OD Company CEO Shinchunsoo Teams Up with "The Lion King" Director Julie Taymor to Produce New Musical "The Grand Delusion"

World-renowned director of "The Lion King," now in its 29th year

Tony-winning Taymor and Academy Award-winning Goldenthal join the project

Fantasy spanning New York and India... premieres next May

OD company producer Shinchunsoo is teaming up with Julie Taymor, director of the highest-grossing musical in history, The Lion King.

OD company announced on Oct. 19 that CEO Shinchunsoo will produce a new global musical, The Grand Delusion, with Julie Taymor, one of Broadway's leading directors, and composer Elliot Goldenthal.

According to OD company, the project began when Taymor and Goldenthal proposed that producer Shinchunsoo develop and produce it. Taymor won Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Musical and Best Costume Design for The Lion King. Goldenthal won an Academy Award for the music of the film Frida and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), one of New York's leading performing arts institutions, is also collaborating on the project.

Director Julie Taymor (left) and Shinchunsoo, CEO of OD company. Getty Images Korea

The Grand Delusion will have its world premiere at BAM's Harvey Theater in New York from May 11 to June 6, 2027. The Harvey Theater has approximately 837 seats.

Founded in 1859, BAM is one of the oldest performing arts institutions in the United States. It has consistently presented experimental and avant-garde works distinct from commercial Broadway theater and is also well known as a venue for premieres of new works by renowned directors and artists.

The Grand Delusion depicts a world in which magic and mythology intertwine, moving between contemporary New York and India. It combines choreography, set design, puppetry, and music, with Taymor's distinctive visual direction at its core.

Taymor is known for creating a distinctive theatrical language that combines puppets, masks, and performers' movements in The Lion King. In her 20s, she spent about four years in Indonesia, where she encountered traditional performing arts, including Javanese and Balinese mask and puppet theater. Drawing on these experiences, she directed the blockbuster musical The Lion King.

The Lion King premiered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in July 1997 and opened on Broadway that November. It is now in its 29th year of performances. The highest-grossing musical in history, it is also the third-longest-running show currently on Broadway. Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the production and also won the award for Best Costume Design.

Producer Shinchunsoo said, "It is deeply meaningful to bring The Grand Delusion, a work of immense vision, to the world with Julie Taymor, a living master of the contemporary performing arts. The artistic spirit of Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal, combined with the production expertise of a Korean producer, will create a perfect synergy and offer audiences around the world an overwhelming and captivating theatrical experience unlike anything they have ever seen."

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