Who are the “big players” in the Korean performing arts world? In February, the Korea Arts Management Service and Shinhan Card announced the results of their “Study on the trend of performing arts consumption using big data”, which analyzed credit card transaction data from performing arts centers and ticketing firms located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province over the past three years (2014 to 2016).
According to the study, young women—in their early 30s—were the main consumers of the performing arts. By age, people in their early 30s were the biggest consumers of performances in the past year (101.6 billion won), followed by people in their early 40s (77.1 billion won) and mid 30s (76.8 billion won). Just looking at men, the numbers were in line with the general trend with those in their early 30s spending the most (39.3 billion won), followed by those in their early 40s (33.9 billion won) and mid 30s (32.1 billion won). For women, however, younger age groups showed higher consumption, with women in their early 30s spending the most on performances (62.3 billion won), followed by those in their late 20s (49.2 billion won) and mid 30s (44.7 billion won). Women in their late 20s and early 30s also spent the most of any group—280,000 won and 278,000 won respectively—and purchased an average of 4.3 tickets.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Thrill Me. It has just two (male) characters and the highest re-attendance rate among Korean women.
In the aftermath of the Sewol ferry tragedy and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak, performing arts consumption slowed somewhat, but it has been increasing every year. According to the “2016 Study on Performing Arts” conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Arts Management Service, the size of South Korea’s performing arts market was 781.5 billion won as of 2015, a 2.9 percent increase on 759.3 billion won in 2014. Ticket sales (363.3 billion won, 46 percent) accounted for the largest proportion of the total revenue. And if we break down those sales by genre, the 2015 split was: 197.5 billion won for musicals (54.4%), 72.9 billion won for plays (20.1%), 32.1 billion won for Western music concerts (8.8%), 9.9 billion won for cross-genre performances (2.7%), 9 billion won for traditional Korean music concerts (2.5%), 7 billion won for dance performances (1.9%), and 6.3 billion won for operas (1.7%).
Since young women have the greatest influence on market trends, productions with male leads tend to be more popular. There aren’t many productions that are led by women to begin with, and those that do reach the stage generally don’t sell well anyway. Many shows are sustained by female “revolving door viewers”—who re-watch the same performances over and over—and it seems that the imbalance in genres and casts won’t change any time soon.
Kyuhyun, a member of Super Junior, played the titular character in the musical Mozart. / EMK Musical Company
Kim Junsu, a member of JYJ, played the titular character in the musical Dorian Gray. / CJeS Culture
Musicals in Korea largely divide into those that play in big theaters and those that don’t. While larger theaters tend to put on licensed and touring musicals, small and mid-sized theaters seem to give more opportunity to original musicals.
Many producers still view musicals as “products” rather than “art” and, in prioritizing commercial success, they often cast K-pop idol singers in lead roles. This is the reason there are three, four or even five actors for the same character in a single production, which is rare in Broadway and the West End. Idol singers such as JYJ’s Kim Junsu and Super Junior’s Kyuhyun have now joined the ranks of “reliable musical actors”, but others don’t meet the expectations of the audience, leading to lower ticket sales than expected. Conflicts also arise during the rehearsal process as other actors adjust rehearsal times around idols’ busy schedules. Recently, however, more and more idol singers have captured the hearts of audiences with acting and singing skills to rival those of experienced musical actors.
So, which particular performances were most popular in Korea last year? Interpark, the largest advance ticket sales site, has put out its sales figures for 2016.
A scene from the musical Phantom, which is based on Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera. / EMK Musical Company
The highest grossing musical in Korea, according to Interpark, was Phantom, starring Park Hyo Shin, Park Eun-tae, and Jeon Dong Seok (music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit). It premiered in 2015 and has topped the list since. The second on the list was Mata Hari, an original musical that premiered last year, starring Ock Joo-hyun, Ryu Jung-han and Um Ki-joon. Both were produced by EMK Musical Company. Most of the other top sellers were licensed musicals: Notre-Dame de Paris, Kinky Boots, Monte Cristo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Sweeny Todd, Aida and Mamma Mia! And the tenth was an original Korean musical, The Days.
According to Interpark, The Capone Trilogy was the highest grossing limited run play in Korea last year. / IM Culture
Statistics on stage plays divide into two categories: steady sellers which have an open run and limited-run plays. The top steady seller was comedy The Liar 1, which returned to the top after years of giving way to Rooftop Room Cat and New Boeing-Boeing. Among the limited-run plays, The Capone Trilogy, an omnibus of three separate stories in three different plays, ranked first. The trilogy deals with three events that happened in the same place but ten years apart. This show led to many people visiting theaters several times. The second and third highest grossing limited-runs were Secret of Flower and The Elephant Song.
As for concerts, the top-selling concert was the 2016 BTS Live On Stage: Epilogue concert by BTS, whose album was ranked 26th on the Billboard 200, the highest ever for a K-pop group. Among classical concerts and operas, Carmen topped the ticket sales chart, while The Nutcracker grossed the highest ticket sales among the dance and traditional arts performances.
Koo Hee Eon’s recommended shows for this month will be published tomorrow.
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