Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – On Broadway, KPOP exchanges its immersive edge and raw backstage drama for pop concert exuberance

• By drediman
• November 28, 2022
• No Comments

Last night, KPOP opened at Circle in the Square, making the leap to the Great White Way after making a splash Off-Broadway five years ago in an audaciously immersive production courtesy of Ars Nova and Ma-Yi Theater Company. As its title bluntly suggests, the new musical chronicles the journeys of three K-pop acts as they work to cross-over into the American mainstream (in an inspired bit of meta-theatrical casting, real life K-pop star Luna has been cast in the central role of MwE, the show’s conflicted pop diva). As we learn more about them and their respective backgrounds and their impending American debuts inch closer and closer, the drama escalates and tensions flare up.

The biggest question is how such a bespoke production – for its Off-Broadway incarnation, the entirety of A.R.T./New York was effectively converted into a literal K-pop “factory” – could translate to more conventional environs (although Circle in the Square is far from your conventional Broadway theater, relatively speaking). By and large, the show’s creators have done a valiant job of transitioning the intensely immersive Off-Broadway staging to a more traditional mode of theatrical storytelling. Instead of heated studio sessions where the audience ingeniously functions as focus groups, the dramatic thrust of the Broadway edition is instigated by invasive “Behind the Music”-type filming scenes documenting the lead up to the three acts’ debut American concert. Although the rethought book by Jason Kim works conceptually, in execution the approach often diffuses the performers’ raw backstage dramas (so palpable Off-Broadway), resulting in little more than a series of soap opera light episodes.

Despite my reservations about the musical’s much altered Main Stem form, I nevertheless had a really fun time at the show. In addition to bringing welcome diversity to Broadway – not only does KPOP feature a youthful, mostly-Asian cast, its book refreshingly refuses to shy away from using the Korean language – Helen Park and and Max Vernon’s bubble gum pop score is a pure delight. Indeed, the show is at its best when in the midst of its many exuberant production numbers (kudos to Jennifer Weber’s well-drilled choreography, which really make them pop). Never mind that the acting from the eager cast only rarely goes deeper than skin deep, when these kids infectiously pivot to pop concert mode, it’s hard not to bop right along with them.

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KPOP
Broadway, Musical
Circle in the Square
2 hours, 15 minutes (with one intermission)
Open run