Thoughts on KPOP

I'm in a bit of a theater drought at the moment, which is a drag. I miss it. I'm a little cash poor, so I'm being pretty picky about what I use my limited amount of funds for.  I do have a few things coming up, which I'm looking forward to, and last night I saw an early preview of a new musical by a friend of mine.  Since I love my friend, and I love his work, AND it was an early preview, I'll just offer a few thoughts. 

Here are my few thoughts - KPOP is so much fun, it should be illegal! I don't think I've smiled that much at a show in forever. I simply loved it.  I don't know anything about the KPOP genre of music, but I've been doing some research on YouTube today and my goodness, everyone working on this production really did their homework.  The look, the sound, the design - everything looked authentic to me.

KPOP is an immersive experience, which, to be honest, is not my favorite type of theater. I don't really want to participate, at all, and I'm basically a lazy person, so I don't like to walk around to watch theater, either.  Find my seat and I'm happy. So when I got the email from Ars Nova reminding me that KPOP would involve my walking around and interacting, and to please wear comfortable shoes, I almost gave up my ticket.  I am SO GLAD that I didn't!  The performers are so incredibly talented it made me cry; the songs are so good, they made me cry; and the direction is so amazing - I can't even imagine putting this kind of show together!  This is an absolute marvel of theatermaking.

I'm not going to go much into plot or anything, because I think it's best that you be surprised, like me.  Experiencing KPOP and participating in how it unfolds is part of the great fun. Everyone who comes to the show gets a wristband when they check in that tells them what 'track' they're in.  I had a red wristband with a particular character's name on it.  At the top of the show, after the set-up of what the evening will be about, each color group is told which door to use and your experience begins.  You go from room to room, spending time with different groups of characters, learning more about the story as you go.  Occasionally, I was pulled aside for a little one-on-one time with characters, which was cool. I was briefly afraid at one point that I was going to be called on to do choreography, but thankfully, that fear was unfounded.

The first act was just jam-packed with fun, interesting interactions, serious storytelling and incredible songs. When it was time for intermission, we were led to the big holding room (and bar area), where we had started our evening.  After a few minutes, the fire alarm went off and we were taken out of the building. I wasn't sure if this was part of the show or not.  We waited outside for a bit, then we were taken back upstairs to a different holding room.  There were quite a lot of stairs and I nearly got in my 10,000 steps just from seeing KPOP. A front-of-house person came to apologize to us and promised that the show would start again in five or ten minutes, and then we could all have a free drink.  Woo hoo!  So, I guess the fire alarm wasn't part of the plan!

There was quite a crowd at the bar, once we got back in there, waiting for the second act to start, and it actually started before I got my drink. But I waited patiently until the bartenders were comfortable serving again.  And the second act was AMAZING.  That's all I'm going to say.  AMAZING.  I'm going to list all of the performers here, because I thought they were incredible and I can't wait to see each and every one of them in more shows. Because of the interactive nature of the piece, I feel as if I really got to know them (I even got a wink from someone in the boy band, so I think we're dating now) and I want to see them succeed so badly.  It's hard for Asian-American performers to get cast in shows that don't have a predominantly Asian theme (which is ridiculous!) - these kids were SO fantastic, they deserve to be in all the shows!  Anyway, if you ever see one of these names on a cast list, go check them out: Julia Abueva, Cathy Ang, Katie Lee Hill, Joomin Hwang, Jinwoo Jung, Vanessa Kai, Jiho Kang, Deborah Kim, Susannah Kim, Amanda Morton, Ashley Park, Sun Hye park, James Saito, James Seol, David Shih, Jason Tam, John Yi and Ebony Williams. I'm not kidding, this may be the most talented company I've ever seen.

I know I haven't really told you much about the show, really, but the experience of it is part of the event, too.  So, to sum up, I adored KPOP and hope it has more life after this run, which I've heard is completely sold out (thank heavens I listened to my talented friend and bought a preview ticket early). I want to see it again!  And I need the cast album, stat. But it can't be an easy piece to book, since it takes up a lot of physical space with its immersive nature, but as far as I could tell, it was a huge hit with the audience last night, so there has to be a savvy producer somewhere who can figure out where this show can transfer and run forever.  There is a wait list every night at ART/New York, so if this show sounds like it would appeal to you (and I say IT WOULD), you should go to the theater and try your luck. I'm sure you will be glad you did.