Broadway has struggled to translate international pop into hit musicals, while K-Pop Demon Hunters combines K-pop-inspired songs with anime-style visuals and action to become a global hit. The Sony/Netflix feature follows a girl group of Korean idols who secretly battle demons and leans unapologetically into pop spectacle and storytelling. Broadway attempts to harness international pop have faltered: KPOP's Broadway transfer abandoned an immersive concept for a traditional book-musical, resulting in underwritten characters, a thin plot, and loss of concert fervor, leading to early closure. Here Lies Love engaged Filipino and Asian pop aesthetics but collided with Broadway's institutional constraints.
In 2022, KPOP was billed as Broadway's first K-pop musical. An earlier 2017 Off-Broadway production had been acclaimed for its inventive immersive design, which placed audiences amid rehearsals and backstage drama. But in transferring to Broadway, the show abandoned that concept in favor of a more traditional book-musical structure. While the cast was talented and the musical numbers were polished, the characters were underwritten, the plot felt thin, and the show never captured the fervor of a real K-pop concert.
The following year, Here Lies Love, created by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, drew on the global disco sound of the 1970s while immersing audiences in a distinctly Filipino cultural setting. Transforming the Broadway Theatre into a nightclub, the show dramatized how Imelda Marcos used music, spectacle, and celebrity culture to project political power. By borrowing from the aesthetics of karaoke clubs and dance halls popular across Asia, Here Lies Love directly engaged with international pop idioms.
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