Hue Park

Hue Park, born Park Chun-hue in 1983 in Seoul, South Korea, grew up immersed in the city's vibrant cultural scene, which would later influence his bilingual storytelling. He studied creative writing at Dongguk University, where he began his professional journey in 2003 as an in-house lyricist for Music Cube, penning early works like lyrics for Evan's Pain Reliever and Park Sang-min's Tough Life. Relocating to New York City, Park pursued visual art at New York University, a move that expanded his artistic horizons and led to his pivotal meeting with composer Will Aronson in 2008 during Aronson's graduate studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. This encounter sparked a deep creative partnership, blending Park's Korean roots with American musical theater traditions, while he honed his skills in adaptation and translation, contributing to productions like the 2013 Korean version of Carmen at LG Art Center and lyrics for the omnibus musical I Hate Christmas in 2014.

Park's career skyrocketed with his collaboration on Maybe Happy Ending, a sci-fi romance about discarded robots that premiered in Seoul in 2016, earning six Korean Musical Awards including Best Music, Lyrics, and Book. The English adaptation, retitled from an early version What I Learned from People, won the 2017 Richard Rodgers Award and made its U.S. debut at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in 2020. By 2025, the Broadway production at the Belasco Theatre clinched six Tony Awards, marking Park as the first Korean citizen to win a Tony and solidifying his status as a trailblazing cross-cultural writer. Reflecting on the win, Park emphasized the show's evolution through relentless refinement to capture universal themes of love and loss, crediting audience stories—like a solo traveler who returned with his wife for a Valentine's viewing—as the true reward, while committing to future works that offer sincere, resonant perspectives.