Memories strike again

Since the Chinese edition of the classics Cats and Mamma Mia! debuted, Western musicals have been increasingly followed by domestic fans and producers. The arrival of music diva Elaine Paige in China early next month has many fans on the edge of their seats.

Paige's concert, scheduled for November 2, will be held at the Gymnasium of the Olympic Sports Center in Beijing. This marks the fourth visit the 64-year-old artist has paid to China. Prior to arriving in China, Paige is performing in Australia and New Zealand in October.  She has scheduled stops in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Chengdu.

"I will sing about 15 songs in the concerts, including my favorite songs like 'Memory,' 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina,' 'All that Jazz,' and more. I will also sing several duos with my friend Kris Phillips (an American Chinese popular singer)," Paige wrote in an email to the Global Times.

Crooning classics

Though her career began in 1978, Paige didn't come to China until October of 2001. During her visit, she performed "Memory," from Cats.

In 2008, with the boom of China's music scene, Paige came again to perform more staples, like "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "As If We Never Said Goodbye," "Edelweiss" and "Bring him Home."

"I didn't hear many Chinese musicals before I visited China the first time," she wrote. In recent years, I heard more and more about Chinese musicals, about some West End musicals being played in Shanghai, translated and played in Chinese."

According to Zhidong Xinghe Media, the company promoting Paige's concert in Beijing, her on-stage costumes will feature Chinese characteristics, including the traditional color red and prints of clouds and peonies, eliciting feelings of familiarity among domestic audiences.

According to Beijing Baocheng Sunshine Cultural Communication (Group) Co., Ltd., the sponsor of the November concert, over 100 musical instruments will be used during Paige's performance, including the piano, jazz drum, bass guitar and percussion instruments.

Talent, effort and luck

After playing María Eva Duarte de Perón in the musical Evita in 1978, Elaine Paige solidified herself as a household name in musical circles in the West. In 1981, she played the role of Grizabella in Cats in London.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer of classics like Cats, Evita, and The Phantom of The Opera, has also been Elaine's business collaborator for many years. He described her as someone who understood his music and the complexity of the roles.

"I believe a good musical singer needs to be talented, hardworking and persistent. To be famous you also need some luck," Paige wrote. "But luck should be based on talent, hard work and persistence. In my own case, persistence plays an important part. I liked singing since childhood and sang professionally for many years in anonymity."

"But luckily I got an important role in Evita in 1978 and became known ever since and kept singing until now. I believe practice makes perfect. One needs a lot of experience to be mature."

Defining the genre

Musicals experienced a surge during the last century, due to the efforts of talents like Andrew Lloyd Webber. When musicals gained popularity in Asia, Japan quickly became a leading endorser. Japan boasts renowned musical theaters like The Four Seasons Musical Troupe.

China, however, doesn't have a professional musical theater. There are usually two methods of developing domestic musicals. One is to reproduce foreign classics like Cats and Mamma Mia!. The other is to put on originals. This year, several experimental musicals premiered, including The Visit, Princess Wencheng and last month's Tianqiao.

Liao Yong, the composer of Tianqiao, said that few actual musicals are produced in China each year. Many plays labeled as musicals are more like song and dance dramas.

"Musicals in China are in the beginning stages of development," said Tian Qinxin, director of Tianqiao. "Many Western musicals are performed by a fixed troupe and become classics, but we don't have this in China yet," she told Xinhua Daily Telegraph in September.

A shortage of professional musical talents is a problem.

"Training young actors into professional singers who can become stars in the future and attract numbers at the box office - this follows a Western model of development," said Tian.

Some say The Visit, directed by Huangmei opera artist Wu Qiong, sets an exemplary model. During the first round of touring in July, the play was labeled a "Huangmei musical." Wu Qiong played the leading role of Claire, performing Huangmei opera.

In its second round of performances in October, the play was promoted as a musical. Wu stayed backstage, and young actors performed. The young actors, mostly graduates of drama and music in college, were adept at blending traditional Huangmei opera into the musical. The play is viewed as a successful model of localizing Western musicals.

"Modern musicals follow Western standards, the latter based on classic music, jazz and blues, different from ours," said Tian. "It would be difficult for us to follow their standards. Musical pioneers are figuring out how to produce Chinese musicals," she added.