In Shanghai, there is a building called Asia Tower located on Jiujiang Road in Huangpu District, Shanghai. It is close to the lively Nanjing East Road. You can see the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower when you look up. It is also one of the most familiar places for Chinese musical audiences.
Like Broadway in New York, London's West End, and Seoul's University Road, Asia Tower is like a "vertical theater district" where various musicals and immersive dramas are staged in turn. At the 2024 Shanghai Performing Arts Development Forum, Zhang Jie, vice president of the Shanghai Grand Theater Art Center and general manager of Shanghai Cultural Plaza, revealed: Of the 9,960 musicals performed nationwide in 2023, 5,888 will be in Shanghai.
"Come to Shanghai to watch musicals" has gradually become a special part of Shanghai's cultural tourism. In addition, Shanghai is also a gathering area for China's musical industry. Operators, drama producers, and various musicals in the industry have Dream actors gathered in Shanghai.
From the Tower of Asia to the "City of Musicals", how did Shanghai do it?
When the musical becomes a "Shanghai specialty"
Since its opening in 2020, "Apolonia" has been performed nearly 1,000 times, and the tavern is almost full every time. It is becoming a new "Shanghai specialty".
Yuan Qi, deputy general manager of "One Good Show", the producer of "Apolonia", told Blue Whale reporters that the number of "Apolonia" performances at the Shanghai museum is expected to exceed 1,000 in July and August this year. "From the end of 2022 to 2023, our audiences will begin to see a trend of breaking out of the circle. This is based on the brand recognition accumulated by the plays in the past few years. Part of the reason is that the entire drama industry has been very prosperous in the past few years. This circle has formed a virtuous circle, and it is expanding little by little. In fact, it is a process of gradual outward expansion. "
In addition to "Apolonia", the list of "Shanghai Specialty Musicals" is also constantly updated, and "The King of Fans" is also constantly updated. Only 3 months after its premiere, the play received an interest from the Korean drama label Never Ending Play to purchase the copyright. The original suspenseful musical "Butterfly" with two female protagonists will be performed in South Korea; "The Silent Truth", Well-known IPs such as "The Hidden Corner" have also been put on the musical stage, achieving a double harvest of box office and word-of-mouth...
When Asia Tower became a "vertical theater district", the musical itself began to have cultural and tourism attributes. Wang Zuowen, founder of
original musical production company Whale Culture, told Blue Whale Reporter: "From my perspective, I have always believed that musicals will eventually evolve into a part of the tourism industry. Chinese people often say, 'Come wherever you come, come. ', I will definitely watch more shows, just like Broadway in the United States and London's West End, they are already a complete tourism industry for tourists. "
Asia Tower is becoming more and more like an "attraction". In addition to its check-in attribute as a performance venue, due to the rise of immersive theater in recent years, many immersive musical theaters have been released, and musical theater labels have also designed and decorated the venues ingeniously, with diverse scenes and even matching " "Park activities," Yuan Qi told Blue Whale reporter: "We also tried to incorporate some theme park logic, such as trying to use the time when there are no performances during the day to arrange it into a garden party, such as "Santa Lucia" downstairs. It's a casino, and we will give out 'fake chips' to friends who come to play. During the garden party, actors will randomly drop them and play games with everyone, which really makes everyone 'immersed' like Disney. "
Music. Stills from the play "Apolonia"
The siphon effect of musicals in Shanghai
More and more musical talents are meeting in Shanghai, not just in Asia Tower. In the eyes of Zhang Zhilin, the founder of Miao Shike Musical, Shanghai has a good soil for musicals. “There are dozens of outstanding young production companies, many professional actors, professional creators, and ticket-buying audiences for musicals. All the elements are here.” After the integration, a musical theater market was formed. "The "siphon effect" began to appear, and various innovations also emerged.
