The number of cinema closures soared to a 12-year high in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, data showed Tuesday. A total of 81 movie theaters closed shop across the nation last year, nearly double from the 43 shutdowns a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The number was the largest annual tally since 2008, when 88 cinemas in Asia's four...

Universal Ballet, another major ballet troupe here, will present “Don Quixote,” June 4-6 at the Seoul Arts Center. Based on the famous Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes, the ballet work features Spanish folk music and dances, along with classic ballet movements. The ballet troupe will present “Giselle,” a classical ballet masterpiece, Oct. 26 to Nov. 1. Its chamber series, consisting of “Swan...

Book on cultural blacklist scandal will be published, new head of NTCK says

Musical “Marie Curie” won four awards at the Korea Musical Awards held Monday, recognized as an outstanding original Korean musical production. Presented by the Korea Musical Theater Association, the annual awards ceremony, the largest of its kind in Korea, was held at the Blue Square culture complex in Seoul. Featuring star stage actor Ock Ju-hyun, “Marie Curie” won the grand prize, as well ...

Productions adapt to online environment for survival amid pandemic era

The number of daily moviegoers plunged to a fresh record low this week, as new releases have been affected by the latest coronavirus resurgence in winter, data showed Friday. According to the data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), 14,000-16,000 people went to theaters daily this week, down from last week's 34,000-60,000. In particular, only 14,518 attendees were recorded Monday, hitting an ...

Though 2021 has begun with a gloomy outlook for the theater scene amid prolonged social distancing rules, small musical productions in the theater district of Daehangno are continuing their run, even recording sold-out performances. With the government’s social distancing scheme requiring performing arts venues to leave two-thirds of audience seats empty, several big musical productions have hal...

The classical music scene hopes to feature soloists -- who have agreed to the two-week, self-quarantine rule -- instead of inviting large orchestras from abroad. Cellist Mischa Maisky will go onstage in Seoul in May, Beethoven specialist Rudolf Buchbinder is to come to Seoul in September, American pianist Robert Levin in November, followed by pianists Eliso Virsaladze and Lang Lang in December. ...

The pandemic also accelerated a transition to OTT platforms such as Netflix. OTT platforms were already expected to surpass cinemas in 2020, with PwC predicting that the global OTT market would surpass the theater market without knowing of the pandemic to come. In 2017, Netflix created its first original content in Korea, the film “Okja” directed by Bong Joon-ho. Netflix invested 60 billion won ...

Conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing hopes to bring KNO to global stage

At year-end peak season, performing arts scene braces for worst wave of virus

The Korea National Ballet’s firing of a member earlier this year for traveling abroad during the home-quarantine period has come to the center of a legal dispute, as the state labor committee viewed it to be an “unfair dismissal.” According to the performing arts scene on Monday, the National Labor Relations Commission officially acknowledged that the national ballet troupe’s dismissal of Na in ...

The Korea National Ballet canceled its “The Nutcracker” show slated for the Christmas holidays, following the recent resurgence of COVID-19 infection cases here. The national ballet troupe announced Friday that the iconic performance of “The Nutcracker” in December would have to be fully canceled due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. The ballet troupe was to hold the performances at the Seoul Ar...

The concert will feature seven stage actors with Korean heritage, including Hwang Joo-min from the Broadway musical “The Prom,” Lim Q who starred in “The King and I,” Jung Jin-woo from the Broadway tour of “Miss Saigon,” and Korean-American adoptee Daniel Edwards who performed in “The King and I.” The actors will perform celebrated numbers from musicals “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Jekyll and Hy...

At 30 percent audience capacity, large musical productions pushed to the brink