Live Co., Ltd.
The original musical ‘Fan Letter’ drew more than 110,000 attendees over a six-month 10th-anniversary engagement.
On the 7th, following its run at the Seoul Arts Center, the musical ‘Fan Letter’ is set to successfully conclude with an encore engagement in Daehangno, bringing the curtain down on its 10th-anniversary journey.
Set in the 1930s under Japanese colonial rule, the musical ‘Fan Letter’ is a fictionalized work inspired by anecdotes from ‘Guinhoe’, a circle of writers that included Kim Yu-jeong and Yi Sang. Since its 2016 premiere, the show has built a loyal fandom; after expanding into Taiwan, China, and Japan, it also completed a showcase in London, firmly establishing the presence of K-musicals on the global stage.
Beginning at the Seoul Arts Center and continuing with an encore in Daehangno, this 10th-anniversary production that ran for about six months surpassed 110,000 paid admissions, proving the staying power of a steady-selling original musical. The anniversary run at the Seoul Arts Center CJ Towol Theater from December 5, 2025 to February 22, 2026 recorded about 57,000 paid admissions, and the encore at the Hongik University Daehangno Art Center Grand Theater from March 17 to June 7, 2026 achieved about 54,000.
Live Co., Ltd.
As a result, since its 2016 premiere, the musical ‘Fan Letter’ has surpassed a cumulative 260,000 domestic attendees. In addition, according to the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System (KOPIS), the 10th-anniversary production at the Seoul Arts Center CJ Towol Theater ranked within the top 10 musical ticket sales for the first quarter of 2026, underscoring its enduring buzz.
The producer Live Co., Ltd. released a video titled ‘10th-Anniversary 100,000-Audience Thank-You Letter’ on its official social media channels, featuring the Daehangno encore cast. In the video, the cast conveyed their gratitude: “Each and every heart you sent created the ‘Fan Letter’ of today. ‘Fan Letter’ has reached the overwhelming milestone of 100,000 audience members. Time and affection that numbers alone cannot contain are etched in this record. Thank you sincerely for remembering us for so long and for loving us for so long.”
In keeping with its reputation as a global K-musical, foreign audiences kept coming as well. For this 10th-anniversary production, taking into account the global fandom built through overseas expansion, Chinese and Japanese surtitles were offered at every performance; as a result, more than 10% of paid attendees were from overseas, expanding the audience base beyond Korea. At the Seoul Arts Center CJ Towol Theater, foreigners accounted for 8% of paid attendees, and at the Hongik University Daehangno Art Center Grand Theater, they exceeded 11%.
Visitors from China and Japan, where licensed productions of the musical enjoy great popularity, were especially notable. Fans who discovered the work through local licensed runs visited the theater to see the original Korean cast and creative team on stage. This shows that ‘Fan Letter’ has grown beyond simply being a Korean original performed overseas into performance-tourism content that motivates Asian audiences to visit Korea to experience the original production.
The Chinese licensed production of ‘Fan Letter’ has toured more than ten cities each year since its 2022 premiere, steadily expanding its local fandom, and in 2025 it won seven categories at the ‘China Musical Association Annual Awards’, including ‘Best Licensed Musical’. The Japanese licensed production, which premiered in 2024, also recorded daily sellouts and received both the Work Award and the Translation Award at the ‘17th Odashima Yushi Translation Play Awards’.
To mark the 10th anniversary, the pop-up zone ‘Myeongil Ilbo Newsroom’ also offered a special experience by extending the show’s narrative into real space. Installed on the Skybridge of the Hongik University Daehangno Art Center, the ‘Myeongil Ilbo Newsroom’ vividly recreated the hideout of the onstage literary collective ‘Chilinhoe’, drawing a strong response. Comprising the ‘Messenger Office’, where audiences could send letters to the actors, a ‘Writing Room’ where they could browse works by the real-life models for the characters, such as Kim Yu-jeong and Yi Sang, a ‘Listening Room’ for past OST albums, and a ‘Gallery’ and ‘Projection Room’ where visitors could trace domestic and overseas runs through photos and videos, this experience space created a forum for audiences to share the show’s afterglow before and after performances.
Ahead of the closing, the producer Live Co., Ltd. drew further attention by announcing the release of a 10th-anniversary studio OST album. The album features the full casts from the anniversary performances at the Seoul Arts Center CJ Towol Theater and the Hongik University Daehangno Art Center Grand Theater, and is expected to be a meaningful gift for audiences who have loved the work over the past decade. Detailed release information will be announced later via the official social media channels of the producer Live Co., Ltd.
Following the main 10th-anniversary run, the encore engagement also enjoyed great success, and the musical ‘Fan Letter’ demonstrated a path of sustainable growth, proving that the narrative power of Korean original musicals can evoke deep empathy across time and space. Based on achievements at home and abroad, having taken root as a representative piece of global content, it is expected to continue with lasting vitality.
