KPOP: Globalization of ‘American’ Musicals
Editorial by CHENGYUE ZHANG ‘24
The musical genre of K-pop has taken over the hearts of many young Americans. However, the musical KPOP struggled to find an audience on Broadway. On Dec. 11 of 2022, KPOP, the first musical on Broadway about Asian culture with an extensive Asian and Asian American cast, closed just two weeks after its official Broadway opening.
The show’s short-lived Broadway run and a particular negative review of the show from The New York Times sparked extensive media coverage of the show. Personally, I got caught up in the question of whether KPOP would be considered more internationally Korean or more American: Should KPOP be categorized as an American musical when writer Jason Kim and music and lyrics composer Helen Park are both Korean-born? Is the art form of musical theater in itself American?
Musical theater is a staple of American culture. The art form that we now know as musical theater originated in America at the start of 1920s with Show Boat, taking heavy inspiration from various forms of opera popular in Europe at the time. Since then, the U.S. and Britain have been the most active sources of musical theater — a somewhat equal split between American Broadway and British West End.
Starting in the early 21st century, however, musicals spread around the world. Musicals from other English-speaking countries — Australia, Canada, and South Africa — and countries in continental Europe — Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, France, and Spain — found sizable local audiences and occasionally reached Broadway or West End, or toured internationally. More recently, Asian countries — Japan, India, Korea, and China — have adapted musicals from other countries into their languages or started creating their own forms of musical theater. Personally, I was introduced to musical theater through a production of Phantom of the Opera touring in Beijing in 2016, and then found an online community of English, French, and German (referring to language instead of nationality) musical fans. Illustrating the extent of how popular musical theater is in China, last year, the musical theater club in my previous public high school in Beijing attempted to put on a whole production of Hamilton.
After a while, I realized my question of whether KPOP was more Korean or American was an unproductive question. A production does not have to have a nationality. Theoretically, as long as the show explores human, universal themes, it should be able to be enjoyed by all around the world. KPOP has American and non-American characters, and Kim and Park all have diverse experiences that cannot be categorized as either exclusively Korean or American.
I believe that the existence of KPOP proves the extent of the globalization of American culture. Besides, there is a slight but important distinction between viewing KPOP as a Broadway show with AAPI representation and viewing it as an original Korean musical theater. With the closure of KPOP, the previous definition would indicate internal American issues of racism — a fight for Asian American representation in American media; the latter indicates an international power dynamic between America and an Asian country.
By the first internal American definition, KPOP represents for the AAPI community what In the Heights represents for the Latino community in America — a celebration and declaration of the Asian American’s presence in the United States. As a Boardway musical, KPOP is drastically different from your typical Broadway musicals featuring Asian stories, such as Miss Saigon, the King and I, and Pacific Overtures, that were war stories or white savior stories written by white men.
By the second international definition, however, the situation and the connotation become more complicated. Should KPOP be considered cultural appropriation because it tried to tell a Korean story using the American art form of musical theater? If so, then what should we make of the widely popular musical Evita, which is written by British composer Andrew Loyd Weber about a politician from Argentina? Or is KPOP just an example of cultural assimilation?
At the end of the day, I do not have an answer to any of these questions. Personally, I saw KPOP as a production that was rejected by what inspired it. As an international student who has been studying in America for five years now, I find it pathetic that I had started looking for representation of myself in American media when I am not even American by nationality. My opinion on KPOP spoke more about me than the actual matter at hand, to be very honest.
Alas, go support KPOP’s original cast album that’s going to be released on Feb. 24, 2023.
