Announcing the English language premiere of a major new musical, MARIE CURIE
Byungwon Kang & LIVE corp. present
The English language premiere of a major new musical
MARIE CURIE
Book & Lyrics by Seeun Choun
Music by Jongyoon Choi
Directed by Sarah Meadows
Charing Cross Theatre
Saturday 1 June – Sunday 28 July
Marie Sklodowska Curie. Physicist. Pioneer. Parent.
As she arrives from her native home in Poland to study at Sorbonne University in Paris, young Marie Sklodowska is certain she can make a name for herself and change the course of science. She discovers radium, a new chemical element, with her husband Pierre Curie, and she’s lauded with the Nobel Prize.
But she is faced with an overwhelming moral dilemma. As Marie discovers the lifesaving potential of radium to cure cancer, factory workers handling the glowing substance are succumbing to the insidious grip of radium poisoning.
As a woman with society against her, can she wrestle with both the potential and danger of her discovery – and what is she if radium’s dangers overshadow its possibilities?
A story of life and death, ‘Marie Curie’ has already captivated audiences in Korea and Japan with its sweeping score and story and is now brought to London audiences for the first time in a stirring original production directed by Sarah Meadows (Ride).
Marie Curie premiered in South Korea in 2020 at the Chungmu Art Center and recorded a rating of 9.8 (out of 10). A live performance was then broadcast, watched by 790,000 people. The show returned to Hongik Art Center Grand Theater, winning the Grand Prize, Best Book, Best Music, Best Director, and Best Producer at the 5th Korea Musical Awards. In 2023/24 Marie Curie opened its third season touring to six cities across South Korea. In Korea it was acclaimed for its cinematic quality and proved incredibly popular – watched in theatres by a cumulative total of 100,000 people.
Cast to be announced.
Creative team includes:
Producers: Byungwon Kang & LIVE corp.
Book & Lyrics: Seeun Choun
Music: Jongyoon Choi
Director: Sarah Meadows
English Book Adaptation: Tom Ramsay
English Lyrics Adaptation: Emma Fraser
Literal Translation: Ahreumbi Rew
Musical Director: Emma Fraser
Choreographer: Joanna Goodwin
Sound Designer: Andrew Johnson
Casting Director: Jane Deitch
Production Manager: James Anderton
General Management: Aria Entertainment
LIVE corp.
LIVE corp., founded in March 2011 by producer Byungwon Kang, aims to produce global musical
content.
Starting with the musical Paradise Ticket, Live Corp. has produced the musicals The Champ, Marines!, Fly High, Taekwon, Almond, Gwangju, Marie Curie, Fan Letter, Rimbaud, My Bucket List, Bachelor’s Vegetable Store, Mr. Lee Clean Center, In The Mood For Sorrow, plays Rent Apartment, Happiness Deliveryman Mr. Woo-soo, and the films House of the Disappeared, Respect, and many more.
LIVE corp. is Korea’s leading K-Musical production company. It exported the most extensive number of Korean musicals beyond South Korea, including China, Japan, and Taiwan, and all across Asia. From 2013 to the present, LIVE corp’s musicals have performed more than 1,000 times outside of South Korea, in original tours and licensed performances in more than 40 Asian cities. Musicals Bachelor’s Vegetable Store, My Bucket List, Rimbaud, In The Mood For Sorrow, and Fan Letter were presented in China; Fan Letter in Taiwan, and Bachelor’s Vegetable Store, Marie Curie, My Bucket List, and Fan Letter in Japan. Bachelor’s Vegetable Store was also produced as a TV series broadcast all across Asia.
In 2021 Marie Curie won the Grand Prize, Best Book, Best Music, Best Directing, and Best Producer in the 5th Korea Musical Awards, as well as the “Golden Watering Can (Złota Konewka)” the Grand Prix at the Music Gardens Festival in Poland. In the “Hyehwaroun-Gongyeonsenghwal” Awards in which the South Korean musical theater audience votes, in 2022 Fan Letter won the Best Work Award, and in 2023 Musical Rimbaud won the Best Work Award.
Producer Byungwon Kang has won the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award three times in 2017, 2019, and 2023 and was named the “Producer of the Year” by the Korea Performing Producers Association in 2018. In 2022, he won the Korea Performing Tourism Grand Award presented by the Korea Performing Tourism Association. Currently, he is also the vice president of the Korea Musical Association.
Producer Byungwon Kang hosted the creative musical contest “Glocal Musical Live” with the Korea Creative Content Agency every year until season 8 and has developed about 50 new works as a creative producer.
LIVE corp. will do its best to plan and develop original K-cultural content that can be sympathised with and loved by people worldwide, continuing in the future.
LISTINGS INFO
Byungwon Kang & LIVE corp.
present
The English language premiere of
MARIE CURIE
Book & Lyrics by Seeun Choun
Music by Jongyoon Choi
Directed by Sarah Meadows
English Book Adaptation by Tom Ramsay
English Lyrics Adaptation by Emma Fraser
Based on a Literal Translation by Ahreumbi Rew
Charing Cross Theatre
The Arches
Villiers Street
London WC2N 6NL
www.charingcrosstheatre.co.uk
Box office: 08444 930650
The box office is open from 2 hours before
curtain time on performance days for personal callers
Saturday 1 June – Sunday 28 July
Performances:
Tuesday – Saturday at 7.30pm
Wednesday at 2.30pm
Saturday at 2.30pm
Sunday at 3.00pm
Tickets from £15.00
Upgrade your ticket to include a glass of bubbly and a programme for just £7.50
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