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Successful reception of Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway and its implications for translation of K-musicals in English-speaking culture

  • The Journal of Translation Studies
  • Abbr : JTS
  • 2025, 26(3), pp.259~295
  • DOI : 10.15749/jts.2025.26.3.009
  • Publisher : The Korean Association for Translation Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Interpretation and Translation Studies
  • Received : August 15, 2025
  • Accepted : September 15, 2025
  • Published : September 30, 2025

Hong Jung Min 1

1동국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study aims to explain how South Korea’s first Tony Award-winning original musical Maybe Happy Ending was successfully received in English-speaking countries by comparing its Korean and English lyrics and lines. Drawing upon the concepts of “horizon of expectations” and “layers of culture”, the research attempts to describe how the changes in lyrics and lines helped the show resonate across cultural boundaries. The findings revealed the differences in translation approach to surface and deep cultural elements which respectively appeared to satisfy different expectations of target audience. More specifically, surface cultural elements such as Korean names, place names, and artifacts were transliterated directly into English. The source language-oriented approach helped preserve or even intensify the uniqueness of Korean culture and language, thereby possibly meeting the local audience’s creative expectations and therefore creating favorable conditions for receiving the show. In contrast, for deep cultural elements like communication styles, the translation adopted a target language-oriented approach, using more explicit language and direct emotional expression to cater to the preferences of Western audiences and satisfy their directed expectations. This attempt may have helped effectively narrow the aesthetic distance between the work and its audience, facilitating successful reception. The findings indicate that different strategies may be required for each layer of culture to address distinct audience expectations, particularly when introducing a musical show to a linguistically and culturally distant target culture.

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