The Recent Trend in Licensed Broadway Musicals in South Korea: Hybrid Cultural Products of K-Drama and K-Pop

The mass-industrialized musical companies from Broadway and the West End have already encroached on the world theatre their megamusical productions filled with flashy dance numbers and thrilling spectacles. As a result of expansion overseas by these Western companies, Asians, like New Yorkers and Londoners, can easily attend popular mega-productions at local theatre venues. These global musical “McTheatres,” a term coined by Dan Rebellato, make a profit on their original productions in foreign countries in two ways: either by dispatching their international tour troupes for a short-run show or by selling licenses to foreign production companies for a long-run show. South Korea (hereafter, Korea) has been seen as a lucrative market for Broadway hit megamusicals, including not only American musicals but also European musicals that became Broadway hits. The performances of international tour productions, by showcasing ready-made productions to Korean audiences, provide an almost one-way cultural flow, which has been considered an undesirable intercultural exchange by some scholars, including Rustom Bharucha and Patrice Pavis.¹ On the other hand, the licensed Broadway musicals (hereafter, licensed musicals) have triggered a hybrid intercultural adaptation controlled primarily by the performances of Korean actors, though considering this intercultural flow to be a good example of a two-way intercultural exchange is also debatable.

While the traditional characteristics of megamusicals are described as “a sung-through score with no spoken dialogue, lavish and complicated sets, and an extremely emotional, larger-than-life plot,”² star casting has become indispensable in licensed megamusicals in Korea. Star casting has created a new phenomenon in the domestic musical industry, owing to its correlation with Korean popular entertainment, especially K-drama (Korean television drama) and K-pop (Korean pop music). In light of these developments in Korean popular culture, this paper examines the cast, target audience, and publicity of Broadway musicals that are reproduced as licensed musicals in Korea. Within a context of commercialism and capitalization, I maintain that although the licensed musicals in Korea have promptly evolved from theatre to popular show and media business, they still need to build their own aesthetic territory, and move beyond star casting and the strictures of the original creators.

The licensed musicals in Korea refer to a set of Western musicals, which are produced and performed by Koreans. These productions often get technical assistance from original creative teams in the West, but they are mostly performed by Koreans with translated Korean lyrics. Korea’s musical industry, with licensed musicals at its center, has achieved rapid growth as a major entertainment player, and the preferences of Korean audiences have had a decisive effect on the marketing strategy of these licensed musicals. The Korean cultural phenomenon described as hallyu(translated as the Korean Wave in reference to recent success across entertainment industry platforms) is essential to explaining the use of K-drama and K-pop stars, who are mostly young and attractive, in licensed musicals. Jekyll and Hyde (2004) and Catch Me If You Can (2012), both successful cases of star marketing, are typical of this trend.³ These two productions sold out more quickly than other better-known licensed musicals (e.g., The Lion King, Aida, Mamma Mia!, Chicago, and Cats) because they featured powerful male stars rather than experienced ensembles. That this phenomenon appears more often in licensed musicals than in original domestic musicals shows that the rapid commercialization of licensed musicals, boosted by the popularity of K-drama and K-pop, is the primary cause of the gap between licensed musicals and original domestic musicals. Indeed, if the licensed musical is ever to embrace a more diverse audience, star casting needs to be supplemented by adding more creative and aesthetic contents.

A Brief History of the Licensed Musical Industry in Korea

The history of the licensed musical in Korea is roughly divided into two periods, before and after observance of the international license laws; from this point onward, the licensed musical has reshaped its character as gigantic, systematic, commercial, and international. Since 2000, the musical industry has accounted...