Interpark reveals popular stars, shows for Golden Ticket Awards

Left: Musical “Dracula” won the award for most popular show among all genres at the 2014 Interpark Golden Ticket Awards. From second left to right: Kim Jun-su, Jung Sun-ah, Ock Joo-hyun, Lee Soon-jae, Kang Bu-ja, , Bruno Mars and Jang

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the 2014 Interpark Golden Ticket Awards revealed that Kim Jun-su, Jung Sun-ah and Ock Joo-hyun were the three musical actors and actresses with the most star power last year.

Interpark, the country’s largest online ticket website, has held the awards for the past 10 years. It tallies up ticket sales, looks at rankings and uses online voting to discover which stars and shows bring in the biggest audiences.

Kim and Ock received the award for the third time, following 2010 and 2012.

“The Golden Ticket Awards are significant as there are no separate judges. Assessment by audiences is directly connected to the result,” said an official from Interpark.

About 24,000 people voted online for this year’s awards.

Kim Jun-su, a member of popular boy group JYJ, was especially active in musicals in 2014 because of his enticing performance in “Dracula.” Ock and Jung were jointly awarded in the musical actress category. Singer Ock played lead roles in “Marie Antoinette,” “Rebecca” and “Wicked,” while Jung also starred in “Wicked,” “Dracula” and “Kinky Boots.”

In the play category, 79-year-old veteran actor Lee Soon-jae and 73-year-old actress Kang Boo-ja were the two star vehicles. Lee received 8,873 votes, proving his popularity among all generations. Kang is known for her warm-hearted motherly image and has been bringing theatrical audiences to tears for several years.

In the music category, singer Park Hyo-shin received the star power award while Bruno Mars won in the foreign artist category. Singer Park held solo concert “Happy Together” for the first time in two years late last year, bringing in 70,000 people in five cities. Mars held his first concert in Korea last year.

Pansori artist Jang Sa-ik, who performs traditional narrative singing, was given the top award in the classical category, which includes gugak (traditional Korean music). Jang held sell-out solo concerts in 2014 and collaborated with various other similar artists.

As for the most popular show among all genres, the award went to the musical “Dracula,” which features actor Kim as the lead.

In the musical category, the award went to “Mozart!” while the prize for the play went to “Golden Pond,” featuring veteran actor Lee.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [sharon@joongang.co.kr]