Just in case you had missed it, when Psy unleashed his well-nigh addictive single “Gangnam Style” onto the world in 2012 his global smash made sure you (and everyone else) knew of the potency of the K-pop (Korean pop) musical genre. It has since become the most popular video on YouTube ever by a considerable distance. Just a few weeks ago, in December, the song garnered its 2,147,483,648th hit, thereby breaking YouTube’s 32-bit counter. Meanwhile, 2NE1’s catchy “I Am the Best” is currently being used in a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 commercial.

It is an ambitious moment for K-pop—so why not take on one of Hollywood’s most iconic epics? The Seoul Arts Center last week debuted a musical stage version of Gone With the Wind, David O. Selznick’s multiple-Oscar-winning saga about the Civil War from 1939, based on the massively successful novel by Margaret Mitchell. Essaying the role of Scarlett O’Hara, immortalized by Vivien Leigh, is 23-year-old pop star Seohyun, who is “one of the undisputed queens of K-pop,” a member of the K-pop sensations Girls’ Generation as well as TTS. The part of Rhett Butler, a role originated by Clark Gable, is played by Joo Jin Mo. The show runs through February 15.
 

(Image taken from fan video below)
 
Yesterday Seohyun participated in a press event in costume, where “the idol revealed her voluptuous yet slender body.”

At first the story of the suffering South seems like an odd fit for Korea, but one of the most important facts about Korea is the border that divides the country in two, a legacy of the protracted war in which the United States also played a part in the 1950s.

An audience video supplies a taste of what the musical is like:
 

 
via Daily Dot

Hattie McDaniel and Fay Bainter
 
Ah, award shows! Those infamously schlocky and monumentally affected parades of self-congratulation! Often we’re left wondering how such talented actors can come across so plastic on stage, but Hattie McDaniel’s acceptance speech for her 1939 role of “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind is truly moving.

Gossip columnist Louella Parsons wrote:

“Hattie McDaniel earned that gold Oscar by her fine performance of ‘Mammy’ in Gone with the Wind. If you had seen her face when she walked up to the platform and took the gold trophy, you would have had the choke in your voice that all of us had when Hattie, hair trimmed with gardenias, face alight, and dress up to the queen’s taste, accepted the honor in one of the finest speeches ever given on the Academy floor.

McDaniel, of course, won for playing a maid—one of the only roles a black woman could get at the time. And while her most famous scene may be cinching up Scarlett O’Hara’s bodice, the night promised a moment of recognition for her amazing performance. The heartfelt words of a groundbreaking actress are only half the story, though.

When Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta in 1939, all of the black actors were barred from attending. Producer David O. Selznick asked that an exception be made for Hattie McDaniel, but MGM advised him not to because of Georgia’s segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel was permitted to attend, but McDaniel herself convinced him to go.
 

 
There is a cut between Fay Bainter’s presentation of the award and McDaniel’s acceptance; this was the part where she had to walk up to the podium from her segregated table in the back: Even in Los Angeles, McDaniel and her date were required to sit at a segregated table for two, apart from her Gone with the Wind colleagues. Regardless, she delivers one of the most poignant speeches in Oscar history. In 2006, she was depicted on a United States postage stamp, wearing the dress and gardenias from that historic night.