interface news reporter | Lin Ziren
interface news editor | Jiang Yan
The musical "The Phantom of the Opera" will restart its international tour in July this year, and China is the first stop of the international tour, including Shenzhen, Xi'an, Shanghai, Suzhou, Chengdu, Audiences in seven cities in Beijing will enjoy the original production of this classic musical. This is the news announced yesterday.
The original version of "The Phantom of the Opera" touring China this time will faithfully reproduce the classic version produced by Cameron Mackintosh and the British Real Good Group in 1986 and continues to this day. As the Chinese producer of the play's round tour, Ma Chencheng, president of Shanghai Media and Entertainment Group, said in a group interview that this tour version is a rematch of the 2020 "Phantom of the Opera" world tour version - that year's "Phantom of the Opera" ” had performed in a few cities including Manila, but the tour was later suspended due to the epidemic. After three years of waiting, the "Phantom of the Opera" world tour will finally resume. It is worth mentioning that since the resident version of "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway in New York has been suspended, the English version of "Phantom of the Opera" will only be available to watch in the West End of London and China. The cast lineup of "Phantom" and "Vicomte Raul Chagne" was announced at the
press conference. The role of "Phantom" will be played by Jonathan Roxmouth, and "Viscount Raul Shani" will be played by Matt Leisy. Both actors have participated in previous international tour performances of "The Phantom of the Opera".
Jonathan Losmov (left) and Matt Leahy (right)
Losmov is the youngest person ever to play the role of the Phantom in the English version of "The Phantom of the Opera". He participated in the international tour of "The Phantom of the Opera" in 2012 and 2019, visiting the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan. Lissi has appeared in famous musicals such as "Sweeney Todd", "Whims" and "The Sound of Music", and played Viscount Raul Shani in the 2019-2020 "Phantom of the Opera" international tour.
Since its premiere in London in 1986, "The Phantom of the Opera" has visited 193 cities in 46 countries, attracted 160 million viewers, and won more than 70 drama awards. Ma Chencheng pointed out that from the perspective of the development history of the global musical industry, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a very special work. "Whether it is its global language version or its box office influence in cities, it is It is an important work that contributes to the musical industry. The development of musicals in many countries started with the original English version of "The Phantom of the Opera". In China, I believe that the first generation of musical fans and musical practitioners watched It was only after "Phantom of the Opera" entered China that I became interested in musicals."
Stills of "Phantom of the Opera"
On December 18, 2004, "Phantom of the Opera" performed at the Shanghai Grand Theater for 100 consecutive performances, breaking the record for theater performances in mainland China. Record. According to Shanghai Grand Theater General Manager Zhang Xiaoding, although the Shanghai Grand Theater staged the musical "Les Misérables" in 2002, many audiences had not yet reacted and "Les Misérables" was completed in 22 performances. "Phantom of the Opera" truly allowed many viewers to experience the charm of a musical live for the first time, and many viewers were "stunned". Since then, the Shanghai Grand Theater has successively introduced high-quality musicals such as "Cats", "The Lion King" and "Mamma Mia".
Zhang Xiaoding said that from 2004 to 2024, musicals have gone from being unknown at first to becoming a mainstream drama in the performing arts market, and Shanghai has also become the city with the largest number of musical audiences and the most prosperous market in China. The "source" and "terminal" of the industry. In recent years, the Shanghai musical market has shown a rapid growth trend. Data from the Shanghai Culture and Tourism Bureau shows that in 2023, there will be nearly 3,000 musicals staged in professional theaters across the city alone.
In the past 20 years, the original version of "Phantom of the Theater" has basically maintained the rhythm of being released once every ten years. After its first visit to China in 2004, the original version of "The Phantom of the Opera" also toured in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing from 2013 to 2015. In 2018, Shanghai Media and Entertainment Group announced the "Phantom China Project". The original "Phantom of the Theater" was originally planned to come to China in 2020, but was shelved due to the epidemic.The Chinese version of "The Phantom of the Opera" will be the first to meet Chinese audiences in May 2022, starting a national tour of more than six months. This is the 18th language version of the show worldwide. The play has visited nine cities, performed 159 times, and earned over 150 million box office. It has been evaluated by the media as "a milestone in China's musical theater industry." Among them, the Shanghai station performed 40 times in 34 days, attracting nearly 65,000 viewers, with an average attendance rate of over 95%, and a box office of over 48.5 million yuan. It also created the best performance in the history of a Chinese version of a musical.
For Chinese audiences, "The Phantom of the Opera" is no longer a new story. In 2023 alone, we saw the Chinese version of "The Phantom of the Opera" and the original sequel "Love Never Dies" created by Andrew Webber in theaters. It is curious whether the original version of "The Phantom of the Opera" comes to China this time and can continue its past glory. Ma Chencheng said that except for Shanghai and Beijing, "Phantom of the Opera" has never been performed in other cities during this national tour. "Every time "Phantom of the Opera" appears, it actually promotes the city and the urban agglomeration with that city as its core. Love and promotion of musicals and even the cultural industry."
"We hope that this round of original English performances will make more musical lovers across the country fall in love with musicals and know how to appreciate and understand musicals. I also hope that more young people can enter this industry and jointly promote the development of original musicals," he said.
Currently, the performances of "Phantom of the Opera" in Shenzhen (July 2-July 7) are on sale, and the first round of ticket sales in Shanghai (August 27-October 13) will be on March 2 at 2 p.m. Click to officially open.
