"Interview: A New Musical" will be the first original Korean musical to open in New York City on Friday. Written and composed by Korean artists, the show will play at the St. Clement's Theatre, off-Broadway. The show revolves around a 10-year-old murder mystery narrated through an interview.
With music by Soo Hyun Huh, Bryan Michaels has translated the lyrics that was originally written by Jung Hwa Choo. The music was premiered at Soo Hyun Jae Theatre in Seoul, Korea in September 2016. According to the show's official website, the description of the story reads: "When a famous psychologist & author calls a temp agency for an apprenticeship, the perfect candidate appears at his door. Witty, studious & eager to please, Matt Sinclair quickly makes an impression with Dr. Eugene Harper. All is not as it appears, however, & what starts as an interview, quickly turns sinister as the author's true motives are revealed. Interview tells the story of a psychologist, a criminal defendant & a legal system that would stop at nothing to gain an alleged killer's confession, even if it means driving the accused to the brink of insanity."
The off-Broadway version will star Josh Bardier, Adam Dietlein, and Erin Kommor. Korea's most famous theater director Dimo Hyun Jun Kim and Matthew Thomas Burda will call the shots. The New York staging is produced by Korean actors Kim Soo-ro and Kim Min-jong.
"Dimo Hyun Jun Kim is a theater director from Seoul, South Korea, Chairman of Dimo Kim Musical Theatre Factory LLC & Theatre Department Chair of Born Star Training Center NYC," the official website added. Dimo also expressed his happiness in being part of the production. "It's a pleasure to bring this new musical from Korea to the American Theatre. Over the past 20 years, the Korean musical theater market has been dominated with Broadway-licensed musicals. My hope is that this show will provide more opportunities to Asian artists in the future who also dream of working in American theater," he said.
Interestingly, many are not aware of the fact that South Korea has become the third biggest market for musical theater after New York & London over the past 15 years. The "Phantom of the Opera," a musical production in 2001 paved way for expanding the horizons.
