More than 3,000 people from Korea's traditional performing arts community have signed a joint statement condemning sexual violence in the field and calling for an end to a culture of silence that they say has allowed abuse to persist across generations. The statement, released Saturday by an emergency coalition of traditional performing artists, had drawn more than 3,190 signatures as of Monday morning, according to the group. More than 500 signatories are students. The outpouring followed a ser

Baby Shark, which has topped global YouTube views for 72 consecutive months, is coming to the Seoul stage in a musical where the audience helps make the music. The Pinkfong Company said Monday that “Baby Shark Sound Play Musical” will open Dec. 2 at Yeongdeungpo Art Square in Seoul and run through March 28. The production is billed as a “sound play musical” and has no assigned seats. Audience members will move through seven themed zones in a venue of about 790 square meters. Along the way, they

Four years ago in Fort Worth, Texas, Marin Alsop was seen wiping away tears as an 18-year-old Lim Yunchan finished Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in the final round of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On Sunday at the Seoul Arts Center, the two returned to the same concerto, this time with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the audience rose to its feet, drawing an encore of Elgar’s “Salut d’amour” from Lim. Korean poet Chung Hyun-jong once wrote that when a person comes to you

A new production of a Korean literary classic is shifting the spotlight from a reckless husband to the resourceful wife who saves their family, bringing a centuries-old tale of marital folly and female ingenuity into the present day. Based on the late-Joseon-era novel "The Tale of Lee Chun-pung," the National Theater of Korea's new production, "Chunpung's Wife," reimagines the story from the perspective of Madam Kim, Lee's wife. The production will run from Nov. 27 through Jan. 24, 2027, at Hane

Producer Shin Chun-soo took “The Great Gatsby” from its 2024 Broadway premiere to London and Seoul. His next musical, another classic novel adaptation developed alongside “Gatsby,” carries the same global ambition but reverses the route. “Wuthering Heights,” based on Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel, will have its world premiere in Seoul in January, rather than in London, as Shin had once considered. The 58-year-old veteran producer told reporters Tuesday that he decided to bet on a Korean writer and c

In a world increasingly driven by pragmatism, conductor Teodor Currentzis believes an orchestra should be built on something less tangible: idealism. His Utopia Orchestra brings together around 200 musicians from across the world, not as a permanent ensemble but as a community of artists united by a shared passion for music and a desire to explore its possibilities. Asked what an ideal orchestra looks like, the 54-year-old Greek conductor answered in a single word: “Utopia.” Seoul audiences will

A body struggling to keep its balance. Another unable to find rest under the midnight sun. A boxer counting the seconds before getting back on his feet. These are the starting points for three new works by emerging choreographers in the National Dance Company of Korea's 2026 Choreographer Project, which will present Lee Ei-sul's "Can't Kill It," Song Yun-joo's "White Night," and Seon Seung-hoon's "COUNT" from Friday through Sunday at the Daloreum Theater in Seoul. Launched in 2023, the project a

Soprano Cho Sun-hyung and bass Lim Chae-jun, who perform internationally as Elisa Cho and Simon Lim, have been married since 2017, but they have given just two duo recitals together. Part of the reason is the repertoire. Opera is full of love duets for soprano and tenor, and soprano-baritone pairings are common, too. Duets for soprano and a true bass are comparatively rare, the couple said. “The vocal ranges are so far apart,” Lim said. The rest of the reason is the calendar. The Milan-based cou

Korea’s performing arts market sold fewer tickets in the third quarter, but straight plays had their strongest July-September stretch in at least five years, according to the latest data from the Korea Arts Management Service. Ticket sales came to about 427.4 billion won ($320.5 million) in the third quarter, down 7.5 percent from a year earlier, KAMS said in its quarterly report based on the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System. Tickets sold fell 4.6 percent to about 6.25 million

“American Dream,” the latest play by Japanese playwright-director Koki Mitani, takes its cue from a speech Dalton Trumbo, the screenwriter blacklisted during Hollywood’s Red Scare, gave in 1970: “It will do no good to search for villains or heroes or saints or devils because there were none; there were only victims.” The line sets the terms for the production, staged at Coex Artium from Friday to Sunday, as the final stop of its tour. It was the first of Mitani’s works to be performed in Korea i

Broadway hit “Hamilton” will make its Korean debut in December as the first stop on a new world tour. Since opening on Broadway in August 2015, “Hamilton” has earned a record 16 Tony nominations and won 11 awards in 2016, including best musical. Its cast album became the first to be certified diamond in the US, for 10 million units, and has spent more than 500 weeks on the Billboard 200. Now the show is coming to Korea for the first time, as the first stop on a new world tour. The English-langua

The Korea National Opera raises the curtain Thursday on “Das Rheingold,” starting a four-year project to stage all of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” No Korean company has done this before. The production runs through Sunday at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera Theater, 150 years after the cycle was first performed in full in 1876. The other three operas will follow through 2029. “As this is the first time in Korean opera history that a company is producing all four ‘Ring’ operas itself

South Korean production company Acom has opened "Franz & Marie" at Charing Cross Theatre in London — the culmination of an 18-year journey that began with a cold commission in 2007 and survived a pandemic, a composer's death, and repeated rejections from West End producers. Acom artistic director Yun Ho-jin, best known for creating the landmark South Korean musical "The Last Empress (1995)," commissioned the musical adaptation of Georg Buchner's "Woyzeck" in 2007, bringing on Chris Broderick, wh

GOYANG, Gyeonggi Province — Benson Boone didn't walk onto the stage for his latest Korean concert. He flipped onto it. Standing atop a grand piano as screams filled Kintex Exhibition Center 2 in Goyang on Monday, the 24-year-old American singer-songwriter launched himself into a backflip before kicking off “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else.” It was a fitting introduction to the energy-packed 100-minute show. Across 20 songs, Boone sprinted across the stage, threw himself into his signature backfl

Korean musical theater producer Shin Chun-soo of OD Company has teamed up with Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor on “The Grand Delusion,” a new musical that will have its world premiere in New York next year. The show will run May 11 to June 6, 2027, at the 837-seat Harvey Theater at BAM Strong, part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. BAM was founded in 1861 and is known for avant garde and experimental work outside commercial Broadway. Taymor wrote the show and will direct it. The music i