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Wednesday, April 01
JYJ's Junsu to star in South Korean Death Note: The Musical
News about a Death Note musical for Japan and South Korea was first announced in December 2013. Now the upcoming Death Note: The Musical for South Korea have revealed the cast that will be playing the popular characters.
It was announced that Kim Junsu of K-pop boy group JYJ will be taking one of the lead spots, playing the strange yet wonderful character of sweet loving L. This is far from the first musical production that he has worked on as he made his name in the industry by cinching the lead roles in Korean adaptations of Mozart!, Tears Of Heaven, Elizabeth, and Dracula.
He will be joined by Jeong Sun Ah, who will be playing the female lead of Amane Misa. Junsa has worked with her on numerous occasions and she has starred in previous musicals such as Kinky Boots, Jesus Christ Superstar, Wicked.
Park Hye Na whose claim to fame was her cover for the official Korean version of Frozen’s Let It Go will be covering our first death god Rem, followed by Kang Hong Suk who will be portraying death god favourite Ryuk.
Korean musical legend Hong Kwang Ho was announced as playing our main character Yagami Light. Hong Kwang Ho has previously worked on Jack The Ripper, produced the hit soundtrack song Balbum Balbum for the historical drama Queen Seon Deok and became an overnight sensation with his Korean cover of “This is the moment” from Jekyll And Hyde: The Musical.
November 2014 saw a Japanese press conference showing the first line up of actors for the Japanese version of the musical. It spurred a large amount of interest from around the world with producers in New York creating audio demos, which are available on the YouTube channel AnimeLoversHK, with top Broadway stars Adrienne Warren known for her role as Dina from Orange Is The New Black, Jeremy Jordan who played Randy Garrity in the movie Joyful Noise, Carrie Manolakos who was known for her role as Elphaba in the musical Wicked,and Jarrod Spector whose claim to Broadway fame was playing Gavroche in the New York adaption of “Les Miserables”.
With a collection of very powerful singers and actors, along with the release of the demo songs, this is surely going to be one production that cannot be missed. It was noted that the musical will follow the path of the manga rather than that of the anime to release a true to story production. Exciting stuff for the anime, manga, and K-pop world right now. Check out the musical teaser below!
JYJ’s Junsu to star in South Korean Death Note: The Musical
News about a Death Note musical for Japan and South Korea was first announced in December 2013. Now the upcoming Death Note: The Musical for South Korea have revealed the cast that will be playing the popular characters.
It was announced that Kim Junsu of K-pop boy group JYJ will be taking one of the lead spots, playing the strange yet wonderful character of sweet loving L. This is far from the first musical production that he has worked on as he made his name in the industry by cinching the lead roles in Korean adaptations of Mozart!, Tears Of Heaven, Elizabeth, and Dracula.
He will be joined by Jeong Sun Ah, who will be playing the female lead of Amane Misa. Junsa has worked with her on numerous occasions and she has starred in previous musicals such as Kinky Boots, Jesus Christ Superstar, Wicked.
Park Hye Na whose claim to fame was her cover for the official Korean version of Frozen’s Let It Go will be covering our first death god Rem, followed by Kang Hong Suk who will be portraying death god favourite Ryuk.
Korean musical legend Hong Kwang Ho was announced as playing our main character Yagami Light. Hong Kwang Ho has previously worked on Jack The Ripper, produced the hit soundtrack song Balbum Balbum for the historical drama Queen Seon Deok and became an overnight sensation with his Korean cover of “This is the moment” from Jekyll And Hyde: The Musical.
November 2014 saw a Japanese press conference showing the first line up of actors for the Japanese version of the musical. It spurred a large amount of interest from around the world with producers in New York creating audio demos, which are available on the YouTube channel AnimeLoversHK, with top Broadway stars Adrienne Warren known for her role as Dina from Orange Is The New Black, Jeremy Jordan who played Randy Garrity in the movie Joyful Noise, Carrie Manolakos who was known for her role as Elphaba in the musical Wicked,and Jarrod Spector whose claim to Broadway fame was playing Gavroche in the New York adaption of “Les Miserables”.
With a collection of very powerful singers and actors, along with the release of the demo songs, this is surely going to be one production that cannot be missed. It was noted that the musical will follow the path of the manga rather than that of the anime to release a true to story production. Exciting stuff for the anime, manga, and K-pop world right now. Check out the musical teaser below!
Eric Idle’s What About Dick? available for download
Eric Idle’s What About Dick? released as a download next week…
“Everyone who watches this gets free glue* for life,” says Eddie Izzard, one of the stars of Eric Idle’s What About Dick?
Described by Eric Idle as, “Oscar Wilde on acid or like Downton Abbey, only funnier,” What About Dick? begins with the birth of a sex toy invented in Shagistan in 1898 by Deepak Obi Ben Kingsley (Eddie Izzard), tells the story of the decline of the British Empire as seen through the eyes of a Piano (Eric Idle) and the story of young Dick (Russell Brand), his two cousins (Jane Leeves and Sophie Winkleman) and their dipsomaniac Aunt Maggie (Tracey Ullman), who all live together in Kensington in a large, rambling, Edwardian novel.
There too are the Reverend Whoopsie (Tim Curry), the incomprehensible Scottish Inspector McGuffin (Billy Connolly) and Sergeant Ken Russell (Jim Piddock) and the case of the Houndsditch Mutilator.
Idle calls What About Dick? “a hybrid”.
“It’s got elements of a musical – we have songs. It’s got elements of a play, but it’s not a play that you have to take completely seriously because it’s sort of a send up. It has bits of stand up and improv and these hilarious comedians are playing multiple roles and doing impersonations,” the ex Python says. “This cast is unique. You’ll never see this cast together again doing something like this.”
It certainly sounds like the cast are having fun going off script. “The audience loves hearing those Python rhythms and that Python language, but we’re adding ourselves to it as well and going off in riffs of madness,” reveals Ullman. “These people are people that live for laughter! They’re dangerous people to be around. They’ll do anything!” adds Brand.
Tim Curry agrees that it’s a “comic free-for-all”, and when he’s not dishing out imaginary free glue Izzard warns: “It’s a huge laugh. It could rip your lungs out. People could watch this and laugh too much and die, so that’s, that’s the danger. It’s actually dangerous to watch.”
* Izzard can’t guarantee this, but if you buy enough glue, you should have enough for life.
What About Dick? costs $6 (£3.80) and can be downloaded the official website on Tuesday 13 November, 2012.
Ken Russell dies aged 84
From an Oscar-winning film that captured an essence of an era to pictures made in his garage with a cast of amateurs, the output of the director Ken Russell – who has died aged 84 – varied hugely in quality but was never bland.