By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
The 19th-century novel “The Count of Monte Cristo” written by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) has some 89 characters and 4,000 sub-plots. How can it be suitably condensed into a two-hour musical?
American lyricist Jack Murphy has done it. He thought the only way to turn the vast-volume novel into a musical was by making all the action take place over the course of one night.
He combined the characters and shortened the plots to create his version of Dumas' classic. “It is romance and a love story. It is also the story of revenge and redemption. So instead of having 50 characters ― so many villains to choose from ― we decided to make it three. … That was a challenge and I took on the challenge and accidentally it seemed to work,” Murphy said in an interview with The Korea Times.
He visited Korea last week to see the Korean version of “The Count of Monte Cristo” with music by Frank Wildhorn, and the lyrics and book by Murphy, which is now being staged.
The musical stars veteran actors Ryu Jung-han, Shin Sung-rok, Um Ki-joon, singer-turned-actress Ock Joo-hyun and Cha Ji-yeon. Ryu, Um and Shin share the role of Monte Cristo, while Ock and Cha alternate playing the role of Mercedes.
The show depicts the vengeance of a young sailor named Edmond Dantes who was falsely accused and put in prison for 14 years by an evil scheme of his friends. After escaping, he hides his identity and goes under the name of the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo and gets revenge on those who charged him falsely one by one.
Can the musical written in the 19th century appeal to the audience living in the 21st century? “Yes, it’s the 19th century and this is the 21st century but human beings are pretty much the same. They have the same faults and flaws and virtues when you are dealing with revenge and redemption and romance and love and hate. These are universal. They have been around since the dawn of time and they will continue,” said Murphy.
To cater to the modern audience, the musical twists a female character, who is a pirate, into the male-dominated scenes. “We give it a little bit of life and hopefully it will speak to the 21st century audience as well,” he said.
Murphy and Wildhorn have often teamed up to make musicals ranging from “Rudolf,” “Wonderland” and “The Civil War” to “The Count Monte Cristo.”
“We have been friends for a very long time and more really he has a gift for melody that is not that prevalent any more ― at least in my opinion. … It’s hard to write very emotional lyrics if music doesn’t support that. His music not only supports it but evokes it. For 17 years, we’ve been doing this,” he said.
When they are collaborating, the music always comes first and then the lyrics ensue. “In this musical, we specifically wanted to tell the story as a song through the musical as much as we could. For the most part, it is word-for-word music. So most of the plot and character development and such have got to be delivered through lyrics,” he said.
Concerning his experiences in presenting his shows in many different countries such as Germany, Hungary and Japan, he wanted the languages to capture the emotions. “What I look for is not so much that they used the exact same idioms but that they capture the spirit of the emotions that were intended. I was very pleased with the Korean translation they sent me,” he said.
The American lyricist said that he made a couple of changes for the version in Seoul at the request of director Robert Johanson. “Most of those were suggestions from the producers certain times. We implemented those changes. Not a lot, not too many but good to help clarify it. … There were things that helped clarify things for me and I hope for the audience as well,” said Murphy.
The world premiere of “The Count of Monte Cristo” was in Switzerland in 2009. Renowned for “Jekyll and Hyde,” Wildhorn presents his refined musical numbers and Robert Johanson, who has directed more than 200 musicals such as “Hamlet” and “The Wizard of Oz,” directs the Korean production.
The musical is on stage through June 13 at Universal Arts Center in Neungdong, Seoul. Tickets cost 40,000 to 120,000 won. For more information, call (02) 6391-6333.