Reflections on the Development of China Musical Trilogy The original English musical The Lion King held its Asian premiere at the Shanghai Grand Theatre on July 18, 2006. Up to 1018, it was almost full. The audience who came to watch were all moved by the magical and gorgeous dance beauty, unique and touching music and simple and rich stories in The Lion King, which once again set off a music craze in Shanghai. Counting, The Lion King has been the fifth musical introduced by Shanghai Grand Theatre, from Les Miserables in February 2002, Cats in 53 performances in 2003, The Sound of Music in 35 performances in 2004, and Phantom of the Opera in 2005. We are delighted to see that with the introduction of classic musicals, Shanghai musicals have changed from an unfamiliar art category to a popular entertainment variety. It can be said that the investment and efforts of Shanghai Grand Theatre in musicals over the years have been fruitful. At the same time, if we look at the whole country, we can see that the popularity of musicals is also rising. In addition to introducing foreign dramas, many cities have launched original musicals, which has effectively promoted the development of China's music industry and once again showed that musicals will have a bright future in China. Three-step strategy of musical two years ago, when we decided to introduce Phantom of the Opera in Shanghai Grand Theatre, we began to think about how to develop China musical. At that time, we put forward a three-step strategy: the first step is to introduce foreign classic musicals. The second step is to produce "China Edition" of foreign classic plays. The third step is to create original local musicals. This "three-step" strategy is put forward in combination with the development of musicals in China, and it is also the result of our years of thinking. The first step: introduce classic plays and cultivate the musical market. To develop the music industry, the most important thing is to cultivate a perfect "music market". The purpose of introducing foreign classic musicals is to let people know and like musicals, and then form a huge market where people are willing to pay for tickets to watch musicals. This is a road that we have walked for four years and will continue to walk. Back in 2002, when we decided to introduce Les Miserables, most people didn't know what a musical was. Many people confuse musicals with operas, but they don't understand that they are both related and very different. A few people think that musicals are the product of decadent capitalism and pornographic performances, and should not be introduced into socialist China. And all this is far from the real situation of musicals. For us, the urgent task is to bring the most classic musicals to Shanghai and let everyone get close to musicals. After comprehensive consideration, we think Les Miserables is the best choice, not only because of its excellent artistic quality, but also because of its content, style and genre. We think it is the most suitable drama to be introduced to Shanghai for the first time. Nevertheless, we are still not completely sure. Although the performance of 2 1 was nothing abroad, it broke the record in the history of the grand theater at that time. Some pessimists even said that it would be "tragic" for the Shanghai Grand Theatre to stage Les Miserables. As a result, as we all know, Les Miserables was sold out, and it was hard to get a ticket for the final curtain call performance. Even the steps of the theater were crowded with audiences. The success of Les Miserables has strengthened our determination to keep moving forward on the road of musicals. However, we are also very clear that, despite the successful introduction of musicals in Shanghai, it is by no means an overnight event to cultivate a mature musical market, which requires long-term efforts, just like the prosperity of Broadway in the United States and West End of London in the United Kingdom, which was also created through hundreds of years of development. Because the market is always the basic factor to make musicals bigger and stronger, it is hard to imagine that a musical can flourish in a place where musicals are not deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Therefore, the first step is to keep going, step by step to cultivate the musical market, so that musicals can really be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Cat, The Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King and Mamma Mia, which were introduced last year, and Hairspray, which will be introduced in July this year, can be said to be major dramas introduced every year for seven consecutive years, and they are all the first steps to implement the "three-step" strategy of musicals-introducing classic plays and cultivating the musical market. Let more audiences go into the theater to watch musicals. Looking back on the course of seven years, we have continuously introduced influential western musicals every year, which not only cultivated a large number of audiences who like musicals, but also produced at least two major achievements, which contributed to the establishment of the Musical Department of Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the decision of the Shanghai Municipal Government to invest in the construction of a professional musical theater in the former site of the former Cultural Square. The second step: making the China version, and training the musical team to make the China version of the western classic musical, or "localization" of the classic musical, was our idea two years ago. Because we know that the musical industry in the future will not succeed only by introducing plays. After all, imported plays are different from production plays, and we have not mastered the two core contents of artistic performance and troupe operation. In other words, the introduction of plays can enhance the market influence of musicals, but it is difficult to directly control the artistic production of musicals and the operation of troupes. In these two aspects, we still have many shortcomings. Undoubtedly, it is everyone's expectation to create, produce, perform and operate their own dramas and finally embark on the road of "originality". And "localization" is the production, performance and management of foreign classic plays by domestic people. Although it is not a creation, through this process, we can cultivate our own music team and lay a solid operational foundation for "originality". This is also a way that many countries have operated and proved to be effective. The Japanese Four Seasons Troupe can be said to be a model in this respect. After in-depth analysis, we feel that the formation of a cultural industry, repertoire is just a flower floating