Korean Musical Actor Hong Kwang-Ho as Thuy in the West End, London reboot of Miss Saigon

[adenar.livejournal.com]

Thuy's Intervention - Kim, Chris & Thuy

You Will Not Touch Him/Thuy's Death - Kim & Thuy

Kim's Nightmare - Thuy, Kim, Chris, John (Thuy 0:00-2:20)

"Kwang-Ho Hong is a majestic Thuy with a voice that makes your knees wobble. For once, I questioned Kim's choice of paramour."
 - Ray Shell, The Guardian

"The rest of the cast is also very talented and supports very well the main characters, especially Kwang-Ho-Hong (Notre Dame de Paris, Sweet Come To Me) as Thuy, Kim’s rejected lover."
- Valentina Lorazon, Inveterate

"Another genuine discovery is Kwang-Ho Hong (already a star backhome in Korea) who had good stage presence and sang with a resonant voice as Thuy who wants Kim for himself."
- Alfonso Casado Trigo, seenandheard-international.com

"As Thuy, the man to whom Kim is promised in marriage but from whom she escapes, Kwang-Ho Hong is electrifying. His voice is extraordinary, resonant and with a timbre that has a dark mahogany sheen. He makes Thuy a man of many passions, and utterly believable. The in-built sense of traditional honour is strong with him and it is clear that he will do anything, however atrocious, to have that to which he thinks he is entitled. Kwang-Ho makes Thuy much more than a cheap Bond villain rip-off and his mesmerising return in Act Two is pure theatrical joy. It’s a surprising, muscular, intensely complex characterisation, rich and complete."
- Stephen Collins, britishtheatre.com










"Little known facts about some of the #MissSaigon25 principal cast...!
Hugh Maynard (John), Kwang-Ho Hong (Thuy), Rachelle Ann Go (Gigi) and Tamsin Carroll (Ellen)"








"#MissSaigon25 behind-the-scenes! Here's our first cover Chris, Niall Sheehy with Thuy, Kwang-Ho Hong and his interpretor, Andrea! (Image Credit: http://instagram.com/p/ltEVqYglnQ/)"



sources: MissSaigonOfficial, 2; ARIRANG NEWS; Claude-Michel Schoenberg - Topic, 2, 3, Miss-Saigon; The Guardian; Inveterate; seenandheard-international.com; britishtheatre.com; Miss Saigon - Musical, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

I saw this on Saturday and tried to omona search him only to realise we don't really post a lot of the musicals side of k-entertainment unless idols are in it, haha, and my k-google fu is weak so I came up very short. So here's an overseas-musical-activities post!
Other than in reviews, I've seen lots of people on social media talk about his accent, which I agree was a little heavy (but then I always struggle to understand deep&rich singing voices), regardless of that he definitely seems to be slowly growing a UK fanbase which is great! The recordings really don't do him (or any of the cast) justice imo.
He will be stepping down from the role at the end of this week.

Comments

[marsinblue.livejournal.com]

ooh, interesting! Thanks, OP!
I've had Miss Saigon on my watchlist since I heard 'Last Night of the World' in a musical compilation cd many years ago. I should def go see the musical, it's a pity he's staying only till the end of this week though.

[adenar.livejournal.com]

They've updated it a lot, they've changed a lot of the lyrics (i.e Movie In My Mind is less 'omg America will free me' and now more 'I just want to get out of this shitty life') and Boublil & Schoenberg have replaced Ellen's song with a new solo for her, but I personally liked all the changes! The cast is strong but I think there was definitely something missing but I think that was more in the musical itself than the staging or casting (at the end of the first act both me and my brother were like...oh my god did we seriously just sit through over half an hour of love songs and snogging). The girl playing Kim is basically a mini Lea Salonga but not in a bad way and the guy playing the Engineer was easily the standout performance.

[woohyun.livejournal.com]

I wanna watch Miss Saigon with Lea ;c

[adenar.livejournal.com]

The cast had a 25th Anniversary show recently where the original cast visited, you should see if you can find some video of it! Lea was there and sang Movie In My Mind with the current Mimi :)

[woohyun.livejournal.com]

lmao I've watched a lot of times actually!!!
Rachelle Ann Go is so good even when she was just starting~

[juhli.livejournal.com]

Cool! A musical post...nowadays I'm constantly replaying musical songs with Junsu in it. I'm sad I will probably never see one of his musicals...it seems like musical DVD's are not that big in South Korea.

[bangable.livejournal.com]

Yay! Love his musicals! I still get so excited to listening to his Mozart musicals, ugh. I don't know why I've never seen these December clips!!!

[agoongprincess.livejournal.com]

me too. this boy is very talented though so i hope he keeps getting roles everywhere.

[xxmannequin.livejournal.com]

OP, this post is amazing, don't underestimate your skills haha :D
Unfortunately, some of the videos are not available right now, but from what I could see his voice is really amazing, and he is so handsome :O And, I'm always glad when people break barriers, but I hate these types of stories the most.

[adenar.livejournal.com]

Butts. They're working for me, what error message is displaying?
And thanks! This is easily the post with the most sources I've ever made lol (though idk my Bebop posts can get pretty complicated) so I was just waiting for the rejected message haha, thankfully I seemed to get it right first time

[xxmannequin.livejournal.com]

Thuy's Intervention - Kim, Chris & Thuy
You Will Not Touch Him/Thuy's Death - Kim & Thuy
Kim's Nightmare - Thuy, Kim, Chris, John

it says they are not available :'(

It was really informative, I did not expect that when I opened the entry, it was a great surprise for someone who isn't really familiar with Korean musical actors, or musicals in general haha :D

[adenar.livejournal.com]

That's aggravating, they work for me. Maybe they're country-locked or something.
If I spoke even a smidge of Korean I'd probably make more about in-Korea productions, we only tend to hear about idols' musical adventures for obvious reasons but I do love musicals on their own and it'd be nice to be able to contribute some diversity.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

omg i've been listening to thrill me nonstop recently and i'm so furious so many korean productions don't record cast albums :(