Broadway expert lauds Korean talents as ‘exceptional’ on world stage A veteran U.S. musical director has said Seoul’s musical scene boasts a many more talented musical actors than Broadway but lacks the time necessary to perfect technical elements to make the product more sophisticated. Robert Johanson is in Seoul to direct the musical “Monte Cristo” for the second consecutive year. The show is...

Pianist Sergei Babayan to lead rich list of musicians International and Korea-based classical musicians will put the spotlight on Busan this week, as they gather in the southeastern port city of Korea to hold eight different concerts. The 6th Busan International Music Festival kicked off Sunday at the Paradise Hotel with a chamber concert. The week-long event runs through Feb. 20 at the Busan C...

Kim Young-na, the newly appointed director-general of the National Museum of Korea, would like to launch exhibitions that are more “fun and visually pleasing.” “(The) museum is the place where you exhibit the visual image (of the relics and art pieces),” the director told reporters at a press meeting held in Seoul on Monday. “Of course our research (of the exhibiting items) is important. But how...

They follow the stars and the moon when they travel, melt gigantic pieces of ice for drinking water, and use natural moss for baby diapers and dish washing ― all in minus-50 degree weather. SBS documentary “The Last Tundra ― Movie Edition” offers a very rare glimpse into the life of the Nenets, the last reindeer herding nomads living in Siberian tundra. Through a yearly migration of more than a...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― A museum said Friday that its exhibit on the Silk Road, including a pair of ancient mummies, will go on after it resolved a dispute with the Chinese government that led to a pared-down event with fake mummies and life-sized photos of the artifacts. The exhibit will reopen Feb. 18 with a full complement of mummies and more ancient artifacts from the Tarim Basin in the autonomo...

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) ― Yale University announced Friday that it will send back to Peru thousands of Incan artifacts removed from the famed Machu Picchu citadel nearly a century ago. The agreement allowing for the return of the ceramic pieces, animal and human bones, and metal and stone objects came after Yale and Peru officials announced in November that they had resolved a long-running d...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand join rising stars and seasoned chart-toppers Sunday at the music industry’s annual Grammys awards bash. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and teen sensation Justin Bieber are also on a star-studded roster of performers at the show in Los Angeles, where rapper Eminem hopes to seal a comeback year with a brace of awards. While showcasing new tal...

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Elizabeth Taylor remained in a Los Angeles hospital on Saturday for treatment of congestive heart failure. Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor remained in a Los Angeles hospital on Saturday for treatment of congestive heart failure. (AP) The Oscar-winning actress' condition was unchanged, her spokeswoman Sally Morrison said early Saturday afternoon. She did not know how lo...

Late Autumn (Korea) Opening Feb. 17 Drama. Directed by Kim Tae-yong. Prisoner Anna (Tang Wei), a Chinese-American woman who murdered her husband seven years ago, is released from jail for three days to attend her mother’s funeral in Seattle. In the bus heading to Seattle, Anna runs into Hoon (Hyun Bin), a Korean gigolo. Spending the next 72 hours together, the two begin to develop genuine feeli...

The image of Elton John in bejeweled stacked shoes, garish glasses and colorful costumes will forever be a part of the 1970s. But these days, he presents a very different image ― both professionally and personally. “As I grow older, I’m much more content in my own skin,” says John, who is dressed in black and wearing a pair of John Lennon-style sunglasses. The 63-year-old music icon is doing int...

NEW YORK (AP) ― On his new ABC sitcom, “Mr. Sunshine,” Matthew Perry plays a chap whose life is clouded. He plays Ben Donovan, the manager of a big San Diego sports arena, the Sunshine Center, which hosts a variety of attractions. “Every night, 17,505 people come here expecting to have a good time,” Ben declares. “And I make sure they do.” But there are also a host of attendant wacky problems....

Exhibitions “Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today”: Artsonje Center, a private art museum which usually presents contemporary conceptual art, has opened its space for a show on Japanese comics. The exhibition attempts a 3-D realization of the comics by adding whimsical props and installations that look like they just popped out of the comic books. It makes the case for why...

Dirty dishes in the sink, wet towels on the bathroom floor, soiled clothes strewn around the apartment and loud music playing at all hours of the day and night. Or maybe obsessive neatness, enforced quiet hours, spying on your comings and goings, and bizarre food habits. Lousy roommate? Check. We’ve all been there. Stuck in a college dorm room with a computer-selected jerk who smokes copious am...