“Scarlet Pimpernel,” “High School Musical,” “Elizabeth,” “Chicago,” and many more are set to raise their curtains on South Korea’s musical stages in the latter half of 2013.

In a bid to forecast which musicals and actors would advance, The Herald Business, a sister paper of The Korea Herald, conducted a 10-day survey from June 21-30 about the upcoming musicals on 1,891 members of Interpark’s Play DB, a performance arts Web portal.

Kim Jun-soo, a member of music group JYJ, dominated the charts.

Out of 16 musicals marked to open in the second half, 31.4 percent of the respondents picked “Elizabeth,” starring Kim, as “the most expected musical.” In the second slot came “Wicked,” with 14.5 percent opting to vote the first licensed stage of the 2012’s best-selling musical.

“A Tale of Two Cities” and “Scarlet Pimpernel” came in third and fourth holding 8.5 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.

The results indicated South Korean musical fans’ preference for solemn and grave themes over light and modern-timed plays.

As for favorite musical actors, 27.5 percent picked Kim Jun-soo, once again showing his unfading popularity in the musical industry. Actor-turned-musical actor Jo Seung-woo came in the second place with 19.6 percent votes, followed by professional musical actors Ryu Jeong-han, Hong Gwang-ho and Kim Sun-yeong.

As for the price of the performance, 60.5 percent of the respondents felt an average price of 100,000 won for an R-Level seat was “too expensive” and 47.9 percent said half of that price would be an optimal rate for the same seat.

Jin Eun-soo, Intern reporter
(janna924@heraldcorp.com)