Hedwig Stars Mitchell, Oh to Perform Together

By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

John Cameron Mitchell, original scriptwriter and star of a rock musical, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" will hold a concert with Korean Hedwig star Oh Man-seok in Seoul next month.

According to Shownote, a production company for the Korean rendition of the musical, the concert is designed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the musical's debut in 1998.

Mitchell wowed Korean fans last year while joining the concerts with other Korean Hedwig cast members.

It is surprising for Korean fans to see Mitchell perform again here as the versatile American scriptwriter, actor and director has rarely performed anywhere outside the United States.

The musical has toured in 70 cities around the world, re-creating many other different interpretations since the premiere to New York in 1998.

The Korean rendition of "Hedwig" was first put on stage in 2005, enjoying enthusiastic standing ovations from audiences until now.

So far, the Korean rendition has put nine Korean Hedwigs to stardom including iconic actor Cho Seung-woo, who was in the Korean premiere and contributed enormously to the popularity of the show. Oh is also known as one of the actors who are reminiscent of Mitchell.

For the Seoul concert, Oh and Mitchell will sing more than 10 musical numbers including their favorite songs and the Hedwig numbers in the first and second parts of the concert respectively. Also, in the third part of the concert, they will perform together, along with surprising guest members.

The musical is based on Hedwig, an East German transgendered rock musician, who chases after an ex-lover who plagiarized her songs.

In 1998, Mitchell wrote the script and starred in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". Mitchell is not only a writer of the musical but also the director of the feature film version with the same title as the musical, performing the role of Hedwig.

Both the play and the film won multiple awards and received rave reviews, followed by various local renditions around the world.

The musical won the Obie Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award, and was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award. The film version of "Hedwig" also won the Best Director's Award, the audiences' Favorite Movie Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

The musical was first put on stage in 2005 in Korea, and has had 500 showings with the powerful punk rock, hard rock and heavy metal musical scores taking the hearts of audiences.

The concert will be held at Olympic Hall, Olympic Park in southern Seoul on June 14.

Tickets cost from 55,000 won to 77,000 won. For more information, call (02) 3485-8700.

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