Broadway's Jeff Calhoun Talks New Musical MATA HARI: 'We Have Something Extraordinary'

Broadway choreographer and director Jeff Calhoun, (Broadway's GREASE, NEWSIES), has joined forces with an A-list team of musical talent, including 'Bonnie and Clyde' composer Frank Wildhorn, to take on the story of the infamous female spy MATA HARI in a new original musical which will have its World Premiere in Korea.

In an interview with the Korea Herald, Calhoun shared, "What's great about Mata Hari is that people think they know her story, but I think there are a lot of variations depending on whose book you read. So it was fun for us to coalesce from all of those books into what we thought were the highlights of her life."

Explained Calhoun, "Writing is rewriting. It took us several drafts to really figure out what that story is about. ... There's no substitute for time, but I think we finally have something extraordinary, hopefully unlike anything anyone has seen before in Korea."

He continued, "For me it's exciting to be part of this cultural phenomenon of musicals in Korea because it's a relatively new art form here ... and I am really happy that this is a world premiere." He adds, "I don't really know about the different expectations of (international) audiences. I just think that if it's good, it'll be universally accepted so I hope that's the case of this (Mata Hari)."

According to EMK, the musical was to make its World Premiere on Nov. 20th at Seoul's Charlotte Theater but has since been postponed until 2016.

Read the story in full here

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos