Last week was an overwhelmingly exciting (and exhausting) opportunity to share and learn about theatre in Korea, the USA and the UK. I have had the pleasure of visiting Korea a number of times: first in 2005 when I worked with Michael and Mark Chung and KCMI Corporation on the reproduction of 〈Miss Saigon〉 with a fantastic Korean cast for Seoul; later returning to attend a range of discussions about new musicals and the festival of non-verbal arts in Daegu; lastly in 2015 for Andy and Wendy Barnes (producers of 〈Six〉) to explore collaborations between Korea and the UK for new work. Each time I have taken back a message to the UK – that Korea is a globally important market place for new musical theatre.
During summer 2020 I had a number of meetings with Junyoung Kim here in London and he kindly introduced me to KAMS – the Korean Arts Management Services where the idea of K-Musical Market was born. He had also introduced me to Mr. Kim the Director of the Korean Cultural Centre in London with whom I began explorations around Edinburgh Festival Fringe Korean hubs, and connecting Korean and British writers together. It is wonderful to see both conversations moving forward to reality, even in a time of global trauma and restrictions caused by Covid-19.
When my UK colleagues and I set off from London we didn’t know what to expect. We knew there would be some producers gathered to explore Musical Theatre. We are used to these conversations being about challenges and problems. But here we found a gathering not only of producers, but also senior venue leaders and serious investors who understand that Musical Theatre has the potential to be a global export and a revenue earner. Maybe it is no more risky than backing new tec startups, and these wise investors get that idea. But I have never seen a gathering of producers and investors together – they call it Showbusiness, well here “show” and “business” were together in one place.

Musical Producer's Workshop @KAMS

I was invited to present four sessions for producers – the first introducing the UK and US theatre scene to those who were early career or student producers. The second to look at attracting audiences for new work, especially in the fringe and small scale. The third was for more experienced producers and venue leaders where we looked at the UK, US and global potential of new work. And for the fourth I invited onto the platform with me UK producer Katy Lipson (〈Addams Family〉, 〈Tick Tick Boom〉, 〈Little Women〉and many many more) so that we could do an open Q&A around anything.
I pay tribute to the 90 producers who attended our 4 sessions for their focus, interest, and insightful questions and to the simultaneous translators who enabled the flow of conversation across two cultures and languages to be seamless and rich.
My focus was on the UK, because that is what I know best. It is also very different from Korea in many ways. In order for us to understand how best to present in each other’s countries and to work in co-production of new work, then it helps to understand some of the differences.
In Seoul you have the most amazing theatre district. Nowhere else in the world has 150+ theatres in one street. Daehak-ro is extraordinary. It also means that there is a rapid demand for new titles, and new work, to feed the theatres and the audiences. In London outside the main West End, we have a number of very small spaces, but only a handful of off-West End theatres with the capacity for a small musical. We have maybe 10 spaces regularly used for professional, potentially transferring, new work.
In the UK, however, we have a rich history of Regional Theatres with a producing house in almost all cities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Over 60 years they have had support from their local authority and/or from the government funded Arts Council to produce work. Many have been involved in the creation of Musical Theatre and some have a very rich recent history of presenting original productions destined for the West End. For example 〈Les Miserables〉 from the Royal Shakespeare Company and 〈Everyone’s Talking About Jamie〉 from Sheffield Crucible.
These ‘subsidised’ theatres bring drama and educational outreach programmes to their local community. But historically musicals have not been seen as ‘serious’. So again, a difference between Korea and the UK is around the respect given to the artform of Musical Theatre. Too many senior theatre practitioners see musicals as the commercial lesser artform, and playwrighting and drama as the real theatre. Here in Korea you respect Musical Theatre along with opera and ballet and classical theatre and all the other creative artforms.

Musical Producer's Workshop @KAMS

We in the UK and the US have an advantage that English is commonly understood and heard around the world (this also results in a laziness in that we do not try to understand other languages, and often do not consider other cultures). In Korea you know that original language material can’t just tour the world without being translated or subtitled.
Part of our discussion in the sessions, and outside these events, was around the potential for the Korean Theatre District to be an international tourism destination, in the way that Broadway and the West End are. We explored the challenge of language, but also very quick ways to help make visitors more aware and interested in experiencing a weekend of theatregoing in Daehak-ro. In New York, ShowTrans offers detailed realtime multilingual synopsis / stage information for shows (created by my colleague Susan Lee, a serial inventor of amazing market expansion projects for musical theatre). In some other international cities programme sheets with synopses are available in the foyer in English, Spanish and other languages. Signage and maps can help guide the visitor. So many areas in which we might find extraordinary ways to work together to attract Korean audiences to UK theatres and International audiences to Korean musicals. This K-Musical market feels the start of so many new collaborations.
The questions in the sessions were focussed and powerful. I hope our answers helped to shape the way in which emerging and early career producers think about the potential of the world of musical theatre.

Musical Producer's Workshop @KAMS

One focus was on Edinburgh Festival Fringe – a place in Scotland where each August around 3,400 productions/events have been played across 150+ theatres and popup spaces across the City. Shows start at 10am and the last performances may not start till 2am. Around 2,500 individual performances a day. This is the largest Festival in the world and in 2019, the last full-scale festival before the pandemic, there were companies from 72 countries. It is a showcase on the world of new work and new productions. Korea has often brought very well-respected work such as Theatre Hooam’s 〈Black and White Tea Room〉 and ‘Korean sensory overload’ 〈Sa-Choom〉 which I welcomed to the venues I was running in 2008 as part of a festival of musical theatre inside the overall Festival. Now I am delighted that K-Fringe may have its own venue in Edinburgh. We were exploring with producers and creators at our session the challenges. Of presenting at the Fringe. How do you get ‘heard’ above the noise of 3,400 other productions trying to find an audience? How do you find the audience for your show from around the City, and get the message to them in 40 words of copy or a few social media posts? Our discussion was all about Narrowcast Marketing – pinpoint targeting to the right people to have on your front row of seats each performance.
The discussions we had included how to best Pitch to a producer – a Korean producer or a UK or US producer. When do they want to hear from you? How little or how much material do they need? and How & when might they get involved? There are no easy answers. I am not giving you questions and withholding the answers from you as a reader. Each producer is different. The trick is to climb into their shoes and think about what they might need (And remember to climb into their shoes you have to take your own shoes off first. You have to put aside your own preconceptions of how to sell a show). Just remember that producers across the world are really wanting to find pieces of new work (or work new to them and their audience) which will sell tickets, make an impact, and inspire/educate us the audience in a new way.

Musical Producer's Workshop @KAMS

One big discussion was around the choice of story to tell. Three big questions - Why now? – why does this story need to be told now, Why here? – why is this the right venue, town, theatre, audience in which to tell this story, and Why Me? – why am I the right person to tell this story. I was excited to see the phenomenal showcase of 〈Secretly Greatly: The Last〉 from producer Gyulin Lee with writers Sunhyeon Heo, Jeonghwa Chu and HUN. It told of North Korean spies embedded into South Korea. In exploring those questions: Why now? – because the conflict and tension continues, and there are embedded spies in many countries across the world, and other countries that have or are divided. Why here? – where better to tell the story initially than to an audience who have parents and grandparents who have been part of the living story. Why Me? – could I produce this piece? should I produce this piece? is it my story to tell. No. But it feels deeply right for a Korean company to create the work.
So many more questions were explored – How to balance between online/digital audiences and live theatre/on the ground audiences? How to change the demographic of theatre as a whole including audiences, staff and managements across the world, to better reflect the diversity of society in a multicultural, neurodiverse, more gender balanced/fluid population? How to attract investment – especially for new ideas and new work? How to promote Korean work to international managements? and how to find a life/work balance as a SPA – a self-producing artist.
I lead an online zoom classroom in a Diploma in Creative Producing and these topics are part of our rich discussions. We also look at the ‘tools and rules’ of producing including budgeting, team building, contracts, copyright, marketing and the process of bringing an idea from page to stage. It is fascinating to have these conversations with Korean producers with the invaluable support of our translators.
I look forward to seeing where KAMS and the Korean Cultural Centre and all the other bodies engaged in the discussions about our UK and Korean connections lead us. I hope to be back in Seoul very soon to continue with the discussions and the work.
May I just say again, I was overwhelmed by the bringing together of investors, producers, writers & new work, international producers, and government representatives to celebrate Musical Theatre. I am so excited by the birth of K-Musicals. I can’t wait to see amazing international collaborations growing out of the week we have just spent in Seoul Arts Centre.
Thank you.