In 2021, directed by Sun Haipeng and supervised by Zhang Miao, the local original animation film “Lion Boy” based on the traditional lion dance culture in Lingnan was born. , moved countless audiences after its release, and won many awards such as “2021 Douban Movie List with the Highest Score Chinese Movie” and “National Trend Movie IP of the Year”.
Recently, at the 13th China (Guangzhou) International Performing Arts Fair, the musical “Lion Boy” was officially launched. Culture as the theme, to create a Chinese musical that focuses on the Lingnan lion dance culture and customs, and inherits the hardworking and enterprising spirit of Cantonese. The play has started its creation and is scheduled to premiere at the Guangzhou Grand Theater in the New Year’s Eve in 2024, after which it will launch its first round of tour in many cities across the country.
A reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News found that in recent years, it is not uncommon for popular film and television IPs to be adapted into dramas and go to the theater stage. Film and television dramas feed back stage dramas, which has become one of the new trends in literary and artistic creation.
Said the phenomenon
Explosive dramas have drama versions
For a long time, it has been a routine operation for best-selling novels and stage plays to be adapted into film and television dramas. After the popularity of film and television dramas, the phenomenon of “retrograde” on the stage of dramas has increased in recent years.
At the end of September 2022, the costume detective drama “Tang Dynasty Strange Events” will be broadcast. This work has neither luxurious investment nor the blessing of traffic actors. Relying on the content of the story and the level of online production, it has attracted many ” Tap water” received a good score of 7.9 on Douban. Two months later, the musical “The Mandala of Tang Dynasty Strange Events” adapted by him premiered in Changsha, and started a tour in Wuhan and Shanghai. The seamless connection between popular web dramas and musicals has allowed the musical version to take advantage of the popularity of film and television IP and attract unprecedented attention.
In addition, popular dramas such as “The Age of Awakening”, “The Right Way in the World is Vicissitudes”, “In the Distance” and “White Night Chasing the Murder” have also had drama versions.
The high-quality TV series “The Righteous Way in the World is Vicissitudes”, which premiered in 2009, scored 9.1 points on Douban. In 2021, the drama version “The Righteous Way in the World Is the Vicissitudes of Life” written by Yao Yuan and directed by Hu Zongqi premiered in Shanghai, and started a tour of 56 shows in 30 cities across the country. It inherited the artistic essence and epic temperament of the TV series. In 1949, the life of the three brothers and sisters of the Yang family was the main line, integrating personal destiny with the destiny of the country and the nation, and cleverly blending major themes with vivid characters and rich stories.
The play condenses the plot of 50 episodes into 4 hours, with “Dong Jianchang” as the main perspective of the story, a total of 57 scenes, more than 300 pieces of clothing, more than 200 props, and retained the classic lines in the TV series as much as possible, such as Dong Jianchang’s “One strand of hair can pull eight military horses”, Yang Liqing’s “We didn’t come to make friends, we were friends many years ago” and other golden lines were resounded on the stage, making TV drama fans feel kind and familiar . In the end, the play received 8.1 points of praise from Douban, and won the “Best Screenplay” and “Best Director” awards at the 5th Chinese Drama Festival.
The hit TV series “The Age of Awakening” has led countless audiences into the song-like years when China’s advanced intellectuals and passionate youths pursued the truth and burned their ideals a hundred years ago. In November 2022, the stage play “The Age of Awakening” produced by the Shanghai Dramatic Art Center will premiere. Following the plot of the TV series, the stage play “The Age of Awakening” brings together the New Culture Movement, the May 4th Movement, and then “Southern Chen, Northern Li” to meet and found a party. The magnificent historical picture scroll of modern Chinese history slowly unfolds on the stage. On August 5, 2022, only two hours after the official opening of tickets for the show, all 10 performances in the first round have been sold out and 6 performances have been sold out.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of children’s dramas, there is also the phenomenon of film and television IP “feeding back” the stage: the national style stage play “Little Hudun Little Bodyguard: Little Hudun Hero” premiered in Shenzhen in August 2022 is adapted from Year of the Tiger Spring Festival movie “Little Tiger Pier Big Hero”.
On the reason
High-quality goods with superior content can make money
As a cultural product, the content of a stage play comes first. Excellent film and television works have been tested by the market and have been recognized by the audience. They usually have a complete story structure, attractive plots and distinctive character settings. Therefore, they have both content value and commercial value, which can greatly reduce the stage play story. Creative difficulty. At the same time, the existing soundtracks and service channels in film and television dramas can provide reference for stage dramas. With the background of film and television IP, the audience has a clearer understanding of the content of the story, which is easy to understand and accept. If the adaptation is successful, on the basis of retaining fans of the original drama, the stage play can absorb new audience groups with the help of IP popularity.
In addition, “profitability” is also one of the reasons. According to the general public’s perception, stage plays have a large initial investment and a long payback time, and unlike movies, which can solve all costs at once, there will be continuous expenses during the process of touring and residing, and it is easy to become a “losing business”. . Due to the impact of the epidemic and huge cost pressures, the famous Broadway musical “Phantom of the Opera” announced that it will suspend performances in February 2023.
But in fact, classic stage plays can stand the test of time, such as “Mamma Mia”, “Les Miserables”, “Cats”, “Phantom of the Opera”, etc., can continue to develop various versions and continue to perform for decades. generate income. Known as the “money printing machine,” the Broadway musical “Hamilton” has earned a cumulative global box office of about 2.3 billion U.S. dollars since its premiere in 2015 under the cloud of the epidemic. In the future, “Hamilton” is expected to continue to be staged for decades like the classic dramas of its predecessors, and continue to attract money.
Even if “The Phantom of the Opera” has been announced to be suspended on Broadway, it will not prevent it from continuing to perform in other regions. The Chinese version of “The Phantom of the Opera” will start a Chinese tour in 2023. On the afternoon of December 30, 2022, the ticketing will only take 2 hours and 20 minutes. Its box office broke through 3 million yuan.
So, given the exaggerated long-tail effect, top-tier musicals have more potential to earn money than movies do at the box office alone.
To sum up, with the combination of “content advantage”, “IP attraction” and “profitability”, popular film and television IPs have been adapted into stage plays, which is naturally logical.
talk about hidden worries
Adaptation requires innovation, not once and for all
In fact, the influence of the film and television industry on stage plays goes far beyond “IP feedback”.
In the industry, many people regard 2019 as a “watershed year for musicals” – at the end of 2018, the original and innovative vocal singing program “Sound into the Heart” produced by Hunan Satellite TV became popular, making bel canto, opera, Musicals and other art forms have entered the public’s field of vision, leading to a boom in the performance market, and a group of outstanding musical actors such as Ayunga and Zheng Yunlong have become household names for this reason. A group of theater fans have also been cultivated. According to the “2021 Chinese Musical Theater Guide”, the Chinese musical theater performance market has a total of 2,655 performances in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%; the number of audiences reached 2.13 million, a year-on-year increase of 29.5%; box office revenue It exceeded 600 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.1%.
The increase in public attention has also affected the choice of artists. More and more “stage novice” who were only active on the screen and the screen have crossed into the drama industry: singer Zhang Jie participated in “Once Upon a Time”, actor Ni Ni Take the leading role in “Yaoyao Dongba”, singer Man Jiang played the father in “A Natural Couple”, singer Bai Jugang partnered with musical actor Liu Lingfei in “No Longer in the World“…
Many “idols” also choose to enter the theater industry. Artists such as Duan Aojuan, Yan Xujia, Wu Jiacheng, Lian Huaiwei, Sun Yihang, Xia Zhiguang, and Zhao Lei who were born in idol reality shows have been active on the theater stage for a period of time .
However, the “barriers” between entertainers, singers, actors, idols and stage actors still exist. Xiao Zhan participated in the drama “Dream Like a Dream”, and fans fired scalpers up to 40,000 yuan a ticket, which caused criticism and controversy; Han Xue played the recording during the performance of “White Night Walk” because of vocal cord problems, and was condemned by fans of the musical; Lin Yanjun did not perform well in “I’m Waiting for You at the End of Time”, and the “collapsed house incident” also had a negative impact on the show… Many cross-border artists’ box office appeal was not as good as expected. After receiving considerable remuneration, their participation However, the box office of the work was dismal, which caused the producer to make ends meet, and was also pointed out as “not conducive to the healthy development of the industry”.
In addition, popular film and television IP is not a panacea. Stage dramas and film and television dramas are in the final analysis two different art forms. Therefore, the adaptation of film and television IP in stage plays should not stop at rote imitation of IP images and character stories. Instead, it is necessary to avoid magic changes, retain the spirit and connotation of the original IP, and avoid being constrained by the original film and television IP. Innovation and breakthrough. In terms of form and means of expression, adapted works should also conform to stage logic. This not only requires the creators to dig deep into the core of the story, but also to find the language of the stage play itself. Only stage works adapted from film and television IP that achieve a win-win situation between IP effect and work quality are of value. (Yangcheng Evening News reporter Ai Xiuyu)