The visiting Broadway musicals and local indie musicals in Korea are irresistible and rich in quality as well as quantity, to say the least—anyone can thus be a cultured college student, no? No, not anymore anyway, in the sense that many cannot afford to be or feel as cultured as they would like, and so the exasperatingly high ticket prices of musicals have brewed up quite a storm among theater-goers and musical aficionados. 

The life of an average Korean college student is laborious and intensive; you go to school, go to an internship, go to pad your résumé for future jobs, go to tutor younger students for money, and, all in all, go to excruciating lengths to make your parents as well as yourselves proud for being an all-around successful college student. Yet, where can you go to blow off all that steam, built up from the process, and take a breather for a change? Perhaps going out to meet friends or going out to a movie can do, but alas going out to “get cultured” and see a musical is currently a bit of a financial stretch for most students.

Ticket pricing of standard musicals, not limited to Broadway, has for a time been selling at a frighteningly high rate that seems overly burdensome and extravagant for the average college student. Earning money at alba—or at a part-time job—or from several tutoring sessions with younger students, is not enough anymore; plus, even if it is enough, spending so much just to see a single musical seems like a waste of money.

“I would rather spend my money on other things because going to see musicals is too costly for me,” said Kim Do Own (’11, Journalism and Mass Communication). “I do tutor in my free time for money, but I need to use the money that I earn for necessities.”

▲ Provided by Gtraveler

Not Always Is It High

There are some rare exceptions to the high ticket pricing, as Arts Communication International (Acom), a musical production company in Korea, took on this controversial matter with the popular local musical Hero, by reducing its fees. All tickets were sold for 50,000 won or less. According to Acom, they would continue this low and reasonable ticket pricing for their other popular musical productions such as Wandeuki, which opened just last month.

This is a rare and risky step for any musical production company to take. High production costs force standard entertainment companies to sell their tickets at high prices. Acom is an exception because they received a whopping 500 million won in government aid to support the total musical production fees. This made the company financially viable and allowed them to “choose to give back to the audience, ultimately beginning a plan to normalize ticket fees from now on.” What Acom was able to do was only possible with a simple government aid proposal. Other companies, however, have to stand on their own two feet without government assistance, and so it is doubtful if they will be able to lower prices much, if any.

▲ Provided by Interpark

Is High Too High?

Generally, there are three main types of musical performances in Korea—original, or Broadway or other internationally acclaimed, musicals; licensed musicals; and local musicals. Original musicals are those foreign musical companies that come to Korea to perform in local theaters; licensed musicals are those that Korean musical companies buy the rights to perform in Korea; and local musicals are written and created in Korea.

Original musicals are the priciest of the three, while local musicals are the cheapest. What exasperates most people lies in what they view as an unacceptably large price gap between the original and local musicals. What they overlook, though, is that most of the production companies have no choice but to charge high. “In the case of licensed musicals, a lot of money goes into the production costs; the profit that each performance can make mostly comes from the tickets alone,” said Employee Im Mi Jung (25, Seoul) of the Korea Musical Theater Association.

Until recently, much of Korea’s musical production companies have strived to import popular hit musicals performed by internationally-acclaimed companies from Broadway and the West End—as in, licensed musicals. Unfavorable conditions arise thusly, as licensing agreements include expensive royalty costs. The Broadway musical hit Spring Awakening, licensed and performed in Korea a few years back, raked in a royalties hit of approximately one million dollars; ticket prices at the time were, at most, 80,000 won.

According to the production company, Acom, in order to match the production unit cost of most licensed performances, those companies have no choice but to delineate out certain seat areas with incredibly high ticket prices—this is seen as the only way for most companies to make ends meet.

Original musicals are likewise pricey to view, but for a different reason. “Foreign production companies ask for their production fees in visiting and performing in a country, of course, which they negotiate with the managers of the theater they are to use,” added Im. The conflict is that there is a limited amount of theaters in Korea, which ups the ticket prices.

What further adds to the cost of Broadway or West End tickets stems from having to pay for the dozens of staff members of the foreign production company who travel with the musical—also for the stage equipment shipped from abroad. The production procedure is in itself as costly as it is complex.

▲ Provided by Interpark

Is There a Way Out?

Excuses, or reasons, can certainly be made for the high ticket pricing of musicals in Korea. Still, people cannot and will not take such high prices standing still.

There are questionable gaps in the rationale behind the high ticket cost, one being that there are unnecessary amounts of seats for one showing to fill. “I don’t understand the point in many overpriced musicals having so many expensive seats when they will not be completely filled, and the reason that they are not filled is that the tickets for those seats are too expensive,” said Jeon Won Mi (’09, English Language and Literature).

There are many musicals that pass their break-even point for making a profit, despite selling a measly amount of tickets; with the expensive cost of the few tickets that are sold, they more than cover their expenses. “It is possible for a production company to profit from a half-empty theater with just the VIP seating area filled,” said Acom CEO Yoon Ho Jin (65, Chungcheong South Province). If this is the case, what, then, is the point of extravagant ticket pricing? Yoon said, “If this is the way that the musical industry is headed, it will have a hard time surviving as it gets farther and farther away from its core audience.”

Could high ticket pricing be as inevitable as it is claimed to be? According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, in comparison with foreign countries, Korea is on the more lenient and cheaper side when it comes to musical ticket pricing. The Ministry has been offering a number of discount systems, such as the loosely translated “Love Ticket,” in which certain Korean citizens or college students may utilize to their benefit.

In Lim Ha Young’s (’11, Journalism and Mass Communication) opinion, “The community should try to make some kind of rule to limit expensive costs, as in trying to have a set ticket price regulation for all original musicals, as well as for all local musicals.” This way, it would make it easier on people if they knew the price was fixed everywhere.

Completely satisfying both sides of an issue is a difficult task, but not an impossible one. It takes a bit of effort and understanding from both sides, but only time will tell if things go for better or worse—or more expensive or cheaper.