Jerry Mitchell and Helen Park Developing Musical Adaptation of Korean Film DANCING QUEEN
The 2012 Korean film will be reimagined as a stage musical, with a premiere planned in Korea before targeting the global market.
By: Joshua Wright Jul. 22, 2025
CJ ENM is developing a new stage musical based on its 2012 film Dancing Queen, with plans to debut the production in Korea in 2027 and expand to global markets. As reported by The Korea Times, the company has enlisted a team of Broadway veterans to lead the project.
Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell - known for Legally Blonde, Kinky Boots, Hairspray, and Boop! The Musical - will direct the musical. Composer Helen Park, a Korean American artist recognized for her work on KPOP, joins the creative team alongside playwright Cho Min-hyung.
The original Dancing Queen film follows a woman, played by Uhm Jung-hwa, who reignites her dream of becoming a singer while navigating life as the wife of a political candidate.
The musical adaptation will begin workshop development in 2026 before its full production premiere the following year in Korea. The musical marks the first in a planned series of stage adaptations from CJ ENM’s catalog of over 400 original titles.
Jerry Mitchell made his Broadway and West End debuts as director and choreographer of Legally Blonde, earning Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his work. He won Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for choreographing the 2005 revival of La Cage aux Folles and has received additional Tony nominations for Hairspray, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and more. His Broadway credits also include Gypsy (starring Bernadette Peters), Catch Me If You Can, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Rocky Horror Show, and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Mitchell conceived and co-produces Broadway Bares for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. He recently directed and choreographed Boop! The Musical on Broadway.
Park's work include KPOP, off and on Broadway for which she wrote Music and Lyrics, Music Produced and Orchestrated. The show received a sold-out, extended run at Ars Nova, and was awarded the 2018 Richard Rodgers Award and Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical.
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