The Man Who Laughs: A Musical To See In Korea Now!

Did you know that you can see musicals at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts? Musicals are a really popular way to tell stories, and they’re no less popular in Korea. Sometimes Kpop Idols will take up roles in musicals and bring even more attention to them.

One example of this happening now is with The Man Who Laughs (웃는남자). When this musical first premiered, EXO’s Suho and Super Junior’s Kyuhyun played the lead role of Gwynplaine. Even though they aren’t in the show anymore, it’s still an incredibly good story with a lot of emotion that a lot of people can relate to.

The Man Who Laughs: A Musical To See In Korea Now!

How to see The Man Who Laughs in Korea:

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How To Get There

The Man Who Laughs will be at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts until August 22nd, 2022

Address: 175 Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, Seoul (서울 종로구 세종대로 175)
By Public Transportation: Take Line 5 to Gwanghwamun Station, which stops right in front of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. Just leave out of either exit 1 or exit 8 and you’ll be just in front of the building.

Basic Info

Place to Book Tickets

Days: Every Day

Showtimes: 2:30 and 7:30 pm

Runtime: 180 minutes (With Intermission)

Ages: 8 and above.

Admission: Depends on the seats you choose:

VIP – W150,000
R – W130,000
S – W100,000
A – W80,000
B – W60,000

Synopsis

The Man Who Laughs is not an original Korean musical, but rather it’s adapted from a book of the same name by Victor Hugo. Coming from the same author that wrote Les Miserables, I’m sure you can imagine that this story may also be pretty tragic.

The musical opens with a young boy named Gwynplaine being abandoned by some pirates in a snowstorm and then finding a woman who had frozen to death. She was holding her baby, who was still alive, so Gwynplaine took the baby with him. They come across a small shack where a circus vendor named Ursus lives, and Gwynplaine begs him to take them in.

Ursus is horrified to see that Gywnplaine’s face has been mutilated so that it looks like he has a permanent grin. This was done by the pirates that abandoned him earlier (known as “Comprachicos” in the novel by Hugo). Ursus takes pity on them and takes them in.

Fifteen years later, the girl, who is now called Dea, and Gwynplaine help Ursus make a living by acting as part of his traveling circus. Gwynplaine is the main attraction because the crowd laughs just by looking at his face. Meanwhile, Duchess Josiana is bored with everyday life and her fiancé David suggests to her that going to see Gwynplaine’s show would provide some entertainment. While she’s there, she falls in love with him despite his face.

In the middle of the night, a royal agent named Barkilphedro kidnaps Gwynplaine and tells him that he’s actually heir to the throne. He was stolen from the palace by the Comprachicos when he was a baby. Since he was nowhere to be found, David was instead made the heir and along with that given Josiana’s hand in marriage from the time she was born.

Now that they know Gwynplaine, who was actually born Fermain, is alive, he regains his inheritance, including marriage to Josiana. While they’re preparing Gwynplaine for royal life, Barkilphedro returns to Ursus and tells him that Gwynplaine is dead. This greatly upsets Dea, so much so that she falls ill from heartbreak.

Gwynplaine sits in the House of Lords and gives a speech about inequality and the poorest members of society, but the other lords just laugh at him because of his face. This enrages Gwynplaine, so he renounces his title and goes to find Ursus and Dea. When they finally reunite, Dea is so overjoyed that she dies due to her already frail heart. Equally heartbroken, Gwynplaine carries Dea’s body into the ocean and commits suicide, and the show closes with Ursus standing on the stage alone.

My Review

Although this is a terribly tragic story, the musical did have some comic relief, and everyone in the show did a wonderful job portraying the characters. This story takes place in the 1700s, and all of the costumes seemed accurate to the time.

It feels like a lot of effort and care was put into the set and costume design to create a more immersive experience for the audience. There was a sliding barrier in the middle of the stage that was used for a variety of scenes to give the stage more depth, and I thought that was really clever.

The actor who played Gwynplaine the night that I saw the show was Park Euntae (팍은테), and I think he did a brilliant job. Gwynplaine is a complicated character, and I think Park did well in expressing his emotions throughout the show. Even though I don’t understand a lot of Korean, I could still follow the plot well. I could also feel the emotion in the actors’ singing despite the language barrier.

This musical being adapted from a French novel into Korean and becoming really popular shows that commentary on social issues can easily resonate with people regardless of the culture they come from. Overall, I really enjoyed this musical, and if you like Les Miserables, you’ll definitely like this musical as well.

Have you ever seen a musical in Korea? Maybe now is the time!

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