KARA’s Park Gyu-lee to make debut in musical “200 Pound Beauty”

Park Gyu-lee, the leader of girl group KARA [DSP Media]

Park Gyu-lee, the leader of the popular female band KARA, will star in a hit musical set for opening in October, announced her agency DSP Media on Wednesday.

According to a press release by DSP, Park has been cast as the heroine to the upcoming musical “200 Pound Beauty” which is the remake of 2006-hit film of the same name, set for performance in Osaka, Japan in October and Seoul, Korea in late November.

Park has already started rehearsing her character Kang Han-byeul, a young woman blessed with a wonderful singing voice but unable to make her stage debut because of her obesity and has to lend her voice to beautiful singers instead until one day, after undergoing radical plastic surgery, becomes beautiful herself as well.

The movie, which starred Kim A-joong and Joo Jin-mo at the time, attracted some seven million viewers nationwide, while the musical adaptation of it, which first premiered in 2008, swept a total four awards at Korea’s 2nd Musical Award the same year including the prize for best creative musical.

The plot itself is based on a popular Japanese comic by Yumiko Suzuki, which is a romantic comedy about a woman who transforms from an ugly duckling into a swan through a drastic plastic surgery and criticizes the modern-day perception of beauty.

Park, 23, debuted in 2007 as a member to KARA who is currently one of the most popular girl groups in both Korea and Japan.

Park is also one of the hosts to MBC’s radio program “Shindong, Park Gyu-lee’s Sim Sim Tapa” along with Super Junior’s Shindong which airs every midnight.

KARA is currently promoting the fourth Japanese single “Go Go Summer!” set for release on June 29.

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