Mamma Mia! hit Shanghai and Beijing this summer, and 42nd Street is now running in Shanghai and is scheduled to dazzle the capital in November. But between the two Broadway productions' performances, the original Chinese musical Butterflies failed to wow audiences when it premiered in Beijing early this month.

The production company invested some 70 million yuan ($9.2 million) in the show, and the playwright, composer and director all have tried their best. But why did they fail? The answer could be that they have not found the key to the country's musical theater industry.

The good news is that Chinese talents never give up exploring new ways to develop the world's most exciting new market, and some of the world's leading international musical producers have offered their hands.

China Arts & Entertainment Group (CAGE), the country's leading company in presenting, producing and marketing performing arts, has signed a joint venture agreement with Cameron Mackintosh Limited, the world-renowned producer behind West End and Broadway smash hits, such as Les Miserables, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, to localize these classic productions in addition to producing original Chinese musicals.

The inaugural production, a mandarin version of Les Miserables, will open at the magnificent new National Grand Theater in November 2008. The original directors of Les Miserables Trevor Nunn and John Caird are returning to direct the Chinese version. After its Beijing debut, the show will move to Shanghai before touring other Chinese cities. Auditions for the Chinese-language version will be held across China before the end of 2007.

Les Miserables, produced by Mackintosh, is currently the world's longest running musical and will be celebrating its 22nd birthday in London's West End next month. It is an adaptation of the 130-year-old epic novel by Victor Hugo, a story that is familiar to Chinese audiences. The novel's universal themes - the triumph of the human spirit, love, courage and sacrifice for one's beliefs - already resonate with audiences who saw the musical in Shanghai in 2002.

On the heels of Les Miserables would come Judy Craymer's smash hit Mamma Mia! to be performed in mandarin in 2009. And over the next decade, more productions in putonghua, including The Phantom of Opera, Miss Saigon, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins and others, will run in Beijing, Shanghai and other metropolises across the country.

Mackintosh would also provide comprehensive training programs and working opportunities for Chinese artists, and production and management staff, in China and the United Kingdom. And, it would also offer them opportunities to work professionally in accordance with the highest standards in musical theater.

"It is a great challenge to produce the Chinese version of the classical musicals," says president of CAEG Zhang Yu.

"The productions must maintain the artistic quality of those running in Broadway or West End. In this respect, I believe Sir Cameron Mackintosh is the very best choice.

"He brings world-class productions and management expertise, which will inspire and stimulate innovation in the local musical theatre market.

"Producing musicals in mandarin is just the first step. The long-term goal of the joint-venture is to train Chinese artists and production teams to produce original Chinese musicals."

The legendary Mackintosh dreamed about making musicals since he was 8 years old. As a little boy, he pooled all the pocket money his parents gave him to stage amateur shows with his friends. But he never dared to think that one day he would produce a musical in China.

"I first came to China in 1993," the renowned musical producer says. "I remember traveling over many parts of the country, and one of my greatest memories was going into the conservatoires in Beijing and Shanghai, where I saw the extraordinary range of talented musicians, actors and singers that were pouring out of these marvelous educational places of excellence, and I thought to myself 'Gosh, it would be wonderful one day if I could bring one of my musical shows to China to have these performers appearing in them'."

A decade ago, he took the first steps towards realizing this dream when he began laying the groundwork for bringing Les Miserables to Shanghai. While it took five years to see this dream through, the 2002 show at the Shanghai Grand Theater in English with mandarin subtitles was a resounding success.

In his eyes, language is the key to making a production successful.

"Telling stories in the musical theater, of course, depends on the language," he says. "And our first task in China will be to find translators who can make the stories that we have already told in the West in English sound as real and true in mandarin."

Over the next few months, the joint-venture will look for an enormous variety of talented actors, musicians, conductors, designers, wigmakers, marketing and advertising specialists, and technicians interested in sound, scenery and lighting.

"I