KPOP Musical Comes to Broadway in New York City

The storylines are familiar to theatergoers on Broadway: a singer and her guide; a newcomer trying to find his place; and young women chasing their dreams.

But no musical has ever sounded like this.

Over the weekend, Korean pop music arrived on Broadway as KPOP opened at the Circle in The Square in New York City.

The musical is a story of Korean pop, or K-pop, performers trying to find success on Broadway. And almost all the performers are Asian Americans or Asians.

Jason Kim was born in Korea and moved to the U.S. as a young child. He first thought of the idea of a play based on K-pop around 10 years ago. He staged an early version of the musical off-Broadway in 2017. Off-Broadway productions are usually smaller and less costly¹. Helen Park and Max Vernon wrote the music and words for the songs in the show.

Korean popular music and television have been a big part of Kim's life. He also loved Broadway musicals such as A Chorus² Line and Dreamgirls, where the story is about what is happening behind the stages.

"I love backstage shows," he said. "Is there fighting going on in-between everybody? Do they all love each other? These are the questions that I asked myself."

In his first version of the musical, Kim explained K-pop to an American audience largely unfamiliar³ with the music. The musical has since been re-written for a world where the Korean group BTS and the television program Squid Games are among the most popular entertainment.

Kim said, back then, America "didn't really know what K-pop was, and so there was a lot of explaining that I had to do."

Robert Ji-Song Ku teaches Asian American studies at Binghamton University. He said a Broadway musical with the sounds of K-pop is a sign of how "the U.S. is finally catching⁴ up with what was already going on around the world."

Some performers in the musical KPOP have real experience in K-pop, including Luna, a former member of the group f(x). She plays the role of MwE, a singer who has spent years working toward her dreams and has arrived at an important moment in her life.

Kim thinks it is important to see Asians in leading roles on Broadway. He said it was important to see Asians not playing the usual roles, "but playing rock stars, playing pop stars, dancing... and acting⁵... and just being spectacular⁶."

Helen Park called the experience an honor. She said, for her, K-pop was familiar like home, but Broadway was a seemingly⁷ out-of-reach dream. In an email to the Associated Press, she said, "To be able to bring something that feels like home to me, to my dream stage, Broadway, feels like the most miraculous⁸ gift..."

Kim said it was also important for the show to include some Korean mixed with English. He said it is a way to be true to K-pop and Korean people. He said, "When I speak to my mom, I'm switching back and forth⁹ all the time, depending on what we're talking about."

Kim added that there is something for everyone, even those who have never heard a K-pop song.

"Hopefully if we do our jobs right, you're watching a fun musical with a bunch of great K-pop songs," he said. "But really what you're getting as you leave the theater is a universal story."

Words in This Story

familiar -adj. already known, known by many people

stage -v. to show a performance such as a play, opera, concert, or other kind of public performance.

audience -n. the people watching a performance

role -n. the character played by an actor

spectacular -adj. amazing, impressive, of unusually high quality

miraculous -adj. unusually suprising and unexpected

switch -v. to change or go back and forth between one thing and another

bunch -n. several, many

universal -adj. relating to everything and everyone

1 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

2 chorus   

n.合唱，合唱队，齐声

参考例句：

• Never before have I heard this song sung in chorus.我从来没有听过这首歌的合唱。
• The children repeated the words after her in chorus.孩子们跟她齐声朗读单词。

3 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

4 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 spectacular   

adj.引人注目的，出色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• This is a spectacular film.这是一部场面壮观的电影。
• This is the most spectacular financial crash of the decade.这是10年里最引人注目的金融破产事件。

7 seemingly   

adv.从表面上看起来，似乎是

参考例句：

• Seemingly,we can do nothing to prevent this from happening.我们似乎没有什么办法阻止这件事发生。
• For several seemingly interminable seconds no one spoke.有几秒钟没有人讲话，这几秒钟似乎十分漫长。

8 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。

9 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。