In recent years, dozens of international productions are being staged in China throughout any given performance season.
But those entertainment genres most popular on New York's Broadway and London's West End have not been as well received in China as ballet, pop gigs or spoken drama.
However, artists and businessmen in the show market haven't given up. The year 2007 has become a big year for foreign musicals performed by sino-foreign joint production teams.
Produced by the Broadway Asia Company and Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, and directed by the original version's director, the Chinese version of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change wrapped up its 23-performance run at the Westside Theater in New York City early this June. It would soon kick off an extended, multi-city tour of China.
Beijing Oriental Broadway International Theater Management Company, a joint venture between Beijing Time New Century Entertainment and Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, LLC, would bring the Tony Award winning musicals 42nd Street and The King and I to Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Hangzhou. The Chinese musical Butterflies, which pools the talents of Chinese composers and playwrights, a French director and choreographers from the United Kingdom, is scheduled to debut in July in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong Province.
And Carmen Passionate Love is scheduled to premiere at Beijing's Century Theater in December.
The musical tells the story of urban women whose personalities and fates resemble those of Carmen. Composer Edi Swoboda draws inspiration from jazz, traditional Chinese elements and popular songs from Bizet's opera Carmen. The auditions will be held in Shenyang and Beijing in July.
Early this year, the Austrian Global Group invested in establishing the Global Stage Entertainment & Production Co Ltd Hong Kong in collaboration with the Beijing Century Theater. The project will produce musicals created by artists from both home and abroad. Austrian director Elmar Ottenthal was appointed artistic director of the joint-venture.
(China Daily June 22, 2007)