Shakespeare’s first play reborn as musical

“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” is William Shakespeare’s first play but is not as well-known as some of his other masterpieces.

Nevertheless, the play has important elements and themes that can be found in his later works, touching upon the universal human nature aspects of love, friendship and also betrayal.

Veteran British director Glen Walford who specializes in Shakespeare’s works in various languages and cultures has turned it into a musical version.

“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” scored a big success when it was first staged in Japan in 2007 and now the work will be readapted for the Korean audience.

“There are much more scripts (than music). To be honest, it’s more a play with music than a full musical. But it combines my two loves of Shakespeare and musical theater. So it’s an interesting blend for me. Also, I know people so enjoy the music,” Walford said in an interview with The Korea Times.

The lyrics are all from Shakespeare’s works. “So there are no fresh lyrics. Shakespeare wrote all the lyrics but they are from different Shakespeare’s productions. So I stole them from other productions to make them into the story,” she said.

One of the reasons she turned the work into a musical is that it has been done so rarely in England, or anywhere in the world. And a lot of the ideas that appeared in Shakespeare’s later shows, especially “Romeo and Juliet,” are all in “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”

Shakespeare rambles and over-explains things with a massive volume but with great stories and poetry. “So I thought that’s the best thing to do (make it a musical play). I like the story and potential because people don’t know it very well. That’s why I turned it into the musical, a play with more music,” she said.

“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” is one of her favorite works by Shakespeare as it punctuates the very human nature that goes beyond time and space with an unexpected and dark ending. “It’s not just about love. It’s about betrayal as well and the dark side of human nature which has always interested me.

So it’s not just a happy musical at all. But I think young people will understand and be a little bit shocked by the thing,” she said. Walford, who has worked on “Shirley Valentine” and “Blood Brothers” in Korea before, knows very well how to make it palatable for Korean fans.

The musical will be different from the Japanese rendition, rewritten by Walford herself. The story and set design are the same but the music is completely new. The director added some sense of humor Koreans love and the music is much more full-blown with extra songs as well. The music is a mixture of classical, modern genres such as rock ‘n’ roll and K-pop, she said.

“But the whole focus is really about how crazy love is when you are completely in love and about youth. The production is about how mad young people can be and how touching (it is),” she said.

Concerning Korean actors, Walford said, they are fantastic singers. “There is another good reason for having new music for this production. They’re funny and they have a great sense of humor and they communicate very well and they’re very optimistic people. They have a lot of skills,” she said.

To direct in different languages and cultures, the British director puts more emphasis on communication because directing is not just language.

“It’s communicating the truth of the work and story and all kinds of things. And body language is very important and making a relationship with people you work with is also important. You can tell the bad acting and good acting. It doesn’t matter what the language is. An understanding of the way people live on that culture and their languages as much as possible is also important … So you have to be a psychiatrist in any way to be a director,” she laughed.

As for the Korean musical industry, she advised that the first and foremost thing is to have a good story. “If you don’t have a good story, no audience in the world wants to watch it. Even ‘Cats’ has a story of sorts because you are following those characters. Having a good story, then you need to break it down into the scenes and characters and then start to fit the music into the story,” she said.

“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” is presented by the Seensee Musical Company and will be on stage from July 17 to Aug. 28 at Sejong M Theater in central Seoul.