Ben Hur Act I (Part 2 of 2)

And we're back!

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.

(End of Act I)