Korean producer to debut in Britain

A leading South Korean musical production company said Thursday it is preparing to debut an English-language musical in London’s West End.

Acom International Co., producer of hit Korean musicals “The Last Empress” and “Hero,” said it had a second workshop performance of the new musical “Woyzeck” at Charing Cross Theater in London last month.

The event came after the company’s seven-year-long effort to produce something that can better appeal to global audiences. So, the production company made “Woyzeck” under a contract with an all-British staff and cast operating in the West End.

“Woyzeck” is based on a stage play by the same name written by German writer Georg Buchner and tells the story of the gradual debasement of a man. 

But the South Korean musical adaptation of the play tried to remove the convoluted and experimental images of the original play and added a lyrical touch to focus on the tragic love between the title character Woyzeck and his partner Marie, according to the company.

The British underground band Singing Loins took charge of playwriting and music, joined by director Matt Ryan of musicals “Les Miserables” and “Miss Saigon” and Nigel Lilley, musical director of musicals “Spring Awakening” and “La Cage.”

“Woyzeck” will be shown in South Korea in the second half of next year and at British theaters hopefully around 2014, Acom officials said.

“Woyzeck” is one of the most performed and influential plays in the German theater repertory.

Since Buchner died in the 1800s at the age of 24, leaving the work incomplete, the play has been posthumously “finished” by a variety of authors, editors and translators.

(Yonhap News)