on the water, and behind it, many factors are needed to support it, such as creative environment, production norms, staffing, market conditions, cultural accumulation and so on. The lack of each link will become an obstacle to the development of the music industry. When we carefully study the current situation of these links in China, we will find that it is far from the mature music environment abroad. This situation is still difficult to change in a short time. Under such circumstances, the original play is difficult to succeed. Therefore, the importance of "localization" of classic plays is highlighted. Asari Keita, the founder of Japanese Four Seasons Troupe, once said: "Whether localization is actually a game of self-innovation ability." This drama troupe, which was led by asari keita, embarked on the road to success by "localization". Although Four Seasons also produces some musicals and dramas of its own, the core business of its long-term development is still the localization of classic musicals. For decades, many classic western musicals have been put on the stage of the Four Seasons in Japan, creating box office miracles one after another, which cannot but be attributed to the management mode of the Four Seasons Troupe. Although the Shanghai Grand Theatre has been operating for so many years, it has achieved remarkable results and set an example, but we are not deeply involved in the creation and production of repertoires. Comparatively speaking, the road of "localization" is more suitable for us and easier to succeed. In addition, "localization" has many advantages, such as greatly reducing the production cost and opportunity cost of repertoire creation, helping to cultivate professional production teams in China, and helping to establish musical production norms in line with international standards, and so on. These are all important factors that we need to consider. After in-depth research, we have had many discussions with Cameron Mackintosh Company in Britain, Xiaoxing Company, Nederland Company in the United States and Broadway Company in Asia, and finally reached a preliminary consensus on which musical to choose as the "first part" of the localization of the Grand Theatre, the translation of English lyrics, the production of props and costumes, the arrangement of performance schedules, and the marketing steps. We look forward to meeting before 20 10. The third step: Creating local dramas and building the musical industry chain has always been the biggest weakness in the development of China musicals. Over the years, with the introduction of foreign classic dramas, we have created more dramas ourselves. Just to name a few examples, there are movie songs, Jinsha, I am crazy about singing, sunrise, five girls, a city that never sleeps with angels, tourists on icebergs, equatorial rain and so on. There are so many local original musicals in two or three years, which is incomparable before. However, what we have seen is that most of the original dramas have much thunder and little rain, and few of them can recover their costs. Most of them are getting worse and worse. We believe that to some extent, this is not only a reflection of the weak creative power, but also a reflection of the immature music market and environment. Indeed, the originality of musicals has developed very well in some countries in recent years. For example, France and Germany have created many musicals in recent years, which are completely different from Britain and America in artistic style and operation mode, and have achieved good results, such as Notre Dame, Romeo and Juliet, Gone with the Wind, Elizabeth and Mozart, and some of them have been translated into English and entered the British and American markets. But after all, China's creative environment is completely different from that of France and Germany, and the lack of various aspects is an important factor restricting the development of original musicals. In fact, even in places where the music industry is very mature, such as Broadway in the United States and West End of London in the United Kingdom, the success rate of original dramas is still very low, and only about one-fifth of them can make a profit. The characteristics of artistic creation determine that this is a high-risk and high-return industry. However, despite such great uncertainty, there are still so many artists in the world who are working tirelessly to create musicals with various styles and contents, which on the one hand shows the great charm of musicals, and on the other hand shows that creating successful original musicals is always everyone's ultimate goal and desire. In the talks with McIntosh Company, Haohao Company and Asia Broadway Company, we also talked about the original musical. They also gave us some good ideas and expressed their willingness to help us in the future. After several years' research and practice, we have gradually come to a general view of originality, that is, "original drama" is different from "imported drama" and "China version" and should not be deliberately planned, let alone encouraged. Successful foreign plays are often not the result of arrangement and planning, but naturally watered by inspiration and opportunity in the right soil. As long as we keep cultivating the soil of musicals, good plays will naturally grow. Just when The Lion King was staged for thirty times, our Shanghai Grand Theatre organized a symposium on the development of musicals, and invited professionals and non-professionals from all walks of life to talk about their views. A general view is that what China lacks most in artistic creation is good creativity and creativity, but this should be the core of musicals belonging to creative industries. In addition, we also see that talents, markets, funds and policies related to creation are also important influencing factors, which also influence or determine the possibility of creative growth all the time. We feel that in order to find the breakthrough of the whole industry and promote the overall development, it is still necessary to produce and create excellent plays. At present, we have consciously collected all kinds of musical scripts or stories, and explored the creative talents of musical dramas, hoping to find the source of inspiration and creativity in the future. The three steps of musical can be carried out at the same time, although there are differences in order. In the future development blueprint of Shanghai Grand Theatre, the introduction of classic plays, the production of "China version" musicals and the creation of original musicals will become three major components in parallel, which will jointly promote the development of musicals as a modern drama art style in Shanghai and even the whole country.