The musical "Myth of Love" currently being staged at the Majestic Theater has moved Anfu Road, one of Shanghai's most representative street scenes, into the theater. The stage installations are constantly changing in a way of arrangement and combination, like a kaleidoscope, reflecting this city. The colors of the city.
The previous scene was an open-air coffee shop at the intersection of Anfu Road and Wukang Road. As the stage turned, it instantly became the exquisite and comfortable home of the protagonist Lao Bai. A lively scene composed of life and drama rushed towards us. Urban men and women walked out of the screen, singing jazz, dancing tango, laughing and cursing, and they were lively.
Looking back to the end of 2021, in the sluggish movie market, " Love Myth " created a box office of 260 million, which caused heated discussions for a while. This light comedy full of urban sentiment and life style is popular among young and middle-aged literary and artistic people. In Shanghai, where the story takes place, the film is particularly popular, with a cumulative box office of more than 100 million. If calculated based on the 2.5 million moviegoers, approximately one in ten Shanghai citizens has watched "The Myth of Love".
Producer of the musical "The Myth of Love" Zhang Nan watched the movie three times in a row. She felt that the scenes in the film were "both realistic and dreamy." For the third time, she took her parents to the theater: "There are many People in their 50s and 60s were laughing and laughing in the theater." Zhang Nan realized that watching "The Myth of Love" seemed to have become a social activity, attracting many people who did not often go to the theater. This also gave her endless thoughts: The film itself is more literary and artistic, and does not have such strong commercial attributes. If it is moved to the stage play, will it have a broader market space?
In Zhang Nan’s view, there are various categories on the musical theater stage right now, including imported big IPs and small theaters, but themes like "The Myth of Love" are very scarce. "Some musicals tell grand narratives, and some are suspense-type themes, but they are actually a bit far away from our lives. "The Myth of Love" has a strong comedy, and you will feel relaxed when watching it. As a realistic story , and it can enter the hearts of every audience."
The copyright cooperation was quickly reached in the spring of the following year after the release of "The Myth of Love". During the National Day last year, the musical "The Myth of Love" successfully premiered at the Shanghai Cultural Plaza and gained a high reputation. In May of this year, the play was one of the plays performed by Shanghai Jing'an Drama Valley and was performed at the Majestic Theater for 21 consecutive performances. Zhang Nan revealed to China Business News that "The Myth of Love" will start a new round of performances this year.
A good story is the basis for a successful adaptation.
The producer of the musical "The Myth of Love" Zhang Nan and the screenwriter Xiao Shiyao expressed their love for the movie "The Myth of Love" in an interview with China Business News.
Xiao Shiyao feels that "The Myth of Love" is an easy-going movie: "It tells the story of a middle-aged man in Shanghai in a relaxed way. In addition to love, there is also some flavor of life." This kind of perspective has been widely used in recent years. It is relatively rare in entertainment works: "Precisely because it talks about the love of middle-aged people, it will be more mature. Everyone around Lao Bai is very vivid, forming a small ukiyo-e, reflecting the city of Shanghai." "
In Zhang Nan's view, "The Myth of Love" is not only about love, but also about the intergenerational relationship between Lao Bai and his son Bai Ge, and the relationship between Lao Bai and Lao Wu that lasts for decades. Years of friendship, and the relationship between three urban women, Miss Li, Gloria, and Beibei: "The three of them are very independent and have their own charms. They appreciate each other, and the friendship they gradually form with each other is also very charming. ”
In their opinion, the story is very exciting and the characterization is contemporary, which provides a solid text foundation for adapting it into a musical. From the beginning, the main creator decided to retain the main body of the story, further extend the plot and character psychology, and amplify the comedy.
In Xiao Shiyao's view, "The Myth of Love" is commercial, but director Shao Yihui did not choose to express contradictions in a sharp or direct way: "For example, Lao Bai, his career, family, and emotions actually hide a lot of contradictions. .The film combines the urban atmosphere of Shanghai to tell the story, hiding the contradictions underwater. ”
Musicals are different from movies. They have to bring conflicts to the surface and keep the audience pulled. Movies tell stories in a calm and light way similar to prose poetry, while the stage pays attention to dramatic conflicts. It cannot use lens language like movies. To express the character's inner feelings, we need to use a more external way to let the audience intuitively feel the dramatic tension. This does not mean turning it into a "bloody" story that breaks out of the linear narrative of the movie. "Myth of Love" focuses on exploring and displaying the inner conflicts of the characters and the inconsistencies in reality. For example, in the climax, everyone is teasing each other at the dinner table, showing that everyone has their own opinions but respects each other. Concept.
