"A New Path to the Future": Women Producers of Border-Crossing Musical Theatre in Japan, South Korea, and China

Abstract

When South Korean producer Sophy Jiwon Kim decided she had to produce the Austrian musical Mozart! (1999) in South Korea, she flew to Tokyo to pursue its creators Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay at a Japanese theatre and persuade them to grant her the rights for a Korean premiere in 2010. When American producers failed to finance a revue show celebrating the work of Broadway director and producer Harold Prince, Japanese producer Murata Hiroko1 risked her career to honor Prince, premiering the revue, Prince of Broadway, in Japan in 2015, prior to a 2017 Broadway opening. When Chinese producer Yang Jiamin wanted to bring the American musical Man of La Mancha (1965) to China but the initial license agreement proved prohibitive for her fledgling Chinese company’s 2012 inaugural production, she traveled to New York and negotiated with the show’s composer, Mitch Leigh. These women have taken risks for musical theatre. They cross borders and continents, often based on strong instincts rather than certainties.