Only when Chinese musicals develop original works and build an incubation platform close to life can they resonate
The picture shows a still from the musical “In the Distance”.Photo courtesy of Beijing Performing Arts Group
Excellent plays are hard to find, and audiences watch them repeatedly… In recent years, the domestic musical market market has become increasingly prosperous. More and more practitioners are joining the ranks of original musicals, telling Chinese stories with their works, showing the spirit of the times, cultivating audience groups with high-quality works, and promoting the continuous growth of Chinese musicals through innovation and breakthroughs.
In recent years, the domestic musical market has become increasingly prosperous. The original musicals “In the Distance”, “The Orphan of Zhao’s”, “Stable Happiness” and “The Pretender” have all gained good reputation and cultivated a group of audiences.
Taking Shanghai as an example, the “2021 Shanghai Theater Performance Data Summary” released by the Shanghai Performance Industry Association shows that in 2021, 148 musicals will be staged, with 911 performances, a year-on-year increase of 142%, and 524,000 performances, a year-on-year increase of 129%. %. Watching a musical has become one of the leisure choices for more and more people, which not only drives a substantial increase in the box office revenue of musicals, but also drives Chinese musicals to seek innovation and breakthroughs in content and production.
The power of originality gathers and grows
Compared with the arts such as drama and opera, the musicals that entered China in the 1980s were still relatively young. In recent years, with the increasing support of the state for original musicals, domestic original musicals have ushered in new opportunities for development. According to data from the Damai.com ticketing platform, there are 15 original Chinese musicals to be staged in 2021.
In 2020, the realist original musical “In the Distance”, produced by Beijing Performing Arts Group and performed by Beijing Opera and Dance Theater, was sold out in Beijing and Shanghai in less than half an hour after the first round of tour tickets were issued. The success of “In the Distance” has accumulated experience and confidence for Beijing Performing Arts Group’s efforts to produce original musicals. In January this year, Beijing Performing Arts Group established a musical troupe at the Beijing Opera and Dance Theatre, and appointed musical actor A Yunga as the head of the troupe.
Dong Ning, deputy general manager of Beijing Performing Arts Group, said: “Musical theater is a highly market-oriented field, which highlights the time and space charm of stage art. “In the Distance” shows Beijing Performing Arts Group’s entire chain of artistic production in creation, operation, and promotion. In the future, we will give full play to our creative advantages. On the one hand, we will learn from the international mature musical production model, and on the other hand, we will innovate the Chinese original musical production model, so that good stories can stand out, integrate production strength, and unite creators, creators, and artists through the production of works. Performers, incubate original musical works. I hope the musical troupe will become a platform for gathering outstanding musical talents across the country.”
According to Fei Yuanhong, deputy general manager of Shanghai Cultural Plaza and initiator of the “Chinese Original Musical Incubation Program”, stimulating the development of original musicals is inseparable from building a platform for creators.
In 2019, Shanghai Cultural Plaza launched the “Chinese Original Musical Incubation Program” for the first time, collecting unpublished Chinese original musicals. The incubation plan equips the shortlisted creative teams with mentors and production teams, establishes a reporting and selection mechanism, and finally realizes the connection with commercial production. Fei Yuanhong said that he hopes to gather professional resources to drive the healthy growth of Chinese original musicals.
In the past 3 years, the incubation program has received 239 submissions, and several works have completed their premieres. Fei Yuanhong introduced that this year’s incubation plan has added directional incubation and specially invited incubation sections on the basis of the incubation section of freely submitted works to allow more creators to participate. “The next step is to make this platform better and more detailed. We hope that more excellent original musical works will have the opportunity to bloom through this platform.” Fei Yuanhong said.
Works show contemporary life
As an imported product, how can musicals that enter China be nationalized and localized, take root in Chinese soil, and tell Chinese stories well?
According to Chen Wei, director and professor of the Performance Teaching and Research Section of the China Conservatory of Music, our musicals should focus on the combination of excellent traditional culture, the spirit of the times and the aesthetic needs of contemporary Chinese people.
From “Splendid Crossing the Cloud Tower”, which integrates elements such as Kunqu Opera, Pingtan, Yue Opera, and Jiangnan Minor, to “Mei”, which shows the life of Peking Opera performing artist Mei Lanfang, and “The Orphan of Zhao”, which is adapted from Zaju… Nowadays, people are living in Vietnam. More and more original musicals have seen excellent traditional culture. At the same time, a number of main theme works also appeared on the stage of musicals and won the favor of the audience.
Taking “In the Distance” as an example, this realistic work focuses on the group of courier brothers, and reflects the rapid changes in Chinese society with their stories of struggle. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the real working status of the express delivery industry, the main creative team went to the express company to experience unloading, sorting, delivery and other links. After watching the play, the courier Liu Kuo said with emotion: “This play is very real, Yao Yuan wiped his sweat on the express tricycle. , Eating a boxed lunch, and delivering items all the time are reflections of our work and life scenes, which are very heartwarming and inspiring after watching.” The audience also commented: “The song is nice”, “Inspirational and full of positive energy”.
Chen Wei said that the creation of realistic themes is an important direction for the development of musicals: “We should do more creations on such themes and produce more works, so that the touching stories around us can be transformed from real life to real images of art, showing contemporary Chinese life.”
“When making musicals in China, you must have your own taste and style.” Zhou Yingchen, director and associate professor of Peking University’s National Music and Musical Theatre Research Center, believes that Chinese musicals must establish their own paradigms and characteristics, and use their own techniques and temperament to convey Voice of the Times, “Musicals themselves have a strong contemporary character, and only those closest to life can arouse everyone’s sympathy.”
Cultivating talents is still the key
Musical theatre is a comprehensive stage art, which integrates singing, dialogue, performance and dance. It has high requirements for the comprehensive quality of practitioners in all aspects, and talent training has become a key link in the development of musical theatre.
With the rapid development of the musical theatre industry and the popularity of variety shows such as “Sound into the Heart”, musicals continue to “break the circle”. Many actors have moved from other art categories to the stage of musicals, and the number of students applying for musical theatre is also growing. .
Attracting talent to the musical theatre field is only the first step. Chen Wei said that the first thing to do in order to create a work is to focus on creation. Now, most of the musical theatre students perform and practice foreign works, and they need to provide them with more excellent original plays. In her opinion, campus musicals are also a good way. “We should let more excellent original musicals enter the textbooks and classrooms, and sow the seeds in the hearts of students.”
Chen Wei believes that the current systematic training for performing talents has been established, and the training of creative talents is not systematic enough. Finding the right environment to grow is critical for musical theatre creators. Fei Yuanhong said that the creation of musicals requires continuous practice, overthrow, revision, and polishing. “The original musical incubation plan hopes to become such a platform, so that more young people have the opportunity to create and be mentored.”
Good works are inseparable from good actors. Entering the market, the development of musical theatre talents needs more opportunities. According to Ayunga, in the future, the musical troupe of Beijing Opera and Dance Theatre will focus on talent training and repertoire creation. In the follow-up creation, we hope to attract leading figures in the field of musical theatre to join in a cooperative way. In addition, Beijing Performing Arts Group has previously signed strategic cooperation agreements with the Central Academy of Drama, China Academy of Drama and other universities, and will also carry out in-depth cooperation with Beijing Dance Academy in musical theatre.
On the basis of producing high-quality works, it is equally important to cultivate the audience for the young art of musical theatre. With a sticky audience, high-quality works have more opportunities to be seen. “I hope more people will join the ranks of spreading and promoting Chinese original musicals,” said Ayunga.
(Reporters Cao Xuemeng and Yao Leqi participated in the writing)