Imagine "Miss Saigon" written from a Vietnamese perspective and performed in Vietnamese. Change the location to Korea and you've got "Korea Tripitaka," a Broadway-caliber Korean musical that's playing the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Thursday. ‘Korea Tripitaka’
is a big high-tech
Broadway-caliber
Korean musicalBy John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comAnyone who loves high-tech, big-scale musicals should find "Korea Tripitaka" an unanticipated late-summer delight. The production is a blend of contemporary Broadway and Korean traditions, Its producers include music arranger Joseph Baker, whose credits include "Footloose," "Blood Brothers" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe." Choreographer Byung-Goo Seo's credits include "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Porgy and Bess."
The story -- "The River of Eternal Love" is the secondary title -- has all the ingredients of a blockbuster tear-jerker and includes gallant nobles, selfless heroines, roguish but patriotic criminals, a powerful and utterly ruthless villain, and the Mongol Hordes of Genghis Khan.There are also acres of gorgeous costumes, elaborate sets and special effects, and a stirring score. (Word is that English subtitles will be projected as is done when the opera performs in languages other than English.)
The story takes place more than 700 years ago during the time of the Mongol wars in the final years of the Koryo Dynasty. The Mongols, who would conquer China a few years later, have captured the Korean capitol and burned a collection of Buddhist scriptures known as Koryo Taejanggyong.
A high-ranking priest dreams that recreating the Koryo Taejanggyong -- carving 52,800,000 characters on 81,258 wooden blocks -- will inspire the people to rally against the Mongols. And so the mammoth undertaking begins while the struggle continues and at least one romantic triangle plays itself out.
The new Tripitaka was finished in 1251 and survived the fall the Koryo Dynasty, subsequent wars with the Mongols and the Japanese, Japan's brutal 35-year occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th Century, and the Korean War. It is the largest unified collection of wood block plates and was designated as one of the world's cultural treasures by UNESCO in 1995.
M Theater Company, established in 1976, is now part of the Korea Institute of Performing Arts.
What: "Korean Tripitaka," presented by the Hyundae Theatre Company On Stage
When: 4:30 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
Tickets: $20, $30, $50 and $70
Call: 591-2211
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