SEOUL SNAPSHOT

As the Korean wave hits Broadway, I spent two weeks in Seoul getting to know the local market. Here are the 7 biggest takeaways from my trip.

Euno Yoon and Jinn Joo Park in the current Seoul production of the Broadway-bound musical Maybe Happy Ending. Photo: Courtesy of CJ ENM

Back in November when I wrote the headline “K-Musicals Are Coming For Broadway,” I didn’t know it would happen quite so quickly. By then it had become obvious that South Korea’s bustling musical theater industry stood poised to make an international splash—that was why I dedicated one of the first issues of this newsletter to a detailed primer on the ins and outs of the market—but I wouldn’t have predicted that just eight months later, the Korean wave looks like it’s already begun.

Welcome to your guide to the global theater industry, Jaques, which usually comes out on Tuesdays but is a day late this week as I’m fresh off the plane from Seoul and needed an extra day to collect my thoughts. New to Jaques? Check out this handy explainer, and if you’re looking for the latest edition of ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, my regular round-up of international theater headlines, you’ll find it right over here.

Not long after I wrote that piece, The Great Gatsby—a new, English-language musical produced by Chunsoo Shin of the busy, Seoul-based production company OD Company—orchestrated a swift move to Broadway, where the show opened in April and has grossed more than $1 million almost every week since then. The following month, Maybe Happy Ending, a musical created by a Korean writer and an American composer, announced it would arrive on Broadway this fall in a production starring Emmy winner Darren Criss.

It felt like fortuitous timing, then, for me to have the opportunity to get a boots-on-the-ground glimpse of what’s happening in Seoul. Late last month, the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) held its annual K-Musical Market (June 18-22), and I was there.

Part of an ongoing, government-backed push to export South Korean musicals with the same success that the nation’s entertainment industry has had in music (BTS), film (Parasite) and TV (Squid Game), the K-Musical Market gathers representatives from around the world for an event that’s part industry symposium, part networking opportunity, and part marketplace. This year creators, producers, executives and journalists from eight countries attended lectures and panels about theater markets around the world; heard from artists and producers alike about projects pitched toward international life; met one-on-one with delegates from the Korean industry; and attended a series of 50-minute performance excerpts of eight new and developing Korean musicals.

It was a fascinating experience—one that galvanized its participants with excitement about the potential for international collaboration, and also served as an illuminating reminder both of how much we all have in common and how different we are culturally, creatively and economically. After the conference ended, I stuck around in Seoul for a bit and caught performances of three major musical titles now running there—two of them with West End and Broadway futures already lined up. Here’s everything I learned along the way.

In this SPOTLIGHT STORY, I’ll highlight:

• the South Korean market’s avid interest in the business of Broadway—and the surprising way it manifested in the pitches we heard from producers and artists;

• the creative trends defining the new work coming out of the territory;

• the market’s prime tickeybuying demo, and how that affects the musicals that get made;

• the one show that was the clear standout for the conference’s Western delegates;

• and my take on three major South Korean musicals, one set for Broadway, one already playing on the West End, and one that encapsulates everything that works in Seoul—but would have a hard time on Broadway.

But before we start: If you want to take a minute to get acquainted with the scope of the South Korean market and its major players, take a look at my story from November:

K-MUSICALS ARE COMING FOR BROADWAY

More recently, I published a Q&A with The Great Gatsby producer Chunsoo Shin, featuring some key insights into the differences between producing in Seoul vs. New York:

MR. SHIN GOES TO BROADWAY

With all that as the backdrop: Here are seven big takeaways from my trip.

1. THE HOTTEST TOPIC IS BROADWAY