Original Chinese musicals head for staging
Two original Chinese musicals cultivated by the Shanghai International Musical Festival have found investors and producers through a public bidding process. They will be presented to audiences within 18 months and even embark on a national tour.
As a result of the auction, the musical “Draw Lots” will be produced by Shanghai-based iMusical, while veteran producer Xue Xiaoning and her Beijing-based company will take on “Sorry I Forgot.”
Together with another original musical, “Southern Tang Emperor,” the three works emerged from a project organized by Shanghai Culture Square Theater Management Co and H.X. Communications last year.
The project was part of efforts by the inaugural Shanghai International Musical Festival to identify high-quality, unpublished original musicals and help bring them to market.
Nearly 80 musicals vied for recognition last year. The three deemed the best received financial support and mentoring from musical professionals during a yearlong revision period before they were staged for potential investors at the downtown Huangpu Theater in December.
After the public bidding, a contract-signing ceremony was held at SAIC Shanghai Culture Square last week.
“Draw Lots” is a suspense story about seven high-school students trapped on an isolated island. They devise a draw to decide their chances of survival.
“Sorry I Forgot” has a surreal romantic plot, while “Southern Tang Emperor” focuses on the history of Emperor Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty (AD 937-975).
The musical “Draw Lots” is a suspense story about seven students, who devise a draw to decide their chances of
survival when they are trapped on an island.
The latter musical is still in the revision stage, according to Zhang Jie, general manager of SAIC Shanghai Culture Square. When that process is completed, the musical will be presented to investors and producers.
“Since 2019, SAIC Shanghai Culture Square has promised to earmark 10 percent of its revenue for the cultivation of original musical productions and talent,” said Zhang. “It’s our way to make a contribution to the industry.”
Musical producer Wang Haixiao, a project panel member, helped with improvements to “Sorry I Forgot,” a musical that features a variety of genres, including rock and rap.
Wang said he spent considerable time last year organizing the music for the work. Considering that it’s a love story involving life and death, the challenge was how to balance the lightheartedness of the plot with its more serious depths.
“In the past year, I thought a lot about the localization of musical culture — a lesson China’s original musicals must go through,” said Wang.
“The initial purpose of an original musical is to win recognition from local audiences, by combining successful elements of foreign musicals with Chinese characteristics. Project mentors give advice during the development period and help the creators understand marketing needs.”
Tao Xin, a professor at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, described the three works as “interesting and creative.” He was one of the four panel members involved in last year’s project.
“The creators are young, which means they are inexperienced,” he said. “But that also means they have a broad vision and strong learning capability. The creators are concentrated and very professional. Many are music graduates.”
He added: “Division of labor is important for an industry. We are presenting the results of this project to investors to ease their way.”
“Sorry I Forgot” has a surreal plot wherein the protagonist tries to make his girlfriend forget about him after he dies in an accident.
Fei Yuanhong, vice general manager of SAIC Shanghai Culture Square, acts as copyright agent for the original musicals and provides support in future promotion and marketing.
The three musicals will also become reserved works of the Shanghai Musical Culture Research Center, which was established last year by Culture Square, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Theater Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art.
Music major students will be authorized to use these works for study and practice.
“The suspension of performances caused by the novel coronavirus epidemic can be described as a ‘winter’ for the performing industry, theaters and audiences,” said Fei. “I hope the advancement of these original musicals will bring some warmth to industry practitioners.”
He said the environment for original musicals in China still needs improvement.
“We are still in need of a mechanism that allows musical creators, producers and market participants to grow together on one platform,” said Fei.
“Currently, domestic troupes create large-scale musicals — some at the instigation of investors — and one-off projects without knowing whether an investment of time and money will eventually pay off. We need to build a mechanism that will encourage smaller productions and help them grow into bigger ones.”
The project to develop original musicals has already kicked off for 2020. Organizers say 147 works have been submitted, almost double the number last year. Of those works, 52 are themed on the fight against the coronavirus. Six works will be chosen by the panel to undergo a new round of revision and mentoring.
