We are less than a month away from Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate early… or even outside the month of May for that matter. And what better way to celebrate Asian culture then with leaning into the K-pop phenomenon that Western culture has adopted… and some times appropriated (remember that K-pop group with white boys?)
That aside, we are here to celebrate Lucille Lortel production of KPOP which is heading to Broadway starting on October 13 with previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre and a November 20 opening night. The musical tells the story of global superstars putting everything on the line for a special one-night only concert, as one singer’s inner struggle threatens to dismantle one of the biggest labels in the industry.
We don’t do many Broadway announcements on DIASPORA, but this is begging to become a feature so we thought it appropriate to put some shine on it. That said, the musical just unveiled an extensive roster of the cast that will be joining the musical which includes: Julia Abueva, Will Brill, Major Curda, Joomin Hwang, Jinwoo Jung, Jiho Kang, Amy Keum, James Kho, Bo Hyung Kim, Eddy Lee, Jully Lee, Min Young Lee, Timothy H. Lee, Abraham Lim, Kate Mina Lin, Aubie Merrylees, Patrick Park, Kevin Woo, and John Yi. They will be joining previously announced cast members K-pop star Luna as well as Spica and Keembo‘s Bo Hyung Kim, Miss A‘s Min Young Lee, and U-KISS‘s Kevin Woo.
KPOP marks the first Korean/K-pop-centric Broadway musical with 16 of the actors making their Broadway debuts.The musical comes from Woodshed Collective and Jason Kim, who also wrote the book. The music, lyrics, and music production are by Helen Park; and music and lyrics by Max Vernon. Direction is by Teddy Bergman with choreography by Jennifer Weber and Music Direction by Sujin Kim-Ramsey.