KPOP NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (89)
See it if you love immersion. You become a character as you tour the space & learn about these performers' lives. Different experience every time!
Don't see it if you're not willing to learn about a new culture and a new music genre. If you don't like participation, this might be a lot for you.
See it if you love creative and immersive theatre
Don't see it if you're a boring potato.
See it if you want to see a one-of-a-kind show, you love immersive and participatory theatre
Don't see it if you want to feel more than think, you don't care for walking or participation, you want pure acting, you don't care for East Asian issues
See it if you love pop, concerts, boy bands, visceral experiences, amazing music, uber-talented artists, and unforgettable evenings.
Don't see it if you like traditional narratives, deep explorations of social issues, being on your feet. That said, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
See it if you want to see behind the curtains of Kpop.
Don't see it if You don’t like immersive theatre or moving around. You need a musical that has a clear story arc
See it if You want to see how KPOP is assembled and have an open mind. Gives a good insight into another cultural world.
Don't see it if You enjoy traditional theatre, want one cohesive storyline with a happy ending, or don't like to be called upon.
See it if an unforgettable and original experience / the cast was super talented and very charming / loved the music and costumes!
Don't see it if didn't seem 100% realized, particularly the storylines
See it if you love musical theatre, and want to explore the behind the scenes of the entertainment industry, it's upbeat and great fun!
Don't see it if you are not able to let yourself go and be immersed by theatre (please see below), and there is a lot of walking around Read more
Critic Reviews (18)
"Vibrates with the frenzy of its contradictions...'KPOP' is likely to come across as entertaining and enervating, in fairly equal measures...'KPOP' sometimes works too hard to put itself over. It is least interesting at its most didactic. And it suffers from its own conflicted intentions. The show is best when parody blurs into the already surreal dimensions of what’s being parodied...The pastiche fusion musical numbers...are as synthetically sweet and perversely addictive as the real thing."
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"The delightful new musical ‘KPOP’ knows what kind of immersive theater it wants to be...Tiny bubbles of pleasure keep floating up and bursting all around us. Pop! Pop! Pop! We’re sold. It isn’t all froth, however...'KPOP' has impressive breadth, even if at times it feels overstretched...But any misgivings are forgotten in the rush of the extended concert finale, which sweeps you up in the thrill of a crowd that can hardly wait to burst into applause."
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"An expansive, catchy, and cunning immersive performance...'KPOP's' exuberant young ensemble make this show difficult to resist...'KPOP' is a delicious spectacle...But 'KPOP' is no mere sugar bomb. Underneath the glam and the (highly enjoyable) gimmickry, the show is a candid and increasingly discomfiting look at the struggles faced by Asian artists trying to break into an American market...It’s not subtle, but it works."
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"An ambitious new immersive, interactive musical that is often as physically exhausting as it is wildly entertaining...Despite its plethora of incidents, the show's book proves its weakest element, with the overlong proceedings becoming repetitive and meandering. But the paper-thin characterizations and hackneyed dialogue don't prevent ‘KPOP’ from being great fun...The mostly youthful ensemble is terrifically talented, delivering the infectious original score with pulsing energy."
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"The most ambitious off-Broadway musical of the year, with pulse-quickening tunes, innovative staging, and just a little bit of disappointment...There's no musical without conflict, but Kim is unfailingly heavy-handed in his approach, underlining each important issue with a thick red line...Luckily, everyone in the cast is very good...Everything comes together for a final concert that has everyone dancing and singing along. 'KPOP' is great fun."
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"Cramming in all these scenes is an enormous undertaking, which makes it all the more remarkable that Kim's book is so consistently mordant, to say nothing of Park and Vernon's insanely catchy songs...Following the intermission, the action retreats with unseemly haste from the script's acrid truths in favor of an upbeat concert finale...This wholesale abandonment of what has gone before would be more disconcerting if the medley that follows didn't raise the roof."
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"The banal script doesn't go in any direction that hasn't been pursued more interestingly before. But the scenes are competently crafted and, under Teddy Bergman's superb direction, they're performed with such conviction and velocity that the derivative nature of the enterprise is unobjectionable. And the tunes, most of them jumpy and melodically appealing, lend freshness and dazzle to the enterprise. A well-constructed immersive production...As a total package, it's pretty hard to resist."
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"Consisting of many 'empty calories,' this immersive musical is still irresistibly delicious...At its best when playing on the contrast of 'true' versus 'constructed,' emphasized most successfully in MwE’s story...Though the show is billed as a musical, most of the songs we hear on our tour are not performed live...This strange decision seems like a waste of catchy K-pop hits...'KPOP' picks up steam in the finale, with a full-blown pop concert. But its didactic conclusion is suspiciously easy."
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