Translated Musicals and Musical Translation in Korea

Abstract

Korea's musical market has grown by more than three hundred percent during the past five years and now claims over fifty percent of the performing arts market. Since musicals in their current form are of western origin, the translated productions most likely have played an important part in shaping the Korean musical industry. This paper examines the brief history of large-scale translated musical productions for the past five years in an attempt to better define their role in shaping the current Korean musical culture. Relative to other elements of western culture, musicals have been late in entering the Korean market. This paper attempts to postulate the reason behind the late arrival of this genre. Also of interest are the translation mediation methods adopted by translators. Translation is generally a very complex procedure, but translation of musicals has added factors such as music, performability, acceptability, marketability as well as approval from the original production companies. The translation process and strategies used by the translators are examined and motivations behind these decisions are postulated.