During the taping of the Britney Spears Challenge, I got the chance to catch up briefly with ABDC judge Shane Sparks aka the only judge who consistently shows us that he knows what he’s talking about. After signing on with the William Morris talent agency, Sparks is currently involved with a hefty number of projects, which includes a major role in producing the Dreamgirls musical (based on the Oscar-winning 2006 film), first in South Korea and now in the U.S. I had no idea Dreamgirls is debuting in South Korea—February 27th at Seoul’s Charlotte Theatre, to be exact—so I hope this gets the word out if you’re in the dark about it like I was. I’m pretty much sold because of Sparks’ excitement, which has no shortage of accolades. Do check this show out if you’re in South Korea or if you plan on being there soon!

TJL: What are you up to nowadays besides ABDC?

SS: Well, right now I have a lot of things pending. I just signed with William Morris, and William Morris has got a lot of projects in mind for me. I have meetings this week and next week—I mean, it’s kind of early to speak, but it’s a Tupac movie that I’m going to—they want me to direct, and so I’m going into a meeting for that. There’s another dance crew we call Beat the World that I’m up for. You know what I mean? There’s a lot of things going on, but I can’t speak too much on it because I’ve had two projects that came and failed because they weren’t really ready.

TJL: Right, totally. So, you can’t really talk about pending projects.

SS: So yeah, I just finished the Dreamgirls, and then we’re going to start back on the Dreamgirls—I did it [Dreamgirls musical] in Korea, actually, and now we’re doing the states. It’s going to be in New York at the Apollo at the end of this year, so I’ve got to go back [to New york] for like two months, do all the choreography and hold auditions for the Dreamgirls here, which is a beautiful show—beautiful people… Korea was off the chain.

TJL: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. How did you like Korea?

SS: Korea was unbelievable, and it kind of messed my respect for a lot of dancers in L.A., or in the states, because—

TJL: They’re so sharp.

SS: They’re so sharp, and they’re so disciplined [the performers]. They literally came in an hour early. They didn’t talk. They rehearsed the whole time for eight hours while we were there and stayed another hour afterwards, singing and dancing, going over the choreography. That’s what’s up, you know what I mean?

TJL: And this was all for the Dreamgirls?

SS: Yeah, they got Jimmy Early [Eddie Murphy's character James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls] and “the Beyonce,” and you know Beyonce—the girl they got for Beyonce [for the role of Deena, Beyonce Knowles' Dreamgirls character]—her name is Seon-ah [Jeong Seon-ah]. Be-yoo-tiful. And [she] can sing, and she’s beautiful—like dance, sing, everything. I love her. I fell in love with her out there because she was just everything. I couldn’t believe they found someone that beautiful and that talented to play Deena in Korea because I wasn’t expecting it—because you know, Dreamgirls is a black cast, you know what I mean? So, to go there—I didn’t know what to expect. I was so, so impressed.

Image courtesy of Osen