Perfect harmony between the quality and popularity of a smiling man...Creative musical has opened a new horizon

Feb 27, 2025

Perfect harmony between the quality and popularity of a smiling man...Creative musical has opened a new horizon
Photo=EMK Musical Company



Musical 'Laughing Man' is opening a new horizon for creative musicals with the perfect harmony of cinematic quality and popularity.

'Laughing Man' performed successfully for the fourth season at the Opera Theater of the Seoul Arts Center, providing a fantastic experience to the audience with both outstanding cinematic quality and high popularity. Proving once again the face of a masterpiece that transcends time and generation, it is enjoying an unrivaled box office hit this season as well.

"Laughing Man" is a masterpiece of creative musicals by creating a solid narrative structure of a great master to match the musical style based on the original novel, which world-renowned writer Victor Hugo picked himself as "couldn't write any greater works.' Set in England in the 17th century, when discrimination was severe, Gwynn Plen's life, which has a terrible monster face but retains purity, criticized the situation in which social justice and humanity have collapsed and shed deep light on the value of human dignity and equality.




This work convincingly depicts the psychology of the main character Gwynne Plen and the characters around him, giving the audience a deep impression and lingering feeling. It sharply illuminates human nature and social absurdity and captures the era of greed and unhappiness in three dimensions to convey an insightful message to the audience, drawing sympathy from audiences living in the present era.

Perfect harmony between the quality and popularity of a smiling man...Creative musical has opened a new horizon
Photo=EMK Musical Company
Frank Wildhorn's beautiful music and a spectacular stage that you can't take your eyes off for a moment are also essential to the high quality of 'The Laughing Man'. The dramatic music of Korean composer Frank Wildhorn doubles the emotion of the work, combined with detailed changes of heart such as Gwynne Plen's sadness, solitude, hope and frustration in the play. In addition, the scenes of the Senate Congress, Josiana's bedroom, and garden party, which seem to have brought the splendor of the 17th-century aristocratic society, inspire viewers. In contrast, Gwynne Plen's poor nomadic theater company gives an experience as if coming to a fairy tale world with warm lights and sets reminiscent of love and friendship for each other, and warms the hearts of those watching it.

The role of Gwynn Plen is receiving loud applause every time, capturing the hearts of domestic and overseas musical audiences with the delicate emotional performance and excellent singing skills of the actors Joo-yeon, led by Park Eun-tae, Lee Seok-hoon, Kyu-hyun, and Do-young.




Perfect harmony between the quality and popularity of a smiling man...Creative musical has opened a new horizon
NCT 도영. Photo =SM Entertainment
As if to prove this popularity, the musical 'Laughing Man' drew attention by achieving the first place in the reservation rate every time during a total of four ticket openings, and was greatly loved by the audience by proving the unrivaled box office performance of the work, with a 5.0-point audience rating (based on melon tickets).

'Laughing Man' premiered as a world premiere in 2018 with a total of five years of production and a huge production cost of 17.5 billion won. In the shortest period of a month since the opening of the premiere, it has surpassed 100,000 cumulative audiences, creating a new history of Korean creative musicals, and at the same time, breaking an unprecedented box office record that exceeds 92% of the audience's share, sparking various syndromes beyond simple box office hits.

Accordingly, he won six awards at the 7th Yegreen Musical Awards, three awards at the 3rd Korea Musical Awards, the 6th E-Daily Cultural Awards, the 14th Golden Ticket Awards, and the Best Musical Award. The work, which combines the heavy message of the work, beautiful music, and the explosive energy of the actors, continued to be popular in the subsequent seasons and was praised as a masterpiece symbolizing the present of Korean creative musicals.




Meanwhile, 'The Laughing Man' will be performed at the Seoul Arts Center Opera Theater until March 9, and will continue to perform in Daegu, Seongnam, and Busan.



This article was translated by Naver AI translator.