KINKY BOOTS & BIG FISH Heading to Asia in the Future?

KINKY BOOTS and BIG FISH may be heading to Asia in the years to come.

According to The New York Times, South Korean Broadway producer Kim Byeong-seok of entertainment company CJ E&M, who helped produce the two productions on Broadway, is interested in bringing Tony winner 'KINKY' and the recently closed 'FISH' abroad.

Kim's investment of $1 million into KINKY BOOTS he says, was a way to help ensure that the show would have a future life in the east, and that he and other South Korean producers hope to position "Seoul to become the bridge between Broadway and all of Asia," he said, "especially China."

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Kinky Boots features a Tony Award-winning score by pop icon Cyndi Lauper, a book by four-time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein, and direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell. The smash-hit musical plays to standing-room-only crowds nightly and continues to break box office records at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street), where it started previews on March 4 and officially opened on April 4, 2013.

In Kinky Boots, Charlie Price has suddenly inherited his father's shoe factory, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Trying to live up to his father's legacy and save his family business, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of Lola. A fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos, Lola turns out to be the one person who can help Charlie become the man he's meant to be. As they work to turn the factory around, this unlikely pair finds that they have more in common than they ever dreamed possible... and discovers that when you change your mind about someone, you can change your whole world.

Kinky Boots won six 2013 Tony Awards, the most of any show this season, including Best Musical, Best Score (Cyndi Lauper), Best Choreography (Jerry Mitchell), Best Actor (Billy Porter), Best Orchestrations (Stephen Oremus), and Best Sound Design (John Shivers). The show also received the Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Broadway.com Awards for Best Musical, along with many other accolades.

Directed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman, with music and lyrics by Grammy and Tony Award nominee Andrew Lippa, and a book by Grammy and BAFTA Award nominee John August, BIG FISH stars two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz as Edward Bloom, Tony Award nomineeKate Baldwin as Sandra Bloom, Tony Award nominee Bobby Steggert as Will Bloom, Krystal Joy Brown as Josephine Bloom, Anthony Pierini and Zachary Unger alternating as Young Will, Ryan Andes as Karl, Ben Crawford as Don Price, and Tony Award nominee Brad Oscar as Amos Calloway.

BIG FISH only recently closed on on December 29, 2013, after 34 previews and 98 regular performances at the Neil Simon Theatre. The production began performances on Thursday, September 5, 2013, and opened on Sunday, October 6, 2013, folllwing an out-of-town tryout in Chicago earlier this year.

BIG FISH features JC Montgomery, Ciara Renée, Kirsten Scott and Sarrah Strimel, in a cast of 27 that includesPreston Truman Boyd, Bree Branker, Alex Brightman, Joshua Buscher, Robin Campbell, Bryn Dowling, Jason Lee Garrett, Leah Hofmann, Synthia Link, Angie Schworer, Lara Seibert, Tally Sessions, Cary Tedder and Ashley Yeater.

BIG FISH centers on Edward Bloom, a traveling salesman who lives life to its fullest... and then some! Edward's incredible, larger-than-life stories thrill everyone around him - most of all, his devoted wife Sandra. But their son Will, about to have a child of his own, is determined to find the truth behind his father's epic tales. Big Fish is about dreaming, loving and living bigger.

Photo by Joan Marcus