Frank Wildhorn: Cho Seung-woo and Kim Junsu bring special things to the stage

Frank Wildhorn attends a press conference for musical "Tears of Heaven" in Seoul, South Korea on February 1, 2011. [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

Song "This is the Moment" sung in various versions by musical actor Cho Seung-woo, singer K.will, Big Bang member Daesung, and many other Korean stars and "Once Upon a Dream" which was the theme song to film "Shiri" and figure skater Kim Yuna's gala show. These two songs which the public is familiar with are number from the musical "Jekyll & Hyde." Frank Wildhorn, composer of "Jekyll & Hyde," who has fascinated even those who are not fans of musicals, took part in the creation of Korean production "Tears of Heaven" which began its run on February 1. He established a strong ground in Korea through "Jekyll & Hyde" which contained classical melodies, beyond his background in pop and jazz, and he continues to take new challenges with the world as his stage. Below are excerpts from the press conference for "Tears of Heaven" held after its press call last Tuesday.

Q: How do you feel about today's press call? It's pretty much the first time the show has been staged officially.
Frank Wildhorn: I feel very humbled by what's going on here. This show is a giant show. But when we do a Broadway show in New York, we first go out of town to a regional theater and we try the show out. We then come back to New York and learn a lot. Then we go out of town again to another regional theater and we learn more. And then come to Broadway where we have previews for six weeks before we open a show and before the press comes to the show. Here, it feels like I'm standing naked in front of you from the very first day so it's a very different process. For instance, the guy who is doing the sound for the show, he only heard the show for the first time yesterday. And he has a huge job of balancing the vocals and the orchestra. In New York, he had two or three weeks before anyone heard it but here, he had one day. You also have to understand, this is a brand new show. So it's not like "Jekyll & Hyde" or "The Count of Monte Cristo" where you have reference points that you could listen to. This one you're making up as you go. So we are asking so much from the performers, the musicians, the designer... we're asking so much of them in so little time. So when you ask me and I say I'm humbled, I say this because I don't think we could do this in New York... everyone would think we're crazy. I'm also really humbled by the hard work everyone has been putting in. See the show tonight and see the show in two weeks and you'll see a very different show because everyone involved needs to breathe and it takes a couple of weeks to breathe.

Q: Which musical number are you most confident about and where did you get the inspiration for it?
Wildhorn: "Can You Hear Me?" because all of us in our own lives, including you, have said, "Can you hear me?", haven't you? Whether you're talking to your boyfriend, your parents, your teacher, or your grandparents, I'm sure in your life there are times when you said, "Can you hear me?" And I love when there is a situation or a moment that I can write a song that transcends that moment and hopefully speaks to us in our daily lives. You know in "Jekyll & Hyde" there is a song called "This is the Moment" and again, it's the same kind of thing. There's a time in our lives when we know, 'This is the moment.' So I love it when the story gives me the chance to write those kind of songs. There's another song in the show called, "I've Never Loved Like This" and I'm sure all of us have had a moment where you feel 'I've never loved like this.'

Q. You've mostly produced musicals which have original versions, such as with "Jekyll &Hyde" and "The Count of Monte Cristo." But you must have had very little to refer to for "Tears of Heaven" so what are the difficulties you faced in creating an original production?
Wildhorn: When you write shows based on books or movies, you always have reference points to go back to. So during the process of writing and rewriting, everytime you're stuck, you can go back to those great books. This is much harder. There are no reference points, there is no book to go back to. So it's much more about your imagination. It's kind of like when you make a sculpture... you chip away and chip away and hopefully a beautiful shape will come to it. We were very lucky in the process of this show in that we were led to some workshops in New York and that helped the process a lot.

Q. "Tears of Heaven" is aiming to enter Broadway. How far do you see your achievements going in this aspect?
Wildhorn: We're at the very beginning of that adventure. For many years now, my Broadway shows have come here, and Europe, etc. And what has happened in the last bunch of years is that I've been commissioned to write many new shows, not just for New York, but for Madrid, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Tokyo and Seoul. And now these shows, like this one, are beginning to have a light. So the whole concept of writing shows in Europe and Asia, and exporting those shows is very, very new. And I'm very excited because I feel like I'm at the bottom, the beginning, of something new here. This year, this show is my frist original show written for the Korean audience. In May, I have a show called "Mitsuko" opening in Japan and it's also the very first time an American has been commissioned to start a show in Japan. And I've been very fortunate to write a lot of new shows for Europe. Like "Carmen" that I wrote for Prague is celebrating its fourth year in the Czech Republic, my show "Rudolph" which started in Budapest, has now been in Europe for four years. "The Count of Monte Cristo" actually didn't start in Broadway -- it started in Switzerland and just finished its third year. So the point I'm trying to make are these are all brand new shows are commissioned by different countries that's not Broadway, and they have now had success and all of these producers are now trying to export their shows. I feel we are inventing a new global invention in theater. As you can imagine, I'm very excited and very optimistic about how this will go. I can tell you that while a show is running, producers from Japan, from Europe, and North America will come see the show. And then we will all see. So we must be patient because these things take a long time. But sometimes it's not about whether the show is fantastic or less so -- it is the subject matter of the show for that play in other cultures.

Q. Why do you think you're so popular in Korea?
Wildhorn: I'm very lucky. My background is not theater. My background is popular music and jazz. So I was brought up to write with the mentality to write for the world, not for five blocks in New York City. And I think that philosophy has worked very well for me. I also think the Koreans like big, sweeping, emotional melodies. But it's also something that you can't intellectualize. It's very much like chemistry between a man and a woman and I don't try to analyze it very much. "Jekyll & Hyde" for instance has had over 700 productions made around the world so it goes back to my saying before... music, like love, knows no borders.

Q: Both "Jekyll & Hyde" and "Tears of Heaven" also drew attention because Cho Seung-woo and Kim Junsu were cast for the shows. What do you think of them?
Wildhorn: I think they both bring very special things to the stage. The reason they're stars is because of how they communicate with the audience. They're like all great stars -- they bring you into them. So when they talk or sing to us, we believe them. And even though they're acting, there's an honesty there that we all relate to. And I think that's why they're stars, also because much of the audience is women. I assume the women find them very attractive which is the same all over the world.

Q: In what ways do you think local actors are competitive overseas?
Wildhorn: It doesn't matter whether it's New York, London, Tokyo, Seoul or Madrid -- the best in each culture is as good as anywhere else. And I'm very lucky because I've been blessed by getting the best talent in all of these countries. The difference is that in America, it's deeper because we have 340 million people and because musical theater has been in our blood for hundreds of years so we have more generations that have grown up doing it.

Q: You're worked on many productions so far. How much longer do you think you'll be able to write songs?
Wildhorn: People who have known me a long time, they know I haven't changed. I wake up in the morning, I get to do what I love to do more than anything else in the world. I taught myself how to play the piano when I was 15 and I never dreamed that by learning the piano, that I'd be here talking to you today. So I know lucky I am and I go all over the world with my music. What beats that? I'm hoping I'll get to do it a long time. It's a joyful adventure.

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Reporter : Jang Kyung-Jin three@
Photographer : Chae ki-won ten@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@