“KPOP,” a brand new Broadway musical each celebrating and exploring the wildly well-liked Korean music style, will shut on Sunday, simply two weeks after opening.
The producers had hoped that the big and youthful world fan base for Ok-pop music would result in a robust viewers for the present, however as an alternative it confronted anemic ticket gross sales that made it not possible to maintain going.
The present’s grosses have been constantly effectively beneath what it prices to run a Broadway musical; throughout the week that ended Dec. 4, it grossed simply $126,493, making it the lowest-grossing musical now working. Its common ticket value was $32.06, which can be unsustainably low; the business common that week was $128.34.
“KPOP,” wealthy with efficiency numbers in a mixture of English and Korean, tells the story of a solo singer, in addition to a boy band and a woman group, all making ready for a U.S. live performance tour. They’re contending not solely with the pains of the efficiency model, but in addition some tensions with their producer, a documentary filmmaker, and amongst themselves.
The present obtained combined evaluations, together with a largely unfavorable one in The New York Occasions. (The producers complained that the Occasions evaluation was racially insensitive; Occasions editors defended the evaluation.)
The present, produced by Tim Forbes and Joey Parnes, was capitalized for as much as $14 million, in response to a submitting with the Securities and Alternate Fee; that cash has not been recouped. On the time of its closing, “KPOP” can have performed 44 preview performances and 17 common performances.
“KPOP” options an authentic rating, with songs by Helen Park and Max Vernon, and a e-book by Jason Kim. Directed by Teddy Bergman and choreographed by Jennifer Weber, “KPOP” was conceived by Kim and an immersive theater firm known as Woodshed Collective; its manufacturing life started with a completely immersive and extra experimental nonprofit staging in 2017 at A.R.T./New York Theaters, produced by Ars Nova in affiliation with Ma-Yi Theater Firm and Woodshed Collective.
The Broadway manufacturing, with a forged that included a number of alumni of Ok-pop teams, together with the present’s star, Luna, started previews Oct. 13 and, after a string of absences, cancellations and postponements attributable to Covid and different infections among the many firm, opened on Nov. 27 at Circle within the Sq.. That theater is among the many smallest of the 41 Broadway homes; for KPOP, it’s configured with 687 seats organized on three sides of the stage.
Total gross sales on Broadway stay softer than they have been earlier than the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and that has made survival even more durable in an business all the time characterised by extra failures than successes. This fall, Gabriel Byrne’s solo present, “Strolling With Ghosts,” additionally lower brief its run due to weak field workplace gross sales; solely a handful of this season’s exhibits seem like on a path to potential profitability.
“KPOP” was a milestone for Broadway in a number of methods: The primary Korean-centered present written by Korean Individuals, the primary with an Asian feminine composer, and considered one of solely a handful of exhibits with a forged that’s predominantly Asian and Asian American. The manufacturing mentioned that its remaining efficiency would come with a panel dialogue about Asian American and Pacific Islander illustration on Broadway.
The present, like many musicals on Broadway, is planning to provide a forged album. It’s scheduled to be launched in February by Sony Masterworks Broadway.