30 Days Of NYMF: Day 9 Special Letter

Special Letter
By Lily Hung, NYMF Director of Programming

As part of NYMF's annual production exchange with South Korea's Daegu International Musical Festival (DIMF), we welcome a brand-new Korean show to our festival each fall, where it's presented in Korean with English titles. Then in June, we reciprocate by sending a musical from NYMF's previous season to Daegu, where it performs as part of DIMF's festival in English with Korean supertitles. And along the way, musical theatre lovers on both sides of the globe get to see exciting new work which normally requires them to endure a 14-hour plane ride that comes with wicked jet lag. (Though that long flight does also come with Korean Airlines stewardesses who sport cute propeller-like scarves.)
This year, DIMF's export is Special Letter, a musical comedy by In Seon Park and Chang Wook Ma, about a soldier whose new pen pal is not who she seems. With its catchy pop score, Special Letter combines the universal fun of a traditional romantic comedy with a fresh look at Korean culture through a light-hearted army tale. In this hilarious depiction of one private's attempts to alleviate the hardships of squad living, there are pranks gone awry, a messy love triangle, and ridiculous fantasies about girls left back home. It's Gomer Pyle's hipper Asian cousin with a dose of She Loves Me and a fun dash of K-pop boy band choreography thrown in for good measure.

So if you've been hankering for some crazy comedy with an international flair, come on out to The Duke on 42nd for Special Letter. You may not earn a load of frequent flier miles but the rewards will be worth it.