Rent (28 November, COEX Artium)
This was my first Rent experience, having somehow skipped the whole cultural phenomenon despite being the right age for it. This production was entirely in Korean - haha!

We went for the cast - Solji from EXID played Mimi and Jo Kwon played Angel on this night's performance. (SF9 Taeyang was playing Roger on other nights, and I wish I could've seen him too!) It was cute seeing people lining up to take photos with the cast photo of their fave actors.

As mentioned I've never seen Rent before. "Don't worry, it's just the same as La Boheme," proteinscollide told me breezily. I have in fact seen La Boheme, but do I recall it? Not really. I spent the interval reading up on the plot of Rent on Wikipedia LOL.

So large swathes of the story went over my head, but I did enjoy the songs and the dancing. Solji was wonderful. The lesbian couple were wonderful. Jo Kwon and Angel's boyfriend were wonderful. Roger the actor was great actually, though Roger the character seems like a loser.

I don't know if I would see this again in English - I didn't like the songs that much and the story seemed so over the top - but it was a fun thing to see once.

*

Woodz (29 November, Jamsil Indoor Stadium)
Woodz's concert was all but sold out, on the first of two nights in a row. The show was staged in the round, so Jamsil Indoor Stadium felt even more full than it would have otherwise.

It was a big show in every sense of the word. Right from the start, the show began with a 4 piece live band, dozens of dancers, intense lighting and dancing, Woodz in full idol mode - it was really impressive. Later he switched to rock ballads, with his band and his guitar, and alternated between the two. He was great in both modes but I think he really shone when he danced. He has such joy when he dances, he has a cheeky charm, it really feels like he just loves being up there.

The production made the most of being in the round. Even up in the nosebleeds, I never felt like I had a bad view and there was always something happening. The use of lights and video screens was so effective. During Drowning, when the stage looked like it was pouring with rain and the lightsticks in the audience rippled upwards, from the lowest to the highest seats like rising waters, as his voice soared over it all - it was so good.

Drowning was the big show stopper of course but it was so delightful for me when he played Bump Bump. During the encore he did songs on request, actually taking requests from audience members, which is so unusual in such a big arena show - and SO glad he did Love Me Harder! And I didn't realise until afterwards looking at the setlist that he played about 5 new or unreleased songs during this show. That's so many!

Seeing him live in a big stage like this, seeing him command the stage so confidently, was so good. I kept thinking about how he had debuted and debuted again, gone through survival shows, the heartbreak of X1 disbanding - and then to suddenly and unexpectedly blow up while enlisted in the military when Drowning went viral. It's an amazing story. Glad I got to see this show.

( setlist )