I Am Legend: The Musical?
by girlfriday
Could SBS drama I Am Legend be turned into a musical? It looks like Legend‘s production company, A Story, is looking to produce a Mamma Mia-style musical, with pop-rock songs based on the drama.
The drama is flying high right now with fan love and heaps of critical praise, not only for the acting and musical performances, but for the original songs, composed by music director Lee Jae-hak. The 13 original songs are getting a lot of attention and will be the foundation of the musical, if the stars align.
The story for the potential theatrical version is still undecided, as it could easily be a remake of the drama’s storyline, or diverge while using the same songs and characters. I can’t really say I’d prefer one over the other, as the drama is only three weeks in, and I have no idea how far into the band’s relative success they’ll go. If it continues the way it has, staying a small underdog story (of which I’m a fan), then there’s potential for the musical to take the story beyond that. Although I have to say, I’d love to see the divorce court proceedings done in song. How hilarious would that be?
Mamma Mia! is being touted as an example not just for the genre of music, but for its success in Korea. The musical debuted in Korea in 2004, and in 114 shows, it reached over 200,000 people. Legend has a similar pop-rock sensibility with catchy tunes, which the producers are banking on to transition well into a musical.
Musical renditions of dramas are fairly rare. There have been talks of musical versions of Dae Jang Geum, Queen Seon-duk, Coffee Prince, Goong, and Iljimae, but basing a musical on shows that aren’t musically-grounded makes the process difficult to get off the ground. Legend seems poised to hit the right market for a theater-going audience, especially since live performances by the show’s band have been popular as well.
Via Asiae.co.kr
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1 rainbowcolorrs
August 21, 2010 at 3:39 PM
YES PLEASE!
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2 jm126
August 21, 2010 at 5:18 PM
I hope they'll make a You're Beautiful musical next !
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3 paperdolls
August 21, 2010 at 6:00 PM
I am pretty sure that if they make I Am Legend into a musical, it will be a hit. The ladies in the drama are just awesome altho they are not singers in the true sense.
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4 Buffy
August 21, 2010 at 8:30 PM
The song Million Roses is hardly original; maybe the Korean words are, but not the music. Million roses is a Russian song originally. It has been translated to many languages. You can here the Russian version here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0volFYW4bGc&feature=related
And also the Vietnamese version here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWm7pkLhKV8&feature=related
I hope Lee Jae-hak doesn't claim the song has his original score; that would be bad!
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Javabeans
August 21, 2010 at 9:23 PM
The soundtrack is a mix of very famous (old) pop songs and original ones. I think it's pretty clear to Korean audiences which ones are cover songs (in addition to A Million Roses and Killing Me Softly, there are also old Korean pop songs), in the way we would recognize a Beatles tribute. I wouldn't worry about him taking credit for being the original writer.
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tn
August 21, 2010 at 9:24 PM
I'm sure he doesn't say that it's his. He just changed a little bit to make it into a rock version, bc everyone know that "Million Roses" is from Russia.
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Omo..o.O
August 22, 2010 at 6:48 AM
김태원 of 부활 said the music doesn't have owner, only the lyrics ^O^
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5 kaedejun
August 21, 2010 at 9:11 PM
OOOOOH yeah - i can TOTALLY see this.
they should do it - even if the drama isn't successful, it's a good story for a musical anyways.
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6 ZIG
August 22, 2010 at 12:18 AM
Hope they'll do it. It should also star same group band.
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7 Selli
August 22, 2010 at 1:50 AM
I find it funny that the actress who plays Soo-in is only one year older than the one who plays Ah-reum!!! XDDD As far as I know D:
Anyway, I'm sure this would be a fun musical to watch ^__^
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8 Carinne
August 22, 2010 at 8:56 PM
Gees, Seoul is really banking on this stuff. I knew Seoul wanted to be like Manhattan w/ a strip of Rodeo Drive but......... has Sejong Belt become Time Square?
Gees, I really want to attend a musical or at least a concert. I was thinking of taking my mother w/ me to Seoul to see Andrea Bocelli in concert but my mother refuse saying it was too expensive, that I need to save money through this tough economy, so I went to buy his DVD concerts for her instead.
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9 vella
December 9, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Just for the sake of fairness, the author of the song discussed is Latvian Raimonds Pauls and was a super hit, but I never thought it's so popular. We are a tiny nation, and watching this drama and suddenly hearing this song, I' was absolutely shocked, so just googled to see if it's credited. Original (the original original) here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHEhAF5aLc , but the lirics seem to be taken from the Russian version
But I think this would be great idea for a musical - it would work well...
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