The Broadway version of the beloved Korean musical Maybe Happy Ending has won six Tony awards, including best musical.
The production about the friendship between two humanoid robots was nominated for 10 awards on Sunday. It also won best book of a musical and best original score.
Maybe Happy Ending premiered in South Korea in 2016 and debuted on Broadway in 2024 to glowing reviews.
The Tony wins have given South Korea EGOT status, meaning it has won the four most important awards in US entertainment. South Koreans have also won Emmys for television, Grammys for music and most recently, four Oscars for the film Parasite in 2020.
Hue Park and Will Aronson took home the Tony for best book of a musical.
Former Glee star Darren Criss, who played one of the robots, Oliver, won best lead actor in a musical. It was his first Tony win.
The musical, which also stars Helen J. Shen as robot Claire, was already on a streak this awards season.
It bagged some of the top prizes at the Outer Critics Circle Awards and Drama League Awards this year.
First directed by Kim Dong-yeon, Maybe Happy Ending premiered in Seoul nearly a decade ago to much critical acclaim. It has since been revived several times in South Korea and abroad – in both Korean and English.
Maybe Happy Ending’s success comes as South Korean artists continue to break ground in entertainment, especially in pop music in the last few years.
In 2022, the historical drama King’s Affection became the first South Korean series to win an International Emmy Award – which recognises television programming produced and aired outside the US.
That same year, the South Korean dystopian thriller Squid Game became the first non-English television series to be nominated for and win the Primetime Emmy Awards.
As for the Grammys, South Korean soprano Sumi Jo won one for best opera recording in 1993 – the first in the country to take home that award.
Hopes have been high for boyband BTS, which has been nominated thrice for best pop group performance since 2021, but it has yet to win it.