The audience at the Century Theater could hardly have asked for more from Dennis K. Law's action-musical Tang Concubines. The lavish settings and costumes, splendid Chinese dance, acrobatics and martial arts, plus the unique orchestral music featuring traditional Chinese instruments, all combined to immerse them in the emotion, drama and battles of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

Tang Concubines features lavish settings and costumes, splendid Chinese dance, acrobatics and kungfu performances.

On Saturday evening, however, the second day of its run in Beijing, the show did not sell out - in fact, many seats were empty. Law, the show's playwright, producer and director, looked tired and disappointed backstage but said he had not expected the show to sell well in its first week.

"Action-musical is a totally new concept for local audiences, and it takes time to let them know what we're presenting," said the 60-year-old Hong Kong-born American producer.

He wouldn't want to wait too long, though. Tang Concubines, which won the Best Choreography and the Best Costume Design from Toronto Dora Award, cost him $2.5 million to make and during its run in the States and Canada, most of the shows have cost him a considerable amount of his own money.

"The empty seats don't dampen my ambition to create the shows," he said defiantly, "and actually I don't do the shows for money. It's always hard for arts and culture to make money. I want to make the Chinese culture as mainstream as any other culture."

A retired surgeon from Denver, Colorado, Law started his showbiz career by producing Warriors of Virtue, a high-budget family feature film distributed by MGM, Warner Brothers and Columbia Artists worldwide.

After the Law family purchased the Center in Vancouver for Performing Arts in early 2002, Law became the CEO and president of the Center and its associated production company Sight, Sound & Action Ltd.

The idea for his action-musicals came up in 2001 when he visited the Beijing Dance Academy and watched first- and second-year students demonstrate their dexterity.

"I was shocked. I'd been a supporter of ballet for years but I'd never seen human movement like this. It did not have any ballet or going-on-point whatsoever," he recalls.