Blank space and openness are one of the charms of "The Myth of Love", such as whether Lao Wu really had a romantic encounter with Sophia Loren when he was young, and what is the relationship between Gloria and Lao Bai? No clear answer is given. Each audience enters the story with their own perspective and sees a different ending. This is retained and amplified on the musical stage, forming unsolved puzzles. It makes people think after the play. For example, when Lao Wu recalled the story with Sophia Loren, Lao Bai teased his old friend: "You don't know that when Lao Wu was young, he was 800 degrees myopic. Beibei on the side maintained her usual rationality and calmness: "It doesn't matter whether this matter is true or false, as long as Lao Wu thinks it is true." "The finale of the
musical breaks down the "love myth" into "today's love is tomorrow's myth." In Xiao Shiyao's view, although the movie does not directly clarify what kind of love it wants to express, it can We can see the emotional transformation of each person: "For example, Miss Li went from not believing in love at the beginning to finally being willing to try. We refined it into the main line of the musical, which is that no matter what age you are, no matter what you have experienced No matter what the emotional trauma, you can always bravely embrace love, try love, and believe in love. ”
Outside the ip
theater with its own cultural and tourism attributes, the streets are still bustling. Inside the theater, in the living room of Lao Bai’s house, the obsessive ambiguity of men and women in eating and drinking is being staged. The alley fireworks and modern sophistication of Shanghai are laid out on the stage. , eliminating the boundary between reality and drama.
"The Myth of Love" is appropriately embedded in the texture of the city of Shanghai. "People who grew up in this city seem to take everything for granted and everything is too familiar, and Shao Yihui is a bystander. , the urban temperament excavated is more charming, and those seemingly trivial and meaningless urban street scenes moved me very much. "Zhang Nan said.
When entering the theater, the play has not yet started, and the audience will be attracted by the nearly one-to-one reproduction of the buildings and street scenes on the stage. If you look closely, you will find many rich details of life hidden in it. The prop design of the Shanghai Comedy Troupe Master Wang Bin completed a "movie-level" setting on the stage. Even in close-up shots, every prop can withstand scrutiny.
For example, there are many movies and music on the bookshelf of Lao Bai's home. Books to show the owner's aesthetic character. Ms. Li's home is an old house with several families living in it, so there are several doorbells at the door. The wall next to the stairs is mottled and damp, and there are plastic bags hanging everywhere. It may be difficult to distinguish even if you don’t observe it at a very close distance, but it is these details that constitute the city’s life atmosphere, giving the audience a visually intimate and real feeling, as if they are actually there, interacting with the people on the stage. Live and laugh together.
Compared with the first round of performances, the stage and performance space of the Majestic Theater are more compact, and the crew also adjusted some stage arrangements to shorten the distance between the "streets". The color contrast of different genres is once again amplified. In the jazz tone, tap, tango, rock and pop complement each other. The homophones of "chives and eggplants" and "country knight", the shoe repair shop and coffee shop at the entrance of the alley. Each has its own corner, elegance and the marketplace, drama and life complement each other.
In Zhang Nan's view, the deep connection between "The Myth of Love" and the city of Shanghai makes it naturally possess the attributes of cultural and tourism cooperation. Before the performance of "The Myth of Love", the crew set up a pop-up store called "Lao Bai's Home" in a small villa in Zhangyuan. In this theater experience space, a series of activities including meetings with the main creators and theater workshops were held. , allowing the audience to experience various creative aspects of the musical and share interesting things in front of and behind the scenes. On May 19, a solo concert by Lao Bai will be held in the atrium of Plaza 66, which is a true representation of the plot of the musical in reality.
Zhang Nan hopes that "The Myth of Love" will not only attract the original musical audience, but also attract some citizens to enter the theater. As the executive producer of the stage play "Flowers", she knows how difficult it is to expand the audience circle of a drama: "From 2017 to this year, it took seven years for "Flowers" to attract more and more people who had never seen a drama before. Citizens with experience in cultural consumption bought a theater ticket to enter the theater because of the story of "Flowers", and many of them were gray-haired old people in their 70s and 80s. "
Zhang Nan noticed that the second round of performances of "The Myth of Love" has already begun. Attracting groups beyond the musical theater audience, some audience members bring their families to the theater for a relaxing and enjoyable time. During the May Day holiday, foreign tourists from Beijing, Guangzhou, Inner Mongolia, etc. dragged their suitcases to check in to watch a movie at the Majestic Theater. While traveling in Shanghai, they experienced the charm of the city's unique cultural products. In the future, "Myth of Love" is expected to tour other cities to promote the charm of Shanghainese musicals to a wider audience.
(This article comes from China Business News)
