![]() We the audience have been invited to their KPOP factory to serve as a focus group to help them figure out how to make this happen.Īfter the opening concert, we are split into separate groups depending on the color of the wristband each of us had been given when we checked in (and subdivided and reunited throughout the two and a half hours of the show.) We are guided through room after room, up and down stairs (be forewarned), to learn about what it takes to produce the music to listen to musical numbers inserted somewhat willy-nilly and to witness lots of personal drama. Ruby and Jae Tak Moon (Vanessa Kai and James Saito), the owners of the JTM record label, have hired Jerry to help KPOP “cross over” to the American market. That’s Jerry (James Seol), a California-born Korean-American who (much to the irritation of several of the performers) doesn’t even speak Korean. Ndeed, as if to reassure us, even our host admits: “With the exception of Psy, I have never, in my life, listened to a single KPOP song. (It’s still the second most watched, surpassed only by American rapper Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again”) Now, you needn’t know anything about the phenomenon of the South Korean music industry – not even that Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was for years the most watched video on YouTube, with more than 2.8 BILLION views. The DNA from each of these combines in this novel creation, which takes over the entire new non-profit performance art complex A.R.T./New York Theatres to recreate the new American outpost of an ambitious Korean music label. The musical played an acclaimed Off-Broadway run through Ars Nova, Ma-Yi Theater, and the Woodshed Collective in 2017, going on to win the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.KPOP is the result of a collaboration between three remarkable New York theater companies – Ars Nova, best-known for having developed the groundbreaking Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 the Ma-Yi Theater Company, which for three decades has explored issues of identity and assimilation through original work by Asian-American artists and The Woodshed Collective, a company whose explorations of the outer limits of site specific theater included an amazing show called Empire Travel Agency, a kind of on-the-town spy-murder mystery that took place in such venues as an abandoned building and a speeding car. ![]() KPOP, which takes audiences behind the scenes of the K-pop industry, was conceived by Woodshed Collective and Jason Kim and features a book by Kim, music, lyrics, and music production by Helen Park, and music and lyrics by Max Vernon. We are still committed to bringing KPOP to audiences on Broadway and beyond, and we look forward to continuing the show's developmental process with its team of wonderful artists.” “Signature is still very much looking forward to welcoming back audiences and artists to our home venue in Arlington this November when we reopen the theatre with our reimagined production of Jonathan Larson’s Rent starting November 2, and we look forward to celebrating KPOP’s Broadway opening when the time comes.”įorbes and Parnes added in a statement, “After careful deliberation this felt to all of us like the prudent choice to make at this time. audiences before it heads to New York for its Broadway premiere,” said artistic director Matthew Gardiner. “All of us at Signature are very disappointed we will not be able to bring this exciting production to D.C. The musical, according to the producers, is still on track to open on Broadway in the coming year. The show was scheduled to begin in December at Signature Theatre. The pre-Broadway engagement of KPOP, The Musical in Washington, D.C., has been canceled by producing partners Tim Forbes and Joey Parnes due to pandemic-related logistical challenges.
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