You’ve heard of K-pop, K-drama, probably even K-beauty. Now, get ready for K-musical. It’s actually already here on Broadway. Take Maybe Happy Ending, which won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Musical; it takes place in Seoul and first premiered in that city in 2016 before moving to America. It’s also the first musical created in South Korea, by a South Korean artist, to find success on Broadway.
Then there’s The Great Gatsby, which was spearheaded by Chunsoo Shin, the first Korean lead producer to take a show to Broadway.
As Maybe Happy Ending co-creator Hue Park noted to The Korea Times: “K-musical isn’t a widely used term yet like K-pop … But if international audiences find our musical attractive partly because it comes from Korea and Korean culture adds to its appeal, I'm proud. Then maybe it’s okay to call it a K-musical.”
These two successes may seem coincidental, but they’re actually a showcase of just how much musical theatre has penetrated South Korea and inspired its artists. It used to be one-sided—with K-pop idols starring in Western-created musicals such as Hadestown or Phantom of the Opera. But now, Korean artists are ready to showcase their works to the world.
Says Broadway producer Heather Shields, “It's not so much, what can Korean producers learn about how we do it in New York? It's about, how do we prepare New York and the Western world for Korean musicals? Because Korea is this unbelievable exporter when it comes to culture.”
Besides being a producer on shows such as Call Me Izzy and Cabaret, Shields is also the cofounder The Business of Broadway, which aims to educate prospective investors on the industry. And since 2022, BoB has been collaborating with Korea Arts Management Service to help bring more musicals from that country into the U.S.
The two entities just finished presenting the K-Musical Road Show, an industry presentation of three musicals from Korea (translated into English)—which included Korean musical theatre writers working alongside American artists (such as Maybe Happy Ending cast member Marcus Choi, Telly Leung, and Taylor Trensch). BoB and KAMS are planning on bringing the Road Show back to New York every two years. There have also been road shows in London, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
According to Inhye Jeong, project manager at Korea Arts Management Service, the project began 10 years ago, with funding from the South Korean government, to support the creation of Korean musicals at home. Jeong estimates that every year, there are around 30 new musical productions in Seoul. Korean musicals tend to have short runs of three to six months, but audience demand is strong, she says: “The Korean audience love the Korean style of musicals; they are going to the theatre over 10 times to the same show.” She then adds, amused, that she herself has only seen Maybe Happy Ending once in Seoul because “it’s very difficult to get the tickets in Korea. The tickets are gone in 30 seconds.”
After new musicals premiere in South Korea, KAMS then works to send those musicals abroad. “In China, Japan, Taiwan, Korean musicals are already famous, and lots of Korean musicals are done in China and Japan,” notes Jeong. “But in the U.K. or the States, it's difficult to try to start [producing].” She attributes it to the lack of public information on how to even begin producing on Broadway or the West End.
Says Jeong: “KAMS started to bring Korean musical producers to the U.K. and U.S. to understand their market and give some opportunity to collaboration with local creators." The Business of Broadway, whose goal is to demystify Broadway producing, was a natural fit.
These cross-cultural seeds have already started to bear fruit. Marie Curie, about the famed chemist, was presented in the K-Musical Road Show in Shanghai in 2019. An English version was produced in London last year. L'art Reste, about real-life Korean visual artist Kim Hyang-an, was presented at the 2023 K-Musical Road Show in New York; it received a workshop last year in New York and has since had its world premiere in Japan.
Just as Korean television shows such as Squid Game have found fans in the U.S., Shields sees a similar universal appeal with Korean musicals, saying: “Korean artists have their finger on the pulse of really exciting techniques in terms of storytelling … I think it's always good for us as artists to recognize our global community members and take inspiration from one another. This is genuinely an exchange. And I think that anyone—any artist, manager, line producer, audience member—who participated in this Road Show came away having learned a great deal about what kind of art is being fostered and supported and developed in Korea.”
K-Musical Road Show leadership
Hyeri Kim, Yunkyeong Hong, and Sarah Han
Telly Leung and Michael K. Lee
Soor Kim
Company of Let Me Fly
Company of Rimbaud
Company of Dalí
