The Moon Embracing the Sun Musical

The Moon Embracing the Sun

This past Sunday was a very special day for us. It started off disappointing…we headed up into Seoul to Insadong with the goal of going to the SBS Alive Museum (similar to the Trick Eye Museum). Unfortunately, instructions were vague at best and the address on the museum’s website was wrong so we spent about an hour and a half wondering around Insadong before we finally found it. By then, we were running out of time before we had to head to our main  even for the evening—The Moon Embracing the Sun (해를 품은 달) musical—and the line was too long, so we weren’t able to go.

Somewhere near Insadong haha...

It was a wasted trip that far up into Seoul but the good news is that we made it to the Seoul Arts Center just fine and with plenty of time to take some pictures and eat before the musical.

We wondered around outside near the Arts Center looking for somewhere to eat for a little while before we ran across a Tonkatsu place that—admittedly—looked a little shady but we were hungry so we went inside and it turned out to be a nice, cozy place. The food was delicious and Japanese-style (with a little bit of a Korean touch). Oh, how happy I was to taste miso soup again!

After eating we headed back to the venue and got our guide books, tickets, and (yey!) binoculars. Our seats were in the front row on the second floor but I wasn’t sure how good our view was going to be (second floor at the Seongnam Arts Center was pretty far away). Luckily, these seats were much closer to the stage and we hardly needed the binoculars.

The musical was fantastic. I wanted to go at first because I’m a big fan of the drama (staring none-other than Kim Soo Hyun!)

Poster from the original drama with Kim Soo Hyun and Han Ga In

But when Jenee and I saw the tickets on interpark we noticed that Kyu-hyun from Super Junior was performing in it as the lead. That sealed the deal! Back in the day we were both huge Super Junior fans and Kyu-hyun is one of their best singers.

Kyu-hyun from Super Junior as Lee Hwon

Of the three musicals I’ve now seen, The Moon Embracing the Sun is my favorite. I think the visual effects for Ghost was still better but overall I love the story and the music they used for this show more. Also, at the end of the performance, everyone whipped out their phones and cameras and were able to take pictures as the cast was bowing. Yup, no photo ninjas going around trying to control the chaos (although it probably would have been impossible anyway). The funniest thing was when Kyu-hyun came out to bow and the Korean girl next to me about had a fangirl heart-attack. She legit freaked out, yo! It was funny!

Anyway, after the performance, as we were leaving, we noticed a small crowd gathered near the stairs on the first floor (which, since this is Korea, is actually the “B1” floor). They all had their cameras and phones posed for action so we decided to stick around and see what was going on. It pretty much went like this:

Me: “What are all these people doing here?”

Jenee: “I dunno, are they from our musical?…I don’t think it’s for our musical.”

Me: “Well, they have cameras out…could it be? Why do they have cameras out…?”

Jenee: “Let’s see.”

So we merged in with the crowd and waited around to see what was going on. Eventually, the cast members from The Moon Embracing the Sun musical started to come down the stairs and walk past us. They laughed when they saw the huge crowd standing there and we finally started to get excited.

At long last, Kyu-hyun appeared and went right by us. For real. He came down the stairs and just walked right on by, horde of fangirls in toe, snapping pictures and squealing. We were caught up in the crowd, of course, so we followed him all the way to the parking lot where his van was waiting.

Kyaaaa~~

There was a hilarious moment when the sea of fangirls was forced to squeeze through a single set of double doors and we were pretty sure we were going to be crushed but it was like, sink or swim…sink or swim…

It was, to say the least, an amazing experience. For the first time, we got to see a KPop star we love up close. Unreal.

But it wasn’t over yet. As we were leaving the Arts Center, we had to walk across this big 2-part cross-walk. All of the sudden Kyu-hyun’s van pulled up to the stoplight by the second part of the intersection and as soon as The Fangirls realized what was going on, they all started running towards it (of course we did, too). Kyu-hyun—bless his heart—even rolled down his window and waved. Then his van drove off into the sunset~

We spent the rest of the evening rather dazed and giddy. It was the perfect way to end the day that had started out so disappointing. Just one of the reasons why I love this place so much!