Bremen Town Musicians to Launch New Version
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
The children's musical "The Bremen Town Musicians" produced by Yoo Yeol is getting a facelift. A new creative team will be putting on the work with a dramatic twist.
"It is not usual to put on the children's show every year without letup. I want to show our musical is improving ever year. This year's version is totally new," Yoo, a renowned singer and radio DJ, said in a press conference. He launched his own company, Yoo Media, which published audio books for children.
The musical based on the German fairy tale with the same name was first created by Yoo's company in 2006. The show revolves around four abandoned animals ― a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster. The group goes on an adventure to Bremen to fulfill their dreams of becoming musicians.
Targeting children aged 5 to 7, "The Bremen Town Musicians" has been sold out for every performance since its inception.
The show has been upgraded every year with a different musical mixture of a cappella, live performance and percussion performances.
This year, the show is focusing on dramatic lines that put more emphasis on the characters and the relationships between them in an effort to better appeal to the older audience members.
Also, five musical numbers will be added to the original version.
To mark the fifth anniversary of its debut, a top creative team, with members including set designer Chung Seung-ho and choreographer Ahn Ae-soon, will join the musical to create a fancier and more engaging show with a 480 million won budget.
Ahn is the nation's representative choreographer, and has created her own dancing style by mixing traditional Korean dance and its traditional beauty with modern dance. She has put on more than 70 domestic performances and 30 overseas performances over the last 20 years. Ahn has also collaborated with Montreal Dance in Canada and Jeune Ballet de France, and has been invited to numerous international events.
Chung is renowned for his masterful participation in popular musicals such as "Sweeny Todd" and "Namhansanseong,"and like Ahn he wants to blur the lines of modernity and classical works.
"I want to create a stage that's both appealing to not only the local audience but also the foreign audience and children and their parents alike. The stage will be classical but simple to create a cheerful and delightful atmosphere for the audience," he said.
The musical has drawn about 170,000 viewers since 2006 and was invited by the Bremen municipal government last year and performed in Frankfurt and Bremen with rave reviews there.
Yoo said that later this year, the show will make its way to Malaysia and Singapore, and also tour Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf in Germany.
The new version will be on stage from April 9 to May 9 at Theater Yong of the National Museum of Korea.