So, after 4 months of waiting for a weekend when all schedules worked, I finally did the thing.

If you aren't aware, SM Town (a magical place in the CoEx mall just off Samseong subay station) is a place packed full of all things SM. Things such as photos of all the artists in various artful installations, a large display case full of trophies won by SM artists on music shows and award ceremonies (and there are a lot of them, my lord), a display case of old outfits worn by girls generation, a studio where you can pay stupid amounts of money to record your own music video, a cafe which sells extremely cute but ridiculously expensive desserts monogrammed with their artists' logos, a wall of casts of all their artists hands, as well as a machine to 'hand-match' you with your favourite artist (me and Jognhyun are 83% compatible, my best matches are U-Know (96%, Sungmin (92%) and Lay (87%). The middle schoolers in front of me were super jealous because they got matched with women and I got all men, ahah), 3D prints of Max and ... a member of EXO who was at one point blonde (I don't know EXO members, don't kill me), and various other things.

It also contains a theatre. In this theatre, you are able to see concerts and musicals performed by SM artists themselves. Now, before you get too excited, the idols aren't actually there, since the theatre is actually rigged up for holograms. Which is still incredibly cool and looks almost real.

So, back to my point. After stalking the ever-changing schedule of said theatre for over 3 months, waiting for a time where the show I wanted to see was playing a) on a weekend, and b) either on a saturday afternoon or a sunday morning so I could get there around my work schedule, it finally happened. I managed to get tickets to School Oz.

If any of you ever come to Korea and you have an interest in SM artists... do the thing. It's only like \44,000 (AUD$50 ish) and it was really cool. It's an almost 2 hour long, fully-subtitled musical based (loosely) on the Wizard of Oz. 

Basically, Dark Witches will rise up and destroy the world unless a prophesy is fulfilled by a group of (slightly incompetent) school kids at a magic school. You have:

Max (TVXQ) as Oscar, the enigmatic and powerful school captain with a secret.

Seulgi (Red Velvet) as Dorothy, the poor, magically weak orphan who owns a pair of magic shoes.

Luna (F(x)) as Diana... the y girl in charge.

Key (SHINee) as David who can be described only as fabulous.

Xiumin (EXO) as Aquila, a quiet but studious guy who for some reason grows wings at some point? There was something to do with different races and stuff and yeah, he wasn't human.

Suho (EXO) as Hans, who is a wolf... similar to the wolves from Twilight. Except when he transforms it's difficult to turn back.

Yoona and Leeteuk also make an appearance.

Honestly, the storyline is really (really) weak and makes very little sense (they go to space at one point? But not EXO planet, jsut space?) and the ending is just kind, bleh. It's going then the ending just happens in this really lame way. BUT, big but for emphasis, the show is still fantastic. 

All the songs are from the SM catalogue bar one. That one is really damn good, too. Max's voice is, ugh, I melt. But the rest, they are great. It's interesting hearing members of all these different groups sing other groups' songs. They also did a couple of songs from peopel that weren't in the show (BoA, HOT). It wasn't just the songs themselves though, it was also the way they used them. I'll give a couple of examples, just so you understand why they are so great, F(x)'s Pretty Girl was used when one of the characters was being set up to get hurt/humiliated and it was really poigniant (spelling hurts me). SHINee's Evil was used for the bad guys (obviously). SuJu's Mr Simple and Girl's Gen's I Got a Boy were used in a werd sorta mash up way for a dance battle. SHINee's Sherlock was used for a searching for things scene. So yeah, you get my point.

Also special effects. Because it was a hologram, they could use special effects in a way that real musicals cant and that was rad. Think fighting a giant dragon off with swords and magic. That stuff is cool.

Honestly though, the best part. The idols themselves. Their little facial expressions in the background. Them jsut being them. They cute and they looked almost real on that stage. Like, I woulda loved it even if it was the worst thing ever because they were there (Especially Key, I watched him like 99% of the time).

So yeah, point being, if you're in Seoul, check it out for sure. It was super fun and I loved it. 

:3

(Infinite this weekend, I am hype!

I also got myself a SHINee TICKET!!!!! AHhhhh. September 3rd can't come fast enough)