At the press call for musical "200 Pounds Beauty"

Park Gyulee performs at the press call for musical "200 Pounds Beauty" held in Seoul, South Korea on December 5, 2011. [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

An intense light falls upon the darkness. The dark auditioning hall turns into a fancy stage and a beautiful woman appears and sings -- "Maria," which Han-byul sings as the beautiful singer Jenny, not backstage instead of singer Ami. Musical "200 Pounds Beauty," based on the movie of the same name from 2006 with actors Kim Ah-joong and Joo Jin-mo, is back for the first time in three years since its premiere. At the time, 95 percent of the seats to the show were sold and it took the awards for best musical and best musical actress at The Musical Awards in 2009. Yet there was also much controversy surrounding its wins and level of completion so after undergoing revamping, it is now touring Asia starting with Japan in October. Hence while their Osaka run could be called 'version 1.5' due to its emphasis on its visuals to overcome the barrier in language, the upcoming show could be called 'version 2.0' which "brings out the strengths of both the first run and shows in Osaka." Three years of production has led to a better set as well as stronger musical numbers, drama and characters.

So despite the few weaknesses that still exist, all disappointments vanish the moment the hidden stage opens and "Maria" appears with a live band. When "Maria" starts, the audience turn into fans at a concert and all become assimilated with Jenny's movements. No matter how big the scale of a musical, it is difficult to capture the liveliness to a performance. Yet with musicals, the stage and audience keep in tune with each other within a single frame. Hence if there was a reason that "Beauty" had to be turned into a musical, this is it.

And as much as "Beauty" is about Han-byul, a minority in the physical sense yet born anew with the help of medical science, the main female characters who play Han-byul and Jenny are key to the show. Choi Sung-hee, who has been part of the cast of "Beauty" since its premiere, stands out for her command on stage and voice which pierces through the band, making her performance for "Maria" seem perfect for she who has been an actual singer for several years now. And in contrast to her fragile appearance, Jeon Hye-sun, who has played Yitzhak in musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" with her powerful voice, is also appropriate for expressing "Maria."

Girl group KARA's leader Park Gyulee, who is taking on a musical for the first time, was slightly unstable in singing ensembles with other characters but had no major problems with her vocalization as much as she has been in charge of singing the high notes for her own group's songs. The only and biggest setback is her suffering from vocal fold nodules, a condition she developed while rehearsing for her the show's Japan run. Park Gyulee expressed her will by saying, "I'm going to try really hard to do my best so that I won't let down the musical's viewers," and Choi Sung-hee complimented her passion to take responsibility for the stage and the audience by saying, "She's hard-working. I think she came to suffer from vocal fold nodules because she rehearsed too much." So will the "energy to enjoy," which Park said she learned through her performances in Osaka, be expressed as singer Jenny's energy? "Beauty" will run at Seoul's Chungmu Art Hall from December 6 to February 5.

※ Any copying, republication or redistribution of 10Asia's content is expressly prohibited without prior consent of 10Asia. Copyright infringement is subject to criminal and civil penalties.