''The Last Empress'' (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

: 뮤지컬 명성황후) is a Korean musical about the

Empress Myeongseong Empress Myeongseong or Empress Myungsung (명성황후 민씨; 17 November 1851 – 8 October 1895In lunar calendar, the Empress was born on 25 September 1851 and died on 20 August 1895), informally known as Empress Min, was the official wife ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, based on a historical novel by author

Yi Mun-yol Yi Mun-yol (born May 18, 1948) is a South Korean writer. Yi's given name at birth was Yol; the character, Mun (which translates as "writer"), was added after he took up a writing career. His works include novels, short stories and Korean adap ...

. It debuted in 1995 as

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

's first original musical. The musical had Peter Casey as orchestrator and was composed by Kim Hee-gap, with lyrics by Yang In-ja (translated by Georgina St. George), and directed by Yun Ho-jin. The musical was produced by the

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

-based Arts Communication (A-Com). The original production at the Seoul Performing Arts Center was expected to reach one million ticket sales by March 2007. It played at the

New York State Theater The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Originally ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

, in 1997 and 1998, to favorable reviews. It also played in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

's West End in 2002, the Kodak Theatre in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 2003, and at Toronto's

Hummingbird Centre Meridian Hall is a major performing arts venue in Toronto, Ontario, and it is the country's largest soft-seat theatre. The facility was constructed for the City of Toronto municipal government and is currently managed by TO Live, an arms-len ...

in 2004.

References

External links

'Last Empress,' Musical Echo of Korea's History
by Don Kirk, International Herald Tribune (March 27, 1998)

by Ricardo Saludo, Asia Week (December 18, 1998)

* ttp://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=980DE4DC173EF932A1575BC0A961958260 New York Times review 1997
LA Weekly review

South Korean musicals 1997 musicals Musicals based on novels {{Korea-stub

See also

References

External links