Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Monday, November 21, 2022
K-Pop gets the Broadway treatment in a new musical about the industry
NPR: A new Broadway musical follows how global K-Pop superstars put everything on the line when one singer tries to dismantle one of the largest record labels in the industry.
3. If you didn’t know, there are a couple of recent CMU Alum’s on this show! I am so happy to see it finally opening after seeing various sneak peeks during pre-production and the preview period via Instagram. I do not know much about the show other than the people in it, so this NPR article is great. I wondered whether this show would be some kind of biographical look at a group like BTS, but I am glad to see it is an original story that seeks to examine the idea of stardom. KPOP as a phenomenon is a great choice as a case study for this idea. I am not involved in the scene at all, but I have heard about the manufactured way that KPOP groups are formed and trained. I am interested to see how that all translates to the stage. I am also interested to see if the audience experience this differently than your traditional musical. I would love to see more shows like SIX and KPOP where the audience is encouraged to treat the event more like a concert.
In this article about the brand-new musical “K-Pop” on Broadway, it goes a little deeper into the making of the musical, and the score, as well as lightly into the topic of how the music industry in Korea is so demanding of its music artists. I really wish this article would have gone a little bit more in-depth with its talk about the music industry, because there is such a toxic environment surrounding what it takes to be an idol, not just in Korea, but in other Asian countries as well. Idols have to spend their days constantly rehearsing and perfecting their moves, and they are hardly allowed to have their own lives outside of their music, to the point where they are forbidden to have any romantic relationships, as it could jeopardize their status as an idol, as it could “upset their fans”. It is such a toxic industry to get into, and I really wish the article would have taken a bit more time to talk about that toxicity, and why they chose to tackle it with this musical.
2 comments:
3. If you didn’t know, there are a couple of recent CMU Alum’s on this show! I am so happy to see it finally opening after seeing various sneak peeks during pre-production and the preview period via Instagram. I do not know much about the show other than the people in it, so this NPR article is great. I wondered whether this show would be some kind of biographical look at a group like BTS, but I am glad to see it is an original story that seeks to examine the idea of stardom. KPOP as a phenomenon is a great choice as a case study for this idea. I am not involved in the scene at all, but I have heard about the manufactured way that KPOP groups are formed and trained. I am interested to see how that all translates to the stage. I am also interested to see if the audience experience this differently than your traditional musical. I would love to see more shows like SIX and KPOP where the audience is encouraged to treat the event more like a concert.
In this article about the brand-new musical “K-Pop” on Broadway, it goes a little deeper into the making of the musical, and the score, as well as lightly into the topic of how the music industry in Korea is so demanding of its music artists. I really wish this article would have gone a little bit more in-depth with its talk about the music industry, because there is such a toxic environment surrounding what it takes to be an idol, not just in Korea, but in other Asian countries as well. Idols have to spend their days constantly rehearsing and perfecting their moves, and they are hardly allowed to have their own lives outside of their music, to the point where they are forbidden to have any romantic relationships, as it could jeopardize their status as an idol, as it could “upset their fans”. It is such a toxic industry to get into, and I really wish the article would have taken a bit more time to talk about that toxicity, and why they chose to tackle it with this musical.
Post a Comment