Two Korean-American Designers Achieve Tony Awards for Best Costume and Lighting Design

Musical 'The Great Gatsby' Linda Cho Wins Costume Design Award
Kim Su-yeon of 'Outsiders' Wins Lighting Design Award
Another Triumph Following Parasite and Squid Game

Korean-American designers Linda Cho and Suyeon Kim (American name Hana Suyeon Kim) received the Costume Design and Lighting Design awards at the Tony Awards, one of the three major American popular culture arts awards.

Performance planning company Audi Company announced on the 16th (local time) that Korean-American stage costume designer Linda Cho won the 'Costume Design Award' in the musical category for the musical The Great Gatsby at the 77th Tony Awards held at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York.

On the 16th (local time), Kim Su-yeon (Hana Su-yeon Kim), who was jointly awarded with Brian McDevitt in the Lighting category at the Tony Awards, known as the Academy Awards of theater and musicals [Image source=Yonhap News]

Also, Suyeon Kim, who was in charge of lighting design for the musical The Outsiders, received the 'Lighting Design Award' in the musical category.

This is the first time a musical produced solely by a Korean has won a Tony Award. The Great Gatsby is a musical led solely by Shin Chunsu, CEO of the domestic production company Audi Company, as lead producer, staged together with local production staff.

Following the 2020 Academy Awards (Oscars) where Parasite won four awards, and the 2022 Emmy Awards where the Netflix series Squid Game won six awards, Korean-produced content has now conquered all three major American popular culture arts awards, including the Tony Awards, the highest honor in theater and musicals.

Linda Cho, who won the Costume Design Award, previously won the Tony Award for Costume Design in 2014 for the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. She was also nominated for the Tony Award for Costume Design in 2017 for the musical Anastasia, showcasing her splendid stage costumes once again.

She has also been responsible for costumes in numerous productions such as Turandot at the Washington DC National Opera and Samson and Delilah at the New York Metropolitan Opera. For The Great Gatsby, she is known to have designed about 350 costumes, including 10 dresses for the lead actress Eva Noblezada.

After the awards ceremony, Linda Cho said in an interview with local media, "It literally takes so many people to prepare the costumes used on stage every night," and expressed her gratitude, saying, "I thank everyone who worked together for these musical costumes."

The Great Gatsby, which officially opened on April 25th at a Broadway theater in New York, is based on the novel by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It tells the story of a 1920s American millionaire Gatsby who becomes involved in tragic events while pursuing his love. It continues to be a hit in the U.S., surpassing $1.28 million (about 1.8 billion KRW) in sales within three weeks of opening.

Suyeon Kim, who won the Lighting Design Award, is a Korean-American who majored in visual design at Seoul National University of Arts and completed her master's degree at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She has worked on various stage design projects across the U.S., including at Lincoln Center in New York, New York Public Theater, and Manhattan Theater Club.

She is also the daughter of Kim Hong-jun, director of the Korean Film Archive and former executive chairman of the Bucheon Fantastic International Film Festival, who directed the film Rosebud. The musical The Outsiders, for which Suyeon Kim was responsible for lighting, is based on the film of the same name directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Matt Dillon and Tom Cruise. Set in 1960s America, it depicts the story of young people belonging to rival gangs divided by socioeconomic class. The Outsiders was also nominated for the 'Best Musical' award at the Tony Awards that day.