opened tickets within three hours, and the box office exceeded 2 million. The popularity of the TV series "Flowers" has also heated up the performance market. On January 8, the first season of the stage play "Flowers" went on sale. A large number of users poured in and the server was temporarily paralyzed. China Business News has learned that the sales of the show are currently growing at a steady pace.
In fact, since its premiere in 2018, the "Flowers" stage play has completed 14 rounds of performances, and its box office and attendance rates have been good. "But judging from the rush to buy tickets as soon as they are released, it is indeed more popular than before." In an interview with China Business News, Ma Chencheng, president of Shanghai Media Group and producer of the stage play "Flowers", said that there seems to be a large wave of original Audiences who were not stage play fans flocked in to buy tickets: "Many viewers didn't know that there was a stage play version of "Flowers" in the past. It was probably after watching the TV series that they discovered the stage play "Flowers" out of concern for this IP. "."
The stage play "Flowers" is also adapted from the Mao Dun Literature Award-winning novel "Flowers" written by Jin Yucheng in 2012. The novel crosses two story lines in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s, and has a large number of characters. Small talk shows the daily trivialities and complex ecology of Shanghai's secular life, including food, drink, men and women, and the world's human emotions.
The stage play "Flowers" was jointly produced by Shanghai Media and Broadcasting Performing Arts Group and Shanghai Wumeng Culture. It won the adaptation rights around the same time as the TV series "Flowers". It was directed by Ma Junfeng and screenwriter Wen Fangyi, and premiered in 2018 . Different from the drastic adaptation of the TV series version of "Flowers", the stage play "Flowers" completely follows the values and world view of the original work, with some minor adjustments to the character relationships, and is generally loyal to the original work. The original author Jin Yucheng is also deeply involved in the creation of the stage play: "He has to watch every main character himself, and he will put forward his own opinions on every main character's live performance." Ma Chencheng said.
Many Mao Dun Literature Award-winning works such as "The Ordinary World", "White Deer Plain", "Song of Everlasting Regret" and "Human World" have been adapted into stage plays. Like most award-winning works, "Flowers" is large in size, thick and has a long historical context. . Ma Chencheng told China Business News that the stage play was decided to be released in three seasons at the beginning of the project. The three seasons are independent but connected with each other: "In order to present the novel more completely, we decided to use a stage series to express the relationship between the characters in the novel. and the destiny of the times."
In 2021, the second season of the stage play "Flowers" will be launched. Last year, it was performed for two consecutive seasons at the Majestic Theater. The story of the first season mainly revolves around the brotherhood and separation of Hu Sheng, A Bao and Xiao Mao. In the second season, new characters such as Tao Tao, Xiao Qin and Xuezhi appear. In terms of actors, the cast is eye-catching. In the second season, actor Pan Hong was invited to play the role of Teacher Li, a wonderful one-man show that fully demonstrated his skills. From March 28th to April 6th, the first season of the stage play "Flowers" will be performed at the Majestic Theater again, and will celebrate its 100th performance in a new round of performances.
Since its premiere in early 2018, the audience has spoken highly of the "Flowers" stage play. It has also received a lot of artistic recognition and won multiple drama awards. Not long after the first season of the stage play "Flowers" was released, Ho Jing, a fan of the original work, went to watch it. In her opinion, the three-hour stage play is overall good to watch. It is rare to be close to the temperament of the original work. The art setting is consistent with the style of the times it presents. The role of Shu Hua is handled with great impact. The whole play is The ending is also handled very well: "After watching the first season of the stage play, you will feel like you are in a trance, which is more in line with the tone of the novel."
He Jing told China Business News that the stage play "Flowers" started from Judging from the plot, stage design and performance, it is a highly completed work: "If you watch the original work, you will not be disappointed. If you have not read the original work, it is easy to understand such a drama. There is nothing very high about it." The threshold, the narrative is very clear. The actors' performances are also very close to the characters." He Jing feels that compared with the TV series version, the stage play is more like all living beings: "No one has a particularly large number of roles, of course there is definitely a bias, but looking back now , it describes the living conditions of everyone at that time, rather than highlighting a certain person. This is the same as in novels."
In the past five years, the stage play "Flowers" has also traveled to Beijing, Hangzhou and other places. In the first season last year, it was invited to perform four consecutive performances at the Grand Theater of the Hong Kong Cultural Center. In Ma Chencheng's view, "Flowers" represents Shanghai culture, and Shanghai and Hong Kong have many similarities in culture, and there are many Shanghainese living in Hong Kong: "We also wanted to know what the audience's feedback was like even if they could not understand Shanghainese. As a result, the performance was still very effective. OK "Ma Chencheng also expressed the hope that more audiences will come to Shanghai to watch the stage play "Flowers": "Just like now, many audiences will want to come to Shanghai to eat pork ribs rice cakes and visit the Yellow River Road. In fact, pork ribs and rice cakes can be found everywhere. Coming to Shanghai is a way to experience its urban culture, so I still hope that the stage play can attract more audiences who love and care about Shanghai to come to Shanghai to watch the show. "
In fact, there are many works performed in Shanghainese on the Shanghai stage. For example, the Shanghainese version of "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" is premiering at the Shanghai Dramatic Art Center. Not long ago, the urban comedy "Baoxingli" was held at the Majestic Theater for the New Year. Last year, the musical "Myth of Love" with Shanghainese elements sparked heated discussions. Ma Chencheng said: "The TV series "Flowers" suddenly made Shanghainese popular. In fact, we have been insisting on telling Shanghai stories in Shanghainese. A language represents a culture. When telling stories about Shanghai, expressing them in Shanghainese can actually better convey the cultural connotation of the story itself. "
