The Musical Market Hit Hard by COVID-19, I Am the Savior

2021 Musical Lineup... New Works 'Beetlejuice' and 'Geom-eun Sajedeul' etc.
Wicked Returns After 5 Years, Opening Next Month... Proven Hits Like 'Phantom' Also Featured

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] From 217.3 billion KRW in 2019 to an estimated 77 billion KRW last year. This is the annual musical ticket sales compiled by Interpark, the largest ticket reservation site in Korea. Interpark is the number one ticket reservation company in the country with a market share of about 70%. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the musical market size shrank to one-third last year.

Although the new year has begun, the COVID-19 situation continues. Musical production companies can only sell about 30% of the total seats for performances under social distancing level 2.5. They have to endure deficits. Due to this life-or-death difficult situation, it is especially hard to find new works in this year’s production lineups. Many proven works are staged.

Among the new works to be introduced this year, two musicals adapted from films stand out.

CJ ENM, in collaboration with Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, will stage Beetlejuice in June. It is a musical adaptation of the 1988 film of the same name directed by Tim Burton. Warner Bros. produced the musical, which premiered on Broadway in April 2019. The first overseas licensed performance will be held in Korea. The story depicts a ghost couple trying to drive away a strange family who moved into their newlywed home. To do so, they summon the ghost 'Beetlejuice,' leading to a series of comedic events.

R&D Works will present the musical adaptation of director Jang Jae-hyun’s film The Priests. The film, released in 2015, attracted 5.44 million viewers. The musical is scheduled to open next month on the 25th at Uniplex Theater 1 in Daehangno.

Show Note’s The Great Comet and S&Co’s Hadestown are also new works. The Great Comet is a musical based on parts of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. It premiered Off-Broadway (a district with small to mid-sized theaters outside Broadway) in 2012 and entered Broadway in 2016. Show Note originally planned the Korean premiere of The Great Comet in November last year but postponed the schedule due to the spread of COVID-19. A Show Note representative said the date has not been finalized but the performance is planned for the first half of the year.

Hadestown is preparing to open in August. It is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 2016 and entered Broadway in March 2019.

Among the works being restaged, S&Co’s Wicked draws attention. Wicked is a sensational production that set the record for the fastest Broadway sales to reach 1 billion USD, and it is being performed in Korea for the first time in five years since 2016. Ok Joo-hyun and Son Seung-yeon will play Elphaba, and Jung Sun-ah and Na Ha-na will play Glinda. The show will open next month at Blue Square Interpark Hall in Seoul and in May at Dream Theater in Busan.

EMK Musical Company, which will present its fourth original musical Beethoven next year, has arranged a lineup of proven works this year. They will sequentially present Phantom in March, Marie Antoinette in July, Excalibur in August, and Rebecca in November. Phantom, Marie Antoinette, and Excalibur will be staged for the first time in two years since 2019, and Rebecca will be performed for the second consecutive year following last year.

Beethoven is EMK’s original musical to be premiered next year, marking three years since Mata Hari in 2017, The Man Who Laughs in 2018, and Excalibur in 2019.

Shinshi Company will finish the Ghost performance in March and then stage Chicago from April to July and Billy Elliot from August to February next year. ACOM will open the 25th anniversary performance of The Last Empress on the 19th at the Opera Theater of Seoul Arts Center. The opening was originally scheduled for the 6th but was postponed due to the worsening COVID-19 situation.

R&D Works plans to present restaged works Mama, Don’t Cry and The Devil in May and December, respectively. Mama, Don’t Cry planned a 10th anniversary performance last year but was delayed due to COVID-19 and will open late this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.