ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS FOR DEC. 10, 2024
Cinema screenings and gender-free casting in Seoul, attacks on artistic freedom in the EU, A.R. Rahman's update on Broadway in Chennai, and more
Welcome to the latest edition of ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, my regular roundup of theater headlines from around the world. New to Jaques? Check out this handy explainer.
Cinema screenings of Korean stage musicals are becoming increasingly popular in Seoul as movie theaters look to boost sluggish box office by diversifying their offerings, reports a story from Korea Bizwire: “According to data from the Korean Film Council released on November 23, Elisabeth: The Musical Live had attracted over 45,000 viewers from its release through November 21, setting a new attendance record for theatrical screenings of live musicals, surpassing The Man Who Laughs: Director’s Cut which drew approximately 20,000 viewers.” Tickets to these special screenings are significantly cheaper than theater tickets (“which typically exceed 100,000 won [~$70]”), but at 25,000+ won (~$17.50) apiece, they’re notably more than the standard 10,000 won (~$7) movie ticket. “For theaters facing sluggish box office performance, these musical screenings represent a promising revenue stream.”
In other South Korean theater headlines: “Gender-free casting”—that is, the practice of casting roles beyond traditional gender limitations—is becoming a thing in Seoul. Highlighting the trend is Pirates: The Last Voyage, a two-actor musical with rotating casts that offer theatergoers the chance to see the show with either two male performers or two female actors. In the 18th century buccaneer tale, each actor plays two characters apiece—one male and one female, meaning that “it is a true gender-free play in which all actors cross male and female roles,” writes Yoonyea Park in Maeil Business Newspaper. South Korea’s first instance of “gender-free” casting came in a 2015 production of Jesus Christ Superstar, in which actress Young-ju Kim played King Herod; more recently, actress Jung-won Choi played Hermes in the 2024 run of Hadestown. “Gender-free casting has the advantage of breaking gender stereotypes and expanding the diversity of works and giving actors a wide range of acting opportunities,” say industry officials quoted by Park.
Hundreds of artists and cultural institutions from across the European Union signed an open letter to the European parliament warning against “brazen attacks on artistic freedom,” reports Katie Chambers in The Stage. “Almost 250 artists and 178 cultural institutions from every EU nation are represented in the open letter,” Chambers writes, all “raising the alarm about an ‘orchestrated cultural-political strategy aimed at the disappearance of a diverse European culture.’” Among the incidents cited in the letter was the violent protest against John Malkovich’s Bulgarian production of Arms and the Man on Nov. 7, along with recent executive dismissals and cuts to funding in other European nations. “The letter’s signatories urge the European Parliament to explicitly condemn them in accordance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the EU’s Work Plan for Culture 2023-26, both of which demand the protection of artistic freedom,” Chambers adds. “The letter also demands that the parliament provide even more safeguards by implementing a new ‘European Culture Freedom Act’ as part of its rule of law.”
Big-name Indian composer A.R. Rahman hopes to soon announce a plan to build a technologically sophisticated theater in Chennai as part of his overall plan to create a thriving musical theater industry in India. He said as much in an onstage interview with my Variety colleague Naman Ramachandran at the International Film Festival of India in Goa: “The conversation swirled repeatedly into discussion of musical theater … and Rahman’s plans to build physical infrastructure of a quality that matches his ambitions,” reports Variety’s Patrick Frater. Regarding his brewing plans for a new theater, Rahman added, “One musical theater is not enough. This is also about jobs, national unity, pride.”
The Guardian has a sobering story about Haitian theater persevering amid the escalating violence in Port-au-Prince. “As gangs tighten their grip over a city now almost entirely outside of government control, [theater director Eliezer] Guérismé, 39, said he saw drama as a key way of interrogating and denouncing the social and political crisis engulfing Haiti’s traumatized capital,” write Tom Phillips and Etienne Côté-Paluck. “Theatre was also ‘an act of rebellion and resistance’ and a way of fostering renewal, given the politically-charged violence into which Port-au-Prince has been plunged since the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse.” Now the ninth edition of an annual international theater festival has been disrupted, with many planned international visitors dropping out, but local participants remain steadfast: “We want to exist—to carry on living despite the difficulties and the problems,” says actor Jenny Cadet in the story. “And our therapy, as actors and people of the stage, is to keep creating.”
Hannah Mirvish stands poised to succeed her father David as the head of Canada’s Mirvish Productions, which “runs four venues in downtown Toronto, sells around two million tickets a year and has a subscriber base for its main stage seasons that regularly tops 40,000, one of the biggest in North America,” writes J. Kelly Nestruck in The Globe and Mail. After stints working in every department of the family business, the 37-year-old is now credited alongside her father above the title of Mirvish shows including the impending Toronto return of The Lion King. In her first interview, Hannah Mirvish “professes to have a stronger interest in Canadian creatives than her father,” Nestruck writes. “It’s possible Hannah might already have something to do with the fact that Mirvish is employing more Canadian actors—and featuring more Canadian shows in its main stage and ‘off-Mirvish’ subscription series—than ever before.”
Lori Hotz is the new North American CEO of ATG Entertainment, the international producer and landlord that owns, operates, or programs 64 venues throughout the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. As reported by Greg Evans in Deadline, Hotz comes to the post from a background in the visual arts: She was the founder and CEO of Lobus, “an asset management platform for visual arts dedicated to building creator equity and making culture investable,” and also has been an exec at Christie’s. Meanwhile, ATG’s Kristin Caskey has been upped to Chief Content Officer; her previous title was Executive Vice President of Content and Creative.
Stage Entertainment celebrated 25 years in Madrid with €25 tickets to its current productions of The Lion King and Aladdin. On Dec. 2, 2024—a quarter century after Stage’s production of Beauty in the Beast opened in Madrid on Dec. 2, 1999—Stage put €25 tickets on sale for the March 25, 2025 performances of both Lion King and Aladdin. As noted by Juan-Jose Gonzalez in BroadwayWorld Spain, the move comes as Stage gears up to open its third venue in the city. “We know and are aware that we cannot miss the opportunity to grow: for the industry, for all its workers, for the public, for our city and for all those who are about to become part of an audience that loves musicals,” Stage exec Yolanda Pérez Abejón says in the story.
Michael Jackson musical MJ opened in Hamburg on Dec. 1 and a wire story from German press agency DPA turns the spotlight on 39-year-old actor Benét Monteiro, whose career is on a hot streak. He’s now starring as Michael after previously playing the title characters in recent Hamburg productions of Hamilton and Hercules. Monteiro lost 10 kg during rehearsal for MJ, according to the story. Stage’s German production of the show retains the English-language lyrics of the songs while the book is performed in German.
MEANWHILE IN MADRID
ICYMI: For last week’s SPOTLIGHT STORY I went to the opening of the splashy new Spanish-language musical Los Pilares de la Tierra. Here’s everything you need to know about the show and the ambitious production company behind it.
