Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
'Wicked' composer impressed with local success
.jpg?w=728)
Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist of the musical “Wicked”
By Kwon Mee-yoo
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist behind the hit musical “Wicked,” said he was delighted to see the show’s continuing success in Korea, where it opened in November.
After arriving in Seoul Saturday, Schwartz used the weekend to see the local performance of Wicked, which features Oak Joo-hyun and Park Hye-na in the roles of Elphaba and Jeong Seon-ah, and Kim Bo-kyung who plays Glinda. He said he came away impressed.
“The show here is in very good shape even a few months after opening, and I didn’t have many notes (to give to the actors). I got to see both of the casts, and they were different but very good,” Schwartz, 66, said in an interview on Monday.
“I also got to meet and work with (Kim) Sun-young, who will be joining the show in May (in the role of Elphaba). We sang through some of the songs together, and I think she will be great in the show.”
One of the most influential songwriters in the entertainment world, Schwartz wrote the music for such plays as “Godspell” and “Pippen,” and the Disney animations “Pocahontas” and “The Prince of Egypt.”
Wicked — based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel that invents the origins of Elphaba, or the Wicked Witch of the West, in L. Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” — has been a hit since it debuted on Broadway in 2003. It was first performed in Korea in 2012 by a touring Australian drama company and enjoyed huge success.
Schwartz stressed that Wicked is more than just fun, lighthearted entertainment and said that the political side of the show is often overlooked.
“I think one of the reasons that this show is having a recurrence around the world is that both the ‘Wizard of Oz’ and Wicked are about the difference between what people present in public and what is really going on behind the scenes,” he said.
“That’s what Wicked is really about — there is a character called the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good as if one of them is all bad and the other all good. But we all know that’s not how life really works. So I think in a time of competing propaganda, this kind of story has resonance around the world because we are dealing with it every day.”
“Of course, Wicked is not primarily about politics. It revolves around two women and how they relate to each other with a lot of humor and a love story, but there is more to this than meets the eyes,”Schwartz added.
“There are different layers in this show, and people can appreciate it on different levels. Children dressed in Elphaba or Glinda’s costume, teenage girls and adults will all perceive this show in a different way. I am proud that Wicked has a lot of layers, and I think no one goes away disappointed.”
Schwartz described Oak’s Elphaba as reserved and sophisticated and Park’s Elphaba as energetic and ferocious. Jeong’s Glinda is perky and humorous, while Kim delivers the role with more elegance, he said.
“I really don’t want to make comparisons (of the cast) because I really enjoyed the difference. It might hurt their feelings. The show is the same, but the nuance coming from the difference was interesting,” he said.
Schwartz’s work with Wicked marked a return to stage musicals for him as he had spent the previous several years focused on animated films.
“Wicked was a story that I very much wanted to tell. When I heard about the novel (by Gregory Maguire), I tried to get the rights to turn it into a musical. I loved the characters, the story of their relationship, the politics and philosophy of it. And I knew it had to be a live theater show,” he said.
The composer said understanding the characters is the key to writing songs for a musical.
“Some songs are easier to write when I am clear about the character. In the case of Glinda, I knew girls like her in high school, and songs like ‘Popular’ is something I could do in a try,” he said.
“Some other songs in the show took longer to find what they should be. There were two other versions of Elphaba’s first song, ‘Wizard and I,’ before I finally understood what the scene and character was meant to be. They don’t always come so quickly.”
In Wicked, Schwartz wanted to create “a world that is Oz, a little bit different from our world” through music.
“The choreographer, Wayne Cilento, wanted to come up with movements that would not be identified as Broadway or other certain styles. So he wanted the dance music to be unusual in rhythm, beat and accent. That’s why the music of Wicked is not so traditional,” he said.
During his stay in Korea, he made little tweaks to the show to help the Korean audience understand it better even without much knowledge of “The Wizard of Oz,” the classic film.
“We tried to make things a little bit clearer. In America, the audience is very familiar with The Wizard of Oz, and they laugh when Glinda waves her hand to Dorothy and her friends on the yellow brick road. But in Korea, many of the audience did not know who she is, and I added the line ‘Goodbye Dorothy’ after consulting with resident director Katie Hong,” he explained.
“There are always things to make better in live theater.”
He also hoped to see some Korean shows on Broadway someday.
“I think it is interesting that there are Korean composers and theater creators who want to make their original musical theater shows. The theater culture has been developing strongly here in Korea during the past decade, and I am looking forward to experiencing talented and passionate Korean storytellers telling their own story,” Schwartz said.