STARCAST: Versatile Artist - SHINee’s Key distinguishes himself in Musical World

SHINee is shining in various areas including the K-pop world. SHINee, which has proven their power in the K-pop world with its fifth album ‘Everybody’, is drawing attention with individual activities. Min-ho became an actor through MBC’s ‘Medical Top Team and the other members are active in musicals, songwriting, and variety shows.  The SHINee members are having busy days in many different areas, but they always keep their bright smiles. Either on stage or backstage, SHINee always shines. STARCAST takes a close look at each member’s individual activities of the shining SHINee.

Today’s member is Key emerging as a blue chip in the musical world.

# Key’s debut work as a musical actor, ‘Catch Me If You Can’

Key took the first step as a musical actor through ‘Catch Me If You Can’ last year. Key, who became a musical actor following Onew, took the lead role Frank in ‘Catch Me If You Can’. It was an exciting and fearful challenge, he was not lonely because there were other idol stars who started their musical career through ‘Catch Me If You Can’ such as BEAST’s Son Dong-woon and ZE:A’s Dong-joon, and artists from the same agency including SuperJunior’s Kyu-hyun, GIRLS’ GENERATION’s Sunny, and Dana were with him. 

Key’s decision to play Frank was the best choice. Frank is a 19-year-old genius swindler and a young boy whose parents are divorced. The role was perfect for Key from SHINee, which showed a fresh and young feel in ‘Replay’and ‘Juliet’ and charisma in ‘Ring Ding Dong’ and ‘Lucifer’. After the musical ended, he said, “Musical was a challenge to me and it was very helpful,” on MBC Music’s ‘One Fine Day’. In the show, he chose UK as his traveling destination for a musical. He said, “I think that I should see an original to do well.”

# Happy criminal, ‘Bonnie and Clyde’

Key, who played a genius swindler in 2012, became a criminal Clyde in ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ in 2013. He became a more mature person and he took a serious attitude when he attentively listened to what the other actors were saying or when he puts on makeup. He showed great determination for the second musical and became more relaxed than before. At the press briefing of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ held on August 19, Key said, “I was always with the other four members. Now I am alone. I think that I can show my talent as much as I want. I will enjoy performing on stage.”

Key looked relaxed in the waiting room as well. Key showed his presence as a true musical actor by shouting ‘Hwaiting’ cheerfully together with other actors and waving his hand toward a camera right before coming up to the stage. Key seemed to have totally fallen in love with a musical. Key said, “I can speak and dance as I like on stage. The beauty of a musical is that audience members can immediately respond to the actor and smile at him/her.”

# Secret behind Key’s growth? Good sociability!

Key had to spend busier days than anyone else as the promotion of ‘Everybody’ was overlapped with musical performance. To show a perfect performance in terms of acting, singing, and dancing, teamwork with the other actors is crucial. Key used his own sociability for build teamwork. Look at the picture taken together with Kim Min-jong, Shin Jae-hee, Kim Ji-hee, and Mun Eun-su (from left, clockwise), and you will find that Key gave them his autographed CDs with his message for them. The picture where actors are taking a picture of themselves with Key with a big smile on their face demonstrates that Key is very popular among them.

‘Bonnie and Clyde’ ended successfully. Key will play D’Artagnan in the new musical ‘The Three Musketeers’ from December 13 to February 2, 2014. Idol stars ZE:A’s Park Hyung-sik, SuperJunior’s Sung-min, and 2PM’s Jun.K also joined the musical. Key plans to emphasize his personality as a new D’Artagnan of his style. Key continues to build his musical career without a pause. Now is the time to emerge as a ‘master Key’ in the musical world as well as in the K-pop world.

# Let us hear from the idol-star-turned-musical-actor Key.

Q. What is your resolution to the musical ‘The Three Musketeers’?

Key: The musical ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ gave me an opportunity to think more about how I see a musical and how audience see me. I feel a sense of pressure to think that I should improve more as a musical actor through ‘The Three Musketeers’, but I will enjoy my job as a musical actor because I can always find fun from new musicals. Most of all, I want to talk a lot with the co-stars SuperJunior’s Sung-min and ZE:A’s Hyung-sik, who appeared in ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ with me.

Q. What special preparations did you make for musical acting?

Key: I did not have enough time to only focus on the musical. I took time out of my busy schedules to practice and review myself. It did not have enough time since I had to do both national and international activities as SHINee. Reviewing myself on the move helped me a lot. I watched the videos of many musicals. Most of all, however, I focused more on correcting my mistakes and reviewing myself on a video because I felt strange to see a musical actor Key, not as a singer Key from SHINee. I studied a lot to find what I can do best while emphasizing my own personality.

Q. What did you learn as a musical actor? 

Key: I enjoyed new experience. I do not have much experience yet, but I am ambitious to appear in more musicals. I realized that I should be more humble after working with the passionate other actors and staff members. I always make up my mind to become a master Key who always does his best, but it feels very awkward to talk about something this serious.

Source: 10asia | SHINee Star NAVER