replies, "It's been a long time since I've seen the stars."
Quintus starts to sing a song ("당신의 은총을" / "Your Grace/Favour"), and Judah eventually joins in. At the end of it, Judah notices a ship, puts a Roman flag up and yells madly at it, essentially saying, "Hey! Quintus is alive! Come over here!" Quintus is quiet as he stares at the ship. He asks Judah if he can see whose ship it is, which he can't. Quintus tells him to be quiet because it could be the enemy. However, the ship is coming over, so Quintus orders Judah to kill him should it be the enemy. Naturally, Judah refuses (Come on, Quintus. He just saved your life twice in the last few hours.), so Quintus pulls out his short sword (maybe it's a between a sword and a dagger) and tries to kill himself, but Judah stops him. Fortunately, the ship is Roman, and the two men learn that the battle was a Roman victory.
The two are back in Rome to celebrate the victory with the Emperor. The ensemble does a flag-waving number with red lights ("로마승전행군" / "Roman Victory March"). When they finish, we see Caesar (I don't think it's Julius or Augustus ... Historically, it should be Tiberius, but I never heard a name.) and his "mouthpiece" (We never hear Caesar speak; it's all done through this man.) facing us and facing Quintus and Judah. Interestingly, Quintus and Judah are also facing us ... and Caesar. They're all facing the audience, but in the story, they're facing each other. I'm sure it's so that you can see all the facial reactions since the number one rule of stage acting is to never turn away from the audience ... unless there's a REAAAAALLLY good reason to do so. Anyway, it seems that Quintus is granted a reward for his victory. He asks Caesar to grant Judah his freedom and to allow him to become his adopted son (effectively making Judah a Roman citizen). Caesar agrees, but under a condition. I'm not sure if the condition is that he has to win one battle or not only win one battle, but continue fighting (and obviously winning) as a gladiator. Obviously, though, he does need to fight at least one battle.
Meanwhile, Messala and a guard go to a hidden door in a wall. There's a hidden room there, where Judah's family has been imprisoned. He asks the guard if he's sure they're still alive, to which the guard answers in the affirmative. The guard opens the door to let Messala in, but as soon as he gets to the door, Miriam - Judah's mother - says they don't want strangers to see them. He gets out of the doorway to allow the guard in. Shortly after entering, we hear him scream. The two women have contracted leprosy. The guard asks what he should do with them, and Messala says they can be released. After the two women leave, the guard asks Messala why he's letting them go. "I promised," he replies.
Back at the Coliseum, Judah prepares for battle. Quintus arrives, and I believe they talk about strategy for the upcoming battle, but I hear Messala's name as well, so it might be a strategy for surviving the fight in a moment and the fight with Messala. The gladiator that went before Judah is carried off in a stretcher, so now it's Judah's turn. Right before he enters the ring, he tells Quintus with absolutely no hesitation, "I'll be back."
Naturally, he fights (It is no cakewalk.) and wins. The mouthpiece declares that he is now Quintus's son, which should make him happy since he needs that to get revenge. However, the Jewishness in Judah is in agony over killing a man. He drops to his knees and screams as the crowd happily cheers.
I'm writing this blog for the foreigners in Korea who might want to go see a musical, but feel daunted by the Korean. I won't be translating scripts as I am not Korean, but a foreigner with limited Korean skills. However, once I start watching a musical, you can bet I will see it quite often. Eventually, even with a low-intermediate level, you figure out all the puzzle pieces, and I'd like to share that with you.
Disclaimer: I might be wrong. But at least you'll have somewhat of an idea if you go see the musicals I write about.
Nowadays, I'm watching Ben Hur. Since the previews started the last weekend of August until September 13, I have already seen it three times and will see it another three by the time the show ends. So, next time I will talk about that. Look forward to it!
I've decided that it would be better to split each musical into three parts: general information, Act I and Act II.
Thus, I will give general information about Ben Hur as promised yesterday.
I have never seen any of the three films nor have I read the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace, but judging from my experiences watching books-turned-musicals in Korea, something will be different from what you know. The very general storyline will be the same, but that might be it.
Ben Hur is being performed at the Chungmu Art Centre. It started with previews on Thursday, 24 August 2017 and will run until Sunday, 29 October 2017. They never perform on Mondays, but they usually perform once on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and twice on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Getting to Chungmu Art Centre
LEGEND: The music notes are Chungmu Art Centre. The exclamation points are subway stations. The cars that say, "GO!" are bus stops.
