Friday 28 June 2013

Drama Spotlight: Musicals

by Sara. A Layne:

Fame! I wanna live forever… Just imagine someone standing in their living room, singing at the top of their lungs and you’ll see me. Why? Because I just finished watching the latest episode of What’s Up, and I have decided to sell off all my belongings and head to Korea so that I may enroll in the university and start singing my heart out. At least until my voice cracks, I miss a step of the choreography and I realize I should just stick to writing. Musical dramas are still new to me and I am kicking myself for not watching them sooner. So for that reason, I’m shining my drama spotlight on them.

My current favorite musical drama is, as I sang above, What’s Up? I had been waiting for this drama for a while. It was completed back in the beginning of 2011 but was delayed for various reasons (perhaps the whole thing with Daesung). Anywho the drama revolves around a group of students that are music majors at college. Kang Daesung plays Ha Do Sung/Hades. When he’s Hades he’s an outgoing famous musician. As Ha Do Sung, he’s introverted and really awkward. Park Tae Yi is a country girl with an amazing voice. Jang Jae Hun comes to the university after committing a terrible crime and wanting to start his life over. The three end up becoming best friends along with Oh Doo Ri and Kim Byung Hun and take you on a roller coaster of emotions as they go through their first year as college majors.
This show is funny, sad, exciting and overall amazing. I know I sound like I’m gushing but I can’t stop singing the praises (pun intended) about this drama. Yes there are times when I want to scream at the characters for doing something stupid, but who doesn’t when watching kdramas, right? I am already a bit sad that it’s almost over because there are so many storylines going on that I’m afraid they’re not going to be able to tie everything up in four episodes. Perhaps that means there will be a season 2. The music in this drama is amazing, and rightfully so considering that this is a, you know, MUSICAL drama. They have songs from Phantom of The Opera, Grease and my favorite Fame. I am really looking forward to the OST if they ever put one out.

Dream High is a 16 episode drama that aired in 2011. While I didn’t sing along with this one like I do with What’s Up, I still enjoyed it. It’s about students of Kirin Arts High School who are all trying to become idols. Miss A’s Suzy plays Go Hye Mi. She came from an affluent background but because of her mother’s death and her father’s business going bankrupt, she is pursued by debt collectors. 2pm’s Taecyeon plays Hyun Si Hyuk, a childhood friend of Hye Mi’s. T-ara’s Ham Eun Jeong plays Yoon Baek Hee, Hye Mi’s best friend/rival after Hye Mi betrays her during the auditions to get into Kirin Arts High. IU plays Kim Pil Suk, an overweight girl who has a beautiful voice. 2pm’s Wooyoung plays the American exchange student Jason.
Now if you’re wondering why I introduced the characters like that, it was because when I saw this drama, I didn’t know anything about kpop. This drama introduced me to 2pm, T-ara and Miss A and I am really glad they did because I cannot get T-ara’s Cry Cry out of my head. Now back to Dream High. I won’t give any plot lines away because I think it’s a good drama and you should watch it. Several times during the drama I thought, why wasn’t there a high school like this when I was in school? Of course you need to have talent in order to actually get into the school, so I probably shouldn’t bother. Dream High 2 should be airing shortly am I for one, am definitely looking forward to watching it.

Now you might hate me on this, but I need to be honest. The only reason why I started watching this drama was because Ku Hye Sun was in it and I am a BOF addict. I tried very hard to like it but sadly couldn’t finish it. It just didn’t hold my attention. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it, if you haven’t yet. Hye Sun plays Ko Eun Bi, a medical student with dreams to be a musical actress. She tries out for many auditions but because she doesn’t have any training, she fails them. She meets Sa Bok Ja who claims she can train her to become a musical actress.
I know that this is also a rom-com so I expected a love triangle but they end up having a love heptagon or something because people were falling in and out of love with each other left and right. Anyway as I said before I didn’t finish the drama so I don’t know if Jan Di, wait I mean Eun Bi, reached her dream of being an actress so let me know in the comments if you know.

Musical Dramas
The Musical
Dream High
Dream High 2
What’s Up

Sara A. Layne contributes to the kpop and kdrama website Blackwomenlovebi. For other entries in Sara’s Spotlight series and more, click here!

Tags: dramas, Dream High, Dream High 2, Kdrama, Korea, Korean, Kpop, Music, musicals, OST, Spotlight, The Musical, What's Up


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