The Tokyo success is no small feat. Last year Cookin’ made a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and another far, far from the fringe at Disney World in Florida. Then the troupe arrived in Japan, lugging historical baggage. As a warm-up to the first Korea Super Expo, which opens this November in Tokyo, Cookin’ was part of an effort to break down lingering cultural barriers between the Koreans and their former Japanese imperial rulers. Song could not afford to leave Tokyo audiences cold, and one of his chefs admitted to some nervous excitement about playing in Japan. But less than 15 minutes into the premiere, the Japanese were laughing and whooping like an audience in Seoul (where Song stages the show without viewing instructions). “To my surprise, I found my body moving along with the sounds,” said Akira Matsumoto, 42, a Japanese dentist. “I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
The plot is simple. A restaurant manager gives his chefs one-hour to prepare a wedding feast. As a clock on the wall ticks off the minutes, the chefs–three men and a woman–let go with the kitchen utensils. They dance, drum, juggle and actually cook with pots, pans, kettles, knives, spoons, chopsticks, trashcans, brooms and mops. They slice cabbage and onions, throw dishes and act out a comic love triangle–including a spectacular kung fu battle. In the Seoul show, they even find time to breathe fire. The dialogue is limited to an occasional shouted punch line, like “Cucumber.” As the craziness and percussion beat build and the smell of the feast fills the theater, audience members start to dance along with the sweating performers. At one point, a man and a woman are invited to come up onstage to play the bride and groom–and taste the cookin’. The Tokyo crowd yelled for an encore. The critics were tickled.
Next stop for the troupe is Australia in late January, then on to Taiwan, Singapore, China, England, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. For the three-week performance in Japan, they will be paid $60,000 per week. Not bad, says Song, considering that successful Broadway shows make about $100,000 a week in the United States. Song’s ultimate goal is to bring Cookin’ to Broadway by 2001, where a clever marketer might pitch the performance as a Korean “Stomp.” He could build on Japan’s rave review: these Koreans cook.
