(Hammersmith Apollo, 1-16 February 2002)
As I sat through this performance, I kept thinking Les Miserables. Musically, the show aims to emulate Les Mis, but fails for the same reason that Les Mis fails. The music is big, bombastic, not unpleasant, but in the end totally unmemorable. The other downside was that there was a lot of story to cram into the two-and-a-half hour time frame. It was very impressive visually (great costumes) but I’m sorry I can’t be more enthusiastic about this show.
Links:
- The show’s official home page.
- Two reviews from the Independent: here and here;
- Slightly more enthusiastic reviews of the New York staging by the New York Times, Curtainup, and the International Herald Tribune.
- Plus a nine minute BBC Women’s Hour interview with the star Yi Tae Won and Keith Howard from SOAS is available here.
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