Set to move to Magok, western Seoul, in 2022, the LG Arts Center released the program for its last season in Gangnam, southern Seoul, Friday. The center’s annual program CoMPAS21 will feature more domestic acts, as visits by international artists and art troupes are limited by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Performances by foreign productions are to be available through screenings. Theater director Yang Jung-ung, who staged the opening ceremony for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic

‘Wicked’ cast members open up about being part of the iconic musical

Programming spans a broad range, from Vienna Philharmonic and Hong Kong Ballet to LoL music

The original Korean-language musical “Last Empress” opened its curtains in Seoul earlier this month. The musical, which had its premiere in 1995, shows the life of 19th-century Empress Myeongseong, who was assassinated by Japanese agents in the years before Japan annexed the Korean Peninsula. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its premiere, the show went through some major changes to appeal to modern audiences. The musical, which originally featured only musical numbers withou

The National Theater Company of Korea is to stream barrier-free play “Scapin” and the premiere of newly-produced “Hamlet” online. Play “Scapin” will be streamed Friday and Saturday. “Scapin,” based on “The Rogueries of Scapin” written by French playwright Moliere, had its Korean premiere with the theater company in 2019.  The play is led by Scapin, a cunning, deceitful servant who plays the other characters off against each ot

Musical stars Ock Joo-hyun and Jeong Sun-ah bewitch audiences

Stage actor Kim Seong-nyeo to play female Faust

Lingering concerns over COVID-19 kept South Korean people from going to cinemas during the Lunar New Year holiday, but recently eased social distancing is expected to brighten prospects for the virus-hit film industry, box office data showed Monday. The number of moviegoers reached a total of 707,000 during the four-day lunar New Year holiday weekend that began on Thursday, according to the data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). It is just one seventh of more than 4.9 million attendees tal

State opera troupe will perform five full-act opera works this year

Popular shows extend runs to make up for two-month break

The LG Arts Center will stream four never-before-seen works in Korea by celebrated choreographer Matthew Bourne. The four pieces created by Bourne -- “The Red Shoes,” “The Car Man,” “Cinderella” and “Romeo and Juliet” -- will be streamed in March, the arts center announced Tuesday. Bourne’s dance company New Adventures was to perform “The Red Shoes” in Korea last year at the LG Arts Center, but was later canceled due to the CO

Middle-seat vacancy rule relaxed for performing art halls, cinemas

TvN hit drama “Hotel Del Luna” to be made into musical in 2022

With the COVID-19 pandemic pushing the art industry to shift online, the Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to launch a studio for online streaming in central Seoul to make way for virtual performances. The former Namsan Creative Center, which shut down last year, will be turned into a new studio for production and streaming of virtual art performances. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the new studio will officially open in April 2022 after a test period. The studio will be eq

The number of cinema closures soared to a 12-year high in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, data showed Tuesday. A total of 81 movie theaters closed shop across the nation last year, nearly double from the 43 shutdowns a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The number was the largest annual tally since 2008, when 88 cinemas in Asia's fourth-largest economy went out of business amid the US-originated global financial crisis. In the Seoul