Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo will perform “Cinderella” from June 12-14 at the Seoul Arts Center, the first time the company is performing in Korea in 14 years. “Cinderella” is one of the iconic choreographic works produced by the ballet company’s longtime director Jean-Christophe Maillot, who has produced more than 30 ballets for the company, including “Vers un Pays Sage (1995), “Romeo and Juliett...

The National Theater of Korea will hold screenings of Benedict Andrews’ production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and James Macdonald’s reinterpretation of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Edward Albee, from March 14 -24 at Daloreum Theater. The National Theater of Korea’s upcoming screenings of the two theater masterpieces are imports from National Theatre Live, the Royal Na...

Knowing and witnessing are two different things. The former deals with thoughts, whereas the latter involves confronting reality up close. “Kill Ahn Young-ho” is a drama that forces the audience to confront the realities facing teenage runaways. By showing us this story of three marginalized young people who have run away from home and the violence and difficulties that pushed them onto the stre...

“The Man Who Laughs” got the last laugh at the annual Korea Musical Awards Monday night at Seoul’s Blue Square, winning acclaim for best musical, best actor and best theatrical arts. Its lead Park Hyo-shin won best actor -- an honor he shared with Choi Jae-rim of “Matilda” -- for playing the role of Gwynplaine. He also won best actor at the seventh Yegreen Musical Awards on Nov. 5 for the same r...

The night of the 2019 Korea Musical Awards shone bright with musical stars on the red carpet. With many musicals staged last year, a diverse group of stars nominated for awards attended the event held Monday. (Photo By Kim Hye-soo/The Korea Herald) Musical couple Kim So-hyun and Sohn Joon-ho stepped on the red carpet in a fairytale-like dress and tuxedo respectively. Kim wore a peach bell-shap...

Wednesday sees the kickoff in Seoul of the musical “The Lion King,” marking the beginning of another year with an array of musicals to entertain local audiences. The musical will performed in English, as it comes as part of an international tour. The show continues through March 28 at Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul. It will be held at 8 p.m. on weekdays and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on ...

The Choi So Bin Ballet will highlight its 2017 production “Cinderella” at a show slated for Jan. 12 at the Yongin Poeun Art Hall in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Based on one of the world’s most beloved folktales, the hourlong “Cinderella” is accompanied by the classical music of Johann and Josef Strauss with delightful choreography to match. The ballet is well-suited to young families, the ballet ...

The annual Korea Musical Awards on Thursday announced the nominees in major categories including best musical, best leading and supporting actors and actresses and best music. Operators of the KMA on Thursday held a press conference to reveal the nominees and details of the upcoming ceremony, set for 7 p.m. on Jan.14 at Blue Square in Yongsan, central Seoul. Only musicals that opened between De...

Three choreographers take three Stravinsky pieces, bring them to life in movement

The Mariinsky Ballet will perform “Don Quixote” at the Sejong Center in Seoul from Thursday to Sunday, with ballerino Kim Ki-min and ballerina Viktoria Tereshkina in the lead roles. The production is Alexnader Gorsky’s version of the ballet, created in the early-20th century. It is a reinvention of choreographer Marius Petipa’s work, which premiered in 1869 at the Bolshoi Theatre. The Mariinsky...

Achim Freyer’s “Das Rheingold” will kick off a two-year journey on Wednesday. The German producer’s latest opera -- the first installment of the Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner -- will premiere Wednesday at the Seoul Arts Center, where it will run until Nov. 18. The other three operas will be performed in the next two years. Singers perform during a rehearsal of Achim Freyer’s “Das Rheingold” on M...

Idols often seem to live in a different universe, surrounded by glitz and glamor onstage and on TV screens. But when it comes to Suneung, Korea’s annual college entrance exam, stars are on the same plane as every other 18 year-old in the country. Although not all celebrities decide to take Suneung, there are quite a number who wish to continue their studies alongside their careers. Stars who ha...

Director Lee Kyung-sung’s “Love Story” is a play that is faithful to the theater’s fundamental function: imagination. “Love Story” follows on the heels of Lee’s 2017 work “Walking Holiday,” inspired by a walking tour of the Demilitarized Zone, which highlighted the reality of the divided Korean Peninsula. “Love Story,” however, is different as it provides a look at the physically unreachable la...

Truth be told, it feels almost irrelevant to discuss how great “The Lion King” musical is: What hasn’t been said about the multiple Tony Award-winning show that has been seen by over 95 million worldwide, across more than 100 cities in 20 countries? But seeing it onstage in its original language, for the first time in Korea, was a reminder that “The Lion King” is not just about the story, the mu...

The Seoul Arts Center on Wednesday began a run of director Lee Su-in’s “A Black Box,” a 2017 play written by Lee Kang-baek. The story was inspired by a real picture of King Gojong that was presented to a US president’s daughter, who is known to have made belittling remarks about it. A scene from “A Black Box” (SAC) Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of US President Theodore Roosevelt, mention...