Hope you all had a nice weekend!
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.
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.
( ... to be continued ... )