China's musical development from which aspects to start?

Thinking about the development of Chinese musical "three steps", the original English musical "The Lion King" held its Asian premiere at the Shanghai Grand Theatre since July 18, 2006, and was performed in one hundred and one performances until October 8***, with almost every performance filled to capacity. Audience members were impressed by the magical and gorgeous choreography, unique and touching music, and simple but meaningful story of "The Lion King", which once again set off a musical fever in Shanghai. Counting up, "The Lion King" is already the fifth musical introduced by Shanghai Grand Theater. From the 21 shows of "Les Miserables" in 2002, to the 53 shows of "Cats" in 2003, to the 35 shows of "The Sound of Music" in 2004, to the 100 shows of "The Phantom of the Opera" in 2005, and then to the 101 shows of "The Lion King", which created a new record of the Grand Theater, we are glad to see that with the introduction of a classic musical, we are now able to see that "The Lion King" has become the most popular musical in Shanghai, and is now the most popular musical in the world. We are pleased to see that, with the introduction of a classic musical, musical in Shanghai from an unfamiliar art category, into a variety of entertainment that everyone enjoys, it can be said that the Shanghai Grand Theater's investment and efforts in musicals over the years, has borne fruit. At the same time, if we put the vision to the whole country, we see that the popularity of musicals is also rising, in addition to the introduction of foreign plays, many cities have launched an original musical, all of which strongly promote the development of China's musical career, but also once again shows that musicals in China will be very promising. Musical "three-step" strategy two years ago in the Shanghai Grand Theater decided to introduce "The Phantom of the Opera", we began to think about the development of China's musical road in the end how to go, at that time, had put forward a "three-step" strategy: the first step is the introduction of foreign The first step is to introduce classic musicals from abroad. The second step is to produce "Chinese versions" of foreign classics. The third step was to create original local musicals. This "three-step" strategy is based on the development of musicals in China, and is also the result of our thinking over the years. The first step is to introduce classic plays and cultivate the musical market. To develop the musical business, the most important thing is to make great efforts to cultivate a perfect "musical market", and the introduction of foreign classic musicals is to let people know musicals and enjoy them, and then form a huge market where people are willing to pay for tickets to watch musicals. A huge market. This is the road we have been traveling for four years and will continue to travel. Looking back to 2002, when we decided to introduce Les Miserables, most people did not know what a musical was. Many people would confuse musicals with operas, not realizing that the two are both related and very different, and a few thought that musicals were a product of capitalist decadence, pornographic performances that should not be introduced to socialist China. And all this is far from the real situation of musical theater. For us, the most urgent task is to bring today's most classic musicals to Shanghai and bring them closer to everyone. After thorough consideration, we believe that Les Misérables is the best choice, not only because of its outstanding artistic quality, but also because of its content, style and genre, which we believe is the most appropriate for the first big show to be brought to Shanghai. Nevertheless, we are still not completely sure, 21 performances in foreign countries is nothing, but at that time in the history of the Grand Theater is a record, some pessimistic people even said, Shanghai Grand Theater to play "Les Miserables", that really want to "tragic". But the result is known to all, "Les Miserables" was sold out, the last curtain call performance was hard to find tickets, even the steps of the theater were full of spectators. The success of Les Misérables has strengthened our determination to move forward on the road of musical theater. However, we are also very clear that despite the first success of the introduction of musicals in Shanghai, the cultivation of a mature musical market is not something that can be achieved overnight, and it requires a long period of hard work, just as the prosperity of Broadway in the United States and the West End of London in the United Kingdom was also created after hundreds of years of development. Because the market is always the basic factor of whether musicals can grow bigger and stronger, it is hard to imagine that a musical boom can be established in a place where musicals are not yet y rooted in people's hearts. So the first step is to keep going, step by step, to cultivate the market for musicals, so that musicals can really reach the hearts of the people. Cats, The Sound of Music, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Mamma Mia, which was introduced last year, and Hairspray, which is going to be introduced in July this year, can be said to be the first step of the "three-step" strategy for musicals, which has been introduced every year for seven years in a row. --Introducing classic plays to cultivate the musical market. Let more audiences come into the theater to watch musicals. Looking back on seven years of history, we continue to introduce influential Western musicals every year, in addition to cultivating a large number of audiences who like musicals, at least two major results, which is to contribute to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music to establish the Department of Musical Theatre, but also to contribute to the Shanghai Municipal Government's decision to invest in the original site of the Cultural Square to build a professional musical theatre. Step 2: Produce a "Chinese version" and train a musical team Producing a "Chinese version" of Western classic musicals, or "localizing" classic musicals, is something we started thinking about two years ago. This is what we have been thinking about since two years ago. Because we are clear that the future musical industry cannot rely solely on the introduction of repertoire to be successful. After all, the importation of repertoire is different from the production of repertoire, and we are not yet in control of the two core elements of artistic performance and theater operation. In other words, the importation of repertoire can enhance the market influence of musicals, but it is difficult to directly manage the artistic production of musicals and the operation of troupes, in which we still have a lot of deficiencies. Undoubtedly, it is everyone's wish to create, produce, perform and operate their own productions, and ultimately embark on the path of "original" success. Localization, on the other hand, is the production, performance and operation of foreign classics by local people. Although it is not yet considered as creation, through this process, we can train our own musical team and lay a solid operational foundation for "originality". This is an approach that has been practiced and proven effective in many countries. The Four Seasons Theater