This article questions the ways in which a South Korean theatre producer``s adamant commitment to the nation``s cultural development manifests in a musical production. First, it explores the process of promoting a musical, The Last Empress as a national cultural product under the rubric of globalization. Secondly, it examines how the nationalistic rationale in The Last Empress creates an ambivalent onstage characterization of its female heroine. Finally, this article concludes that the configuration of Empress Myoungsung in the musical production addresses the ambivalent positioning of women in contemporary South Korean society as it confronts globalization. The Last Empress, a South Korean musical directed by Ho-Jin Yoon that was premiered in Seoul in 1995, was created as a direct response to the demands of globalization in South Korea during the early 1990s. The musical was highly popular with South Korean audiences, at least in part because it was celebrated and marketed, grandly, as the first Korean musical staged on Broadway. The production’s aura as theatre of success resonated with both the public’s desire for global advancement and with the sense of nationalism that was so prominent in the domestic discourse. Mainstream South Korean newspapers often mentioned this production as an example of the allure of global development and of Western success in the South Korean context. However, although the play clearly presents Queen Min as a herald of globalization, her characterization is ambivalently divided between a proactive global pioneer and a carrier of nation’s tradition. While the production utilizes her pioneering image to further the musical’s potential in the global arena, it simultaneously grounds her character within the traditional domain-both as a monarch and as a woman-by building her up as a literal bearer of the national tradition and also confining her within a traditional female gender role in which she must fulfill her duties as a good wife and a nurturing mother.