Dongdaemun History and Culture Park (DO NOT CONFUSE IT WITH DONGDAEMUN): Subway Line 4 (exit 2 is best - 9 minutes by foot - 655 m / 2150 ft) and Subway Line 5 (exit 4 - 14 minutes by foot - 945 m / 3100 ft)
Sindang: Subway Line 2 (exit 9 is best, but exit 1 will be okay - 7 minutes by foot - 450 m / 1475 ft), Subway Line 6 (exit 9 - 2 minutes by foot - 195 m / 640 ft)
Chungmu Art Centre / Sports Centre (Stop #02177 - going towards Dongdaemun Station): Bus #202, Bus #421, Bus #463, Bus #2012, Bus #2014, Bus #2015, Bus #2233, and Bus #9403
Chungmu Art Centre / Sports Centre (Stop #02178 - going towards Sindang Station): Bus #202, Bus #421, Bus #463, Bus #2014, Bus #2233, and Sunhan Bus #05: Get off at Chungmu Art Centre / Sports Centre (Stop #02178) and it's directly across the street (5 minutes by foot - 340 m / 1115 ft).
Sindang-dong Tteokbokki Town (Stop #02187 - going towards Sindang-dong / Cheonggu Station): Bus #142, Bus #147, Bus #6211 and Sunhan Bus #05: Get off and walk the direction from whence you came (8 minutes by foot - 525 m / 1725 ft). Turn left at Sindang Station on Toegye-ro.
Sindang-dong Tteokbokki Town (Stop #02188 - going towards Sindang Station): Bus #142, Bus #147, and Bus #6211: Get off at Sindang-dong Tteokbokki Town (Stop #02188) and walk the direction you were going on the bus, crossing the road at the first crosswalk on Dasan-ro (9 minutes by foot - 625 m / 2050 ft). Turn left at Sindang Station on Toegye-ro.
*Please note that the bus stop numbers can only be seen at the bus stops - not on the bus.
In case you get lost ...
Chungmu Art Centre 충무아트센터
Seoul 서울
Jung District 중구
Toegye-ro 387 퇴계로 387
Zip Code: 04569
Tickets
Tickets range from 50,000 to 140,000 won for first timers. If you use the Korean Interpark website, you can get a small discount (25% I think) for every subsequent visit. However, make sure you take your latest used ticket with you. They usually stamp the back so that you can't get the discount multiple times.
If Korean's not your thing, you can use the Global Interpark website, but there usually aren't any discounts.
When you arrive at the art centre, go up the escalators on the right. The ticket booth is on the second floor.
VIP = 140,000R = 120,000S = 80,000A = 50,000
Casting
I'm adding the cast as well. However, please notice that this is not Broadway, where all the actors do eight shows a week. This is Korea, where main parts have two to four people rotate playing the same part. [Note bene: I use the government style romanisation, so, for example, the well-known last name Park will be Bak here. The only exceptions are English stage names.]
Jun-sang YU Eun-tae BAK Kai (not from EXO)
1995 debut 2007 debut 2007 debut (?)
47 years old 36 years old 35 years old
180 cm / 5'11" 182 cm / 6'0" 182 cm / 6'0"
71 kg / 157 lbs. 71 kg / 157 lbs. N/A
Min-seong BAK U-hyeok MIN U-hyeok CHOE
2007 debut 2013 debut (?) 2015 debut
35 years old 34 years old 24 years old
180 cm / 5'11" 187 cm / 6'2" 182 cm / 6'0"
67 kg / 148 lbs. 78 kg / 172 lbs. N/A
Ivy (left) 2005 debut 34 years old 164 cm / 5'5" 50 kg / 110 lbs. Si-ha AN (right) 2004 debut 35 years old 164 cm / 5'5" 49 kg / 108 lbs.
Gyeong-eup NAM (left)
1980 debut
59 years old
Hui-jeong YI (right)
1986 debut (?)
53 years old
Ji-yeong SEO 1989 debut 48 years old
Na-yun GWAK
This is her debut.
N/A
Seong-gi GIM
1989 debut
52 years old
Jeong-su YI
2010 debut
34 years old
Han-guk SEON
2013 debut (?)
26 years old
Yun-u YI (left)
2015 debut
10 years old
Ji-hun YI (right)
2017 debut
10 years old
Casting Schedule
As I said above, casting varies depending on the time and the day.
If you prefer to see someone specifically, please comment below and I will let you know!
