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Gong Gil Jeon
공길전
Literal Translation
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SOURCE
play
SETTING
Korea
BOOK
adaptation
Based on Kim Tae-woong, Eul
Korean Premiere
2007
Korean Premiere Theatre
Chungmu Arts Center, Seoul
Further Korean run reference:
https://www.themusical.co.kr/Musical/Detail?num=838
The Musical search cue — “공길전”
Summary
A large-scale Korean musical based on Kim Tae-woong’s award-winning play Eul (爾), which also inspired the 2005 hit film The King and the Clown. The musical premiered in 2007.
Origin & Development
Gonggil-jeon was created by playwright and director Kim Tae-woong and produced by the Seoul Arts Troupe as part of the 2007 Cultural Korean Wave initiative. The musical is adapted from Kim’s own stage play Eul (爾), which received multiple theater awards and later inspired the record-breaking film The King and the Clown.
The production team included Lee Yun-taek as script supervisor and artistic consultant, and composer Kang Sang-gu, winner of the Korea Musical Awards. The show premiered at Chungmu Art Center in 2007, aiming to merge Korean traditional performance forms with modern musical staging.
Partial Synopsis
The musical depicts the lives of clowns (gwangdae) in late-Joseon society, focusing on their freedom, marginalization, and tragic fate under political authority. The narrative blends satire, dance, percussion, and theatrical ritual, presenting a stylized world of shifting power, loyalty, and artistic resistance. The tone is both lively and mournful, using traditional folk rhythms and contemporary musical scoring to explore the duality of laughter and suffering.
王的男人
2007
2007-12-15
to
2007-12-16
Country:
China
City:
Beijing
Production Type:
Full Production
Language:
Korean
Venue:
Tianqiao Theater
Invited as the official closing performance of the 2007 Korea–China Exchange Year, the Korean-language production gave two performances. It was later staged at the newly opened National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) and in Shanghai and other major cities; Chinese coverage highlighted its hybrid musical form and its use of Korean traditional performance as a structural device.
王的优人, 孔吉
2008
2008-07-05
to
2008-07-06
Country:
China
City:
Beijing
Production Type:
Full Production
Language:
Korean
Venue:
Beijing Century Theatre
Retitled for this run (The King's Jester, Gong-gil), the production was part of the Korean Performing Arts Week (June 18–July 13, 2008), held under 'Meet in Beijing', the official cultural program ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which presented Korean opera, musicals, dance, and theatre.
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