After "Apolonia" became popular, the model of resident musicals became established, and musicals began to become a platform, providing actors with more stable performance opportunities and a larger stage.Yuan Qi said: "This drama has a strong vitality because of its high quality, so it achieves the state of 'playing on people' instead of people supporting the show. It has indeed become a good star-making platform, and many people from The actor who stepped out on our small stage may now be a very popular musical star in this industry. The change of this actor has actually led to the change of our audience structure to a certain extent. "
Zhang Zhilin has been in business for nine years. Accompanying the development of commercialization of Chinese musicals, "From the time I started my business to now, I clearly feel that Chinese musicals have changed from scattered pieces to an industry. There used to be no profession of musical actors, but now there is, and many schools are now open. This is a big change for the musical major.”
In addition, as content products with strong TOC attributes, musical theater labels are also constantly integrating innovative ideas such as the Internet. Zhang Zhilin will take into account the long-term operation of the entire repertoire when developing repertoires. Therefore, most of Miao Shike's repertoires are currently developed as a supporting incubation of "big theater + small theater". "We want to make some differences and some of our own characteristics." For example, we have the big "Flame" and the small "Flame". The product lines are all connected. This is a good thing for the actors and the play itself. Maybe the actors in the small theater can advance after they have enough experience. To the big stage. The large theater usually has a long-term performance, and the small theater is a resident mode. Their cooperation will also be of great benefit to the maintenance of the popularity of the IP itself. Yuan Qi, deputy general manager of Haoxi, believes that good content products start with content and operations at the same time. "Many practitioners may not have had this awareness in the past, because in the past, China's drama industry was more artist-dominated and was directed by the director. Production, but currently Shanghai should have a producer-centered system, and the producer has the highest say. This is also a very important factor in the prosperity of Shanghai musicals, because this is indeed in line with the underlying logic of this industry. "
Yuan Qi believes that Shanghai’s musical atmosphere gives more room for innovative content. “Now the production speed of new content is obviously much faster than in the past few years. Many newly hatched content from small theaters to large theaters are also It’s doing well in the market.”
Innovation in musicals: The balance between traditional culture and world expression
Although musicals are imported, in just a few years, Chinese original musicals have developed rapidly and have successfully “went overseas”.
In 2023, the original musical "The King's Chess" was spotted by the Korean musical production company Never Ending Play and introduced to the Korean musical market through copyright export. The play became China's first original musical to export its copyright overseas.
is just different from previous works based on traditional Chinese culture that have been released overseas. "The King's Chess" shows the struggle and loneliness in the context of Nordic civilization in the 19th century, a history and environment that is relatively unfamiliar to Asian audiences.
Regarding this, Wang Zuowen, founder of Whale Culture, the producer of the show, believes that "Chinese expression" is not limited to retelling traditional stories, but can also be "Chinese expression of world stories." "The reason why the Korean team is interested in "King of Kings" is to some extent due to the commonality of East Asian culture. Although this is a story that is a bit far away from us, after re-expression, the entire East Asian culture is actually relatively similar. Recognized for the humanistic spirit, our expression of East Asian emotions is more tactful and restrained, and our stories may be more in line with the emotional resonance of the Asian region."
The musical "The King's Chess"
After successfully telling the "World Story", Wang Zuowen. I also want to try new expressions of "traditional Chinese culture": "We will also have some new works this year. One is a musical adapted from the novel "Sunspot". This IP has also been adapted into the movie "Scorching Sun". On the other hand, we also want to retell the character Cao Cao in the Three Kingdoms in a new form."
After "Apolonia", "One Good Show" once again innovated to combine musicals with traditional culture, using a form of expression close to modern musicals to re-present the essence of traditional culture and recreate the hit "New Dragon Inn" , traditional opera broke out of the circle again.
Yuan Qi told Blue Whale reporter: "After "New Dragon Inn" became popular, we basically received almost all imaginable different types of operas across the country, including some non-opera traditional performing arts categories. invitation to cooperate. We hope to make it into a content that not only meets the aesthetics and needs of today's young entertainment product consumers, but also can be commercialized in the long term. This is a good thing from any perspective. "
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