Company in Japan is a good example in this regard. Deeper analysis, we feel that the formation of a cultural industry, the repertoire is just a flower floating on the surface of the water, in the back of the need for many factors to support, such as the creative environment, production norms, talent, market conditions, cultural cushion, and so on, the lack of each link will be an obstacle to the development of the musical industry. If we carefully study the status quo of these aspects in China, we will find that it is still far away from the mature musical environment in foreign countries. It is difficult to change this situation in a short time, and under such circumstances, it is not easy for original plays to achieve success. Therefore, the importance of "localization" of classic plays is highlighted. Keita Asari, the founder of Japan's Four Seasons Theatre Company, once said, "Whether or not to "localize" is in fact a game of one's own "independent innovation" ability." The theater group led by Keita Asari at that time relied on the path of "localization" to achieve success. Although the Four Seasons now produces some of its own musicals and plays, the core business that has made it grow over the years is still the "localization" of classic musicals. Over the decades, many classic Western musicals have been brought to the Four Seasons stage in Japanese, creating one box office miracle after another, thanks to the Four Seasons' "borrowing from other mountains" approach. Although the Shanghai Grand Theatre has been operating for so many years, and has made great achievements and examples, but for the creation and production of plays, we are not involved in the depth and not much, in contrast, the "localization" of the road is more suitable for us, more likely to be successful. In addition, "localization" also has many advantages, such as greatly reducing the production cost and opportunity cost of creation, helping to cultivate professional production teams in China, and helping to establish international standards for the production of musicals, and so on, all of which are important factors that we need to consider. After in-depth research, we have had many negotiations with Cameron Mackintosh, Little Star, Nederlander, and Broadway Asia in the United Kingdom, and we have finally decided on the first musical to be produced by the Bolshoi Theatre, such as which musical to choose as the first one for the "localization" attempt. "and the translation of the English lyrics, props and costumes production, performance schedule, marketing steps and other aspects of the preliminary **** knowledge, expect the results before 2010. The third step: the creation of local repertoire, to create a musical industry chain creation, has always been the biggest weakness of China's musical development, over the years, along with the introduction of foreign classic plays, we create their own repertoire is also more up. Just to name a few, there are "Song of the Movie", "Golden Sands", "I'm a Song Maniac", "Sunrise", "Five Girls", "City of Angels", "Guests on the Iceberg", "Equatorial Rain", etc. In two or three years, so many musicals have emerged. The emergence of so many local original musicals in two to three years is unparalleled. However, the phenomenon we see is that most of the original productions are loud thunder but little rain, and very few of them can recover their costs, while most of them lose more and more money the more they do. We believe that to some extent, this is not only a reflection of the weak creative force, but also reflects the immaturity of the musical market and environment. It is true that over the years, the originality of musicals has gained momentum in some countries. For example, in France and Germany, over the years, the creation of many musicals, whether in the artistic style or mode of operation, have come out of a completely different from the British and American road, to achieve remarkable results, such as Notre Dame de Paris, Romeo and Juliet, Gone with the Wind, Elizabeth, Mozart and other famous works, some of which have also been translated into English, into the British and American markets. But after all, China's creative environment is still completely different from that of France and Germany, and the lack of links in all aspects is an important factor restricting the development of original musicals. As a matter of fact, even in places like Broadway and London's West End, where the development of the musical theater industry is already very mature, the success rate of original productions is still very low, with only one out of five productions being able to make a profit, which is a high-risk, high-return industry due to the nature of artistic creation. However, despite this uncertainty, there are still so many artists around the world working tirelessly to create musicals of various styles and content, which on the one hand shows the great charm of musicals, and on the other hand shows that the creation of successful original musicals has always been the ultimate goal and desire of everyone. In our talks with McIntosh, Real Good and Broadway Asia, we also talked about the issue of original musicals, and they also gave us some good ideas and expressed their willingness to help us in the future. After several years of research and practice, we have gradually formed a view on the issue of originality, that is, "original productions" are different from "imported productions" and "Chinese version" productions. Unlike "imported plays" and "Chinese version" productions, "original plays" should not be deliberately planned and arranged, let alone plucked out of the seedling. Successful foreign plays are often not the result of arrangements and plans, but rather, they are naturally watered by inspiration and opportunities under the right soil. As long as the soil for musicals is nurtured continuously, good plays will naturally grow. When The Lion King had its 30th performance, the Shanghai Grand Theatre organized a symposium on the development of musicals, inviting professionals and non-professionals from all walks of life to talk about their views. We all agreed that what is most lacking in China's artistic creation is good ideas and creativity, but this should be the core of musicals, which belong to the creative industry. In addition, we also see that talents, market, capital, policies and so on related to creation are also important influencing factors, which also affect or determine the possibility of creative growth all the time. We feel that in order to find a breakthrough in the whole industry and drive the overall development, it still lies in the production and creation of excellent plays. At present, we have been consciously collecting musical theater scripts or stories of various genres and discovering musical theater creative talents, hoping to find a source of inspiration and creativity in the future. The three steps of musical theater can be carried out at the same time, although there is a difference in order. In the future development blueprint of the Shanghai Grand Theater, the introduction of classic plays, the production of "Chinese" musicals, and the creation of original musicals will become the three major components of the three steps, which will promote the development of musicals as a modern theatrical art style in Shanghai and even in the whole country.