Representative Korean Production Poster
Luna Park
Official English Title
SOURCE
history
SETTING
Foreign
BOOK
original
The birth of Coney Island's Luna Park
Korean Premiere:
None
Korean Premiere Theatre
None
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References
Summary
The turbulent partnership of Skip Dundy and Fred Thompson, who opened Coney Island's Luna Park in 1903, a generation before Walt Disney.
Origin & Development
With music by Hyeyoung Kim, lyrics by Michael Cooper, and book by Gina Femia, from an original book by Daniel F. Levin, the musical follows Fred Thompson and Skip Dundy, creators of Coney Island’s first Luna Park. Kim and Cooper met as students in NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and began collaborating in 2005. The musical was commissioned by SUNY Cortland in 2007–2008, while its authors were artists in residence there; after a week-long summer workshop, the university’s Department of Performing Arts gave it its world premiere at the Dowd Fine Arts Theatre on October 24–November 2, 2008, directed and choreographed by Kevin Halpin, with a cast of students, community members, and local children. A studio demo of selected songs was recorded in 2011, and 15 minutes of a revised version were presented in Musical Theatre Factory’s 4x15 series in New York on October 13, 2014.
In 2016 it was developed through the Oregon Performance Lab, closing the lab’s summer season with a concert version at Lane Community College in Eugene on September 11, and through Aria Entertainment’s From Page to Stage season in London, with three semi-staged readings at the Tristan Bates Theatre on November 1–3, directed by Benji Sperring. Its songs were featured in the Good to Go Songwriters’ Showcase, presented by Prospect Theater Company and the Good to Go Festival at the Times Center in New York on March 10, 2017. The newest version, with a revised book incorporating original text by Maxim Gorky, was presented in two benefit concerts by the Astoria Performing Arts Center in Queens on December 1–2, 2018, directed by Dev Bondarin. It has also been presented as a staged reading in the New York Film Academy’s New Work Series.
Partial Synopsis
On May 16, 1903, more than 250,000 electric lights illuminated the Brooklyn sky as Skip Dundy and Fred Thompson, the true fathers of the modern themed amusement park, opened Luna Park at Coney Island. A full generation before Walt Disney, they created a fantastical place where New Yorkers could forget the pressures of modern industrial society and remember how to play. Luna Park chronicles the turbulent partnership of Dundy and Thompson and the birth of the most iconic, and controversial, amusement park in the world.
Luna Park
2008
2008-10-24
to
2008-11-02
Production Type:
Full Production
Country:
United States
City:
Cortland
Language:
English
Venue:
Dowd Fine Arts Theatre, SUNY Cortland
World premiere production by the SUNY Cortland Department of Performing Arts, which commissioned the work, with six ticketed performances. Directed and choreographed by Kevin Halpin, with musical direction by Corrine Aquilina; the large cast combined SUNY students, community members, and local children.
Luna Park
2016
2016-11-01
to
2016-11-03
Production Type:
Reading / Showcase
Country:
United Kingdom
City:
London
Language:
English
Venue:
Tristan Bates Theatre
A semi-staged reading in Aria Entertainment's From Page to Stage season of new musical theatre (October 31–November 20, 2016), produced by Katy Lipson, directed by Benji Sperring with musical direction by Nick Barstow. The cast included Geri Allen, Georgie Ashford, Craig Berry, Ian Gareth-Jones, James Gulliford, Michael Hamway, Lizzii Hills, and Chris Vincent.
Luna Park
2017
2017-03-10
to
2017-03-10
Production Type:
Concert
Country:
United States
City:
New York
Language:
English
Venue:
The Times Center
Songs from the musical were presented at the Good to Go Songwriters' Showcase, a ticketed women writers' showcase presented by Prospect Theater Company and the Good to Go Festival as part of the IGNITE series, directed by Christine O'Grady with musical direction by Britt Bonney.
Luna Park
2018
2018-12-01
to
2018-12-02
Production Type:
Concert
Country:
United States
City:
Queens, New York
Language:
English
Venue:
RIOULT Dance Center
Two benefit concerts presented by Astoria Performing Arts Center, directed by its artistic director Dev Bondarin, introducing the newest version of the musical with a revised book incorporating original text by Maxim Gorky. The cast included LaDonna Burns, Ashley Chiu, Jonathan Gregg, Aline Mayagoitia, Jonathan Mousset, Toren Nakamura, Tony Perry, Jason Pintar, Rachel Rhodes-Devey, Cliff Sellers, Anne Wechsler, and Keith White.
Production Type Key — Letters grow with the scale of the production, from workshop to licensed production.
English Title Verification
Evidence for Official English Title
Luna Park | Captured: 2026-10-25
https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history-archive/hyeyoung-kim-and-michael-cooper
Official English titles in this database are extracted only from primary sources. These include:
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materials released by the production company, credited creative team, or venue, including their official pages on social media, YouTube, and similar platforms;
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official English listings on ticketing sites;
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official industry events such as the K-Musical Market;
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interviews in which a creative team member clearly gives the English title.
English titles that appear only in translations by others, such as news articles, reviews, or fan materials, are not included as official titles. When no primary-source English title exists, the title is recorded as a literal translation and labeled on the left as either “Unofficial Third Party Usage Confirmed” or “No English Title Found,” depending on whether an English title has appeared in the media or elsewhere.
“Captured” is the date the screenshot was taken. “Accessed” is the date the search for an English title was last carried out. English titles may change when a production revises them for a later staging. Entries are updated to the most recent official title where possible, though updates may lag behind such changes.
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