Another fabulous musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber is coming to town. Adapted into Korean language and produced by local staff, "The Beautiful Game" will be staged Nov. 16 at LG Art Center for a two-month run.
The West End musical co-written by Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton is about loss of innocence, betrayal and tragedy in a group of teenagers growing up amid religious intolerance in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1969.
Focusing on the drama of an Irish youth football team, the musical tells how the players deal with the violence and terrorism that become their worlds.
Inspired by a TV documentary about a group of kids -- some were Catholics, some Protestants -- who played football together in 1969, the musical chronicles the ups and downs of the team players amid the emerging political and religious violence that troubled the region.
John and Frank both show enough talent to pursue careers as professional footballers. They are just two regular teenagers who dream of nothing more than girls and football. But things change as the confrontation get worse between the two religious groups. And as time passes those once innocent Irish men have to decide whether or not to follow their hearts. "Audiences could easily understand the feelings of characters in the musical because it portrays the relationship between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom in the 1970s quite similar to that of Korea and Japan", said Seol Do-yoon, chairman of Seol & Company, during a press conference in Seoul on Monday.
The musical has been drawing attention from audiences around the world thanks to the music by Lloyd Webber and its famous "soccer dance". The most successful song from the score was "Our Kind of Love". "The Beautiful Game" is also a term used to describe the sport of football.
The musical was introduced to the public in 2000 at the Cambridge Theater in London and closed after an 11-month run. The show never made a transfer to Broadway but did make it to other places including Germany and Japan.
What makes the Korean version of the musical noticeable is that it features Park Geon-hyeong, a handsome and versatile actor who is returning to the musical stage after a three-year hiatus.
Starting as a musical actor, the 29-year-old Park got the big break of his career with the role of Tony in the Korean version of "Saturday Night Fever" in 2004. Park instantly became a major heartthrob in Korea after the musical and made his debut as a movie actor a year later.
He gained widespread public recognition by taking a lead role in the movie "Innocent Steps". He played Young-se, a frustrated professional dancer who happens to teach a Korean-Chinese girl who comes to Seoul for a sports dance competition. In the upcoming musical "Beautiful Game", Park is to take the role of John.
Tickets are 30,000 won to 100,000 won. Ticket box for the musical opens Sept. 4. For more information, call (02) 501-7888 or visit Open the link
English 
