Localizing Licensed Musical : A Case Study of K-musical

This paper looks into the specific ways in which European musicals are appropriated to meet the cultural tastes of Korean audiences as well as the production environments of Korean musical industry. This work attempts to find out how licensed productions that are drastically reconfigured in the local keep transforming themselves and eventually contribute to the making of ’K-Musical’. Through a case study and symptomatic reading of <Jack, the Ripper> and a couple of other licensed productions in Korean musical market, this research shows how its licensed version in Korea richly implicates cultural sensibilities and industrial contexts of the local and therefore seriously calls into question the easy binary opposition of ‘global culture, local consumption’. Furthermore, studying K-Musical also requires us to pay close attention to other central domains in Korean popular culture -television and popular music. Popularization and success of K-Musical is closely intertwined with the casting of K-Pop ‘idol stars’ whose members are now literally enjoying ‘global fandom’. In this sense, K-Musical is a multifaceted cultural phenomenon that begs immediate understanding and interpretation.