Gallo brings Broadway know-how to Tears of Heaven

By Kwon Mee-yoo

“We need more colorful fruits.”

David Gallo was busy discussing props with local assistants when The Korea Times visited the Tony-winning scenic designer in central Seoul last week. He was adding the finishing touches for staging an outdoor market in Saigon, or now Ho Chi Minh City, for the upcoming musical “Tears of Heaven,” produced by Seol & Company.

He said Korean staffers were surprising when it came to details. “On Broadway, people tend to be more interpretative and take the design as a suggestion,” he said. “Prop people in Korea are more specific and get us exactly what we ask for.”

Director Gabriel Barre, who met Gallo while working on the off-Broadway musical “Wild Party” by Andrew Lippa in 2000, invited the top designer to Korea.

“Tears of Heaven,” which aims to expand to a larger audience overseas, features other talent from Broadway — music by Frank Wildhorn of the famed “Jekyll and Hyde,” book by Phoebe Hwang and lyrics by Robin Lerner.

The musical is about a young orphaned woman Tianna living in the United States, who was born to a Vietnamese woman and a South Korean soldier during the Vietnam War. Though the production was initially inspired by Jo Sung-mo’s battle scene-filled music video for “Do You Know” (2000), the musical will be completely different, said Gallo.

“Tears of Heaven,” the designer explained, is basically a story of memories. “The story begins at the end, where the father and the daughter are reunited. Tianna, the daughter who has no connection to her past, is told the story by her father and what’s portrayed on stage is the daughter’s imagination of those events.”

The musical does not depict actual events, either real or fictional, but rather a young woman’s idea of what happened. Gallo thus opted for a stylistic approach that is non-realistic. Shadow is one such way to represent the theme of the story.

The musical features a song titled “Shadows on My Heart,” which speaks of Tianna’s mother as a shadow. It was Gallo’s job to give substance to what Tianna sees in her mind, which is not always fully formed.

The projections to be featured on the backdrop include actual war footage, snapshots and photographs taken by both Americans and Vietnamese, graphic animated sequences and more.

“We wanted to express the notion of memory here as well. Some memories are more fully realized than others, while other things remain in the background,” he said. “Shadows, silhouettes and projections will be used to present the imaginations and thoughts. They also transform very rapidly.”

The musical will also illustrate the beauty of Vietnam. “Though the atmosphere is dark and dismal since it is set in a city under siege, I want people to explore the beautiful city on stage.”

Gallo asked his father who served in the Vietnam War for the authenticity of the airfield scene. “My father was a pilot then and he was my personal consultant helping me describing the scene in details.”

He said there are so many scene changes in “Tears of Heaven” that he can’t even count them. “There are a lot of individual scenes in this musical and they flow very quickly from one to the next, like a memory or story. None of the usual ways of going from scene to scene are employed here.”

Gallo said making the sets flow naturally was the most challenging aspect of the project. “We go almost instantaneously from an airfield being bombed in Saigon to a park in San Francisco. There is no transition and bridging them without any pause was part of the challenge.”

The designer recommended the audience not to miss the scenes of live action combined with projected video and live shadow play. “There is a whole element of shadow layered on top of this show. We see things in shadow and silhouette here, which is unique portraying the notion of alternative reality.”

Some worry that “Tears of Heaven” might end up as an imitation of “Miss Saigon,” but Gallo was sure the two are poles apart.

“This musical is about a person searching for her past, while ‘Miss Saigon’ is about people looking for the future. There is a big difference in the start,” he said. “It also doesn’t take place at the same time — ‘Miss Saigon’ took place at the very end of the war, but this musical takes place in the 1960s.”

Gallo said he is open to all forms of culture and literature and good at understanding the text. “The nice thing of being a set designer is that you never know where you are going to go next. Today I’m in Vietnam in 1969 and when I fly back to New York, I will be in technical rehearsal for ‘Madagascar Live’ based on the movie of the same title, which will put me in the island with a bunch of creatures,” he said. “Being available to everything and expanding knowledge and culture base would be helpful for those who want to become a set designer.”

Gallo won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design as well as the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Set Design in 2006 for “The Drowsy Chaperone.” He also designed the sets for Tony Award-winning musicals “Memphis” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”

K-pop star Kim Jun-su of JYJ, musical actors Jung Sang-yoon and Jeon Dong-suk will play the role of Joon, a Korean soldier sent to Vietnam. Actress Yoon Gong-joo and Lee Hae-ri of girl band Davichi will share the double role of the Vietnamese woman Linh and her daughter Tianna. Broadway star Brad Little, known for his role of the Phantom in “The Phantom of the Opera,” will play Colonel Grayson.

The first and second readings for the script took place in New York last year and an English version of the concept recording was already released.

The musical premieres on Feb. 1 and runs through March 19 at Haeoreum Theater of the National Theater of Korea in central Seoul. Call (02) 501-7888.