[News] 'The Musical' still hanging in production limbo.

[News] 'The Musical' still hanging in production limbo.
Cr. - javabeans

So, what’s the deal with The Musical?

Well, the drama’s future is still unclear as its fate hangs in limbo, but it’s frankly not looking too good. Already the show about musical actors, producers, and songwriters has had some rough beginnings, with its inability to secure a time on a broadcaster’s schedule last year, after being announced as a potential summer or fall offering. Thus it opted to go fully pre-produced, continuing to film in the hopes that it would score a timeslot eventually.

Now, the drama has hit another rough patch and has had to halt post-production, which puts it in further limbo for another month. A source from the production team explained that the first part of the drama was to take place on Broadway in New York. However, with the project stretching out indefinitely, production costs became an increasing issue, and plans for those overseas shoots were scrapped.

To accommodate for the change, the early episodes have been rewritten and need to be reshot. It was in the middle of this process that the drama lost its two lead actors, Gu Hye-sun and Daniel Choi, who have both moved on to other commitments since The Musical.

Daniel Choi has a new drama set to premiere in May, 'Baby-Faced Beauty', while Gu Hye-sun is also working on another film, 'Peach Tree'. Gu has agreed to return to filming The Musical after wrapping up her movie, but with Choi jumping into a new drama project, I’m not sure if or when he’ll be able to squeeze shoots for another drama. As we know, the unforgiving drama production system hardly leaves actors time for sleep, much less side projects.

This announcement follows recent news that the series, originally planned for 20 episodes, had decided to cut that number down to 16, which also accounts for the necessity of the rewrites. So, not exactly a promising forecast.

On the other hand, the producers don’t seem ready to thrown in the towel yet (it probably can’t afford to, after investing so much into the product); a source stated that they’re in “positive talks” with MBC with regard to a possible slot on the upcoming schedule. The Musical began filming in August 2010 and, if aired, will be entirely pre-produced. Let’s hope it sees better luck than Birdie Buddy, which was in a similar situation and has now been laid to rest. Although, really, maybe it’s time to put the long-suffering beast out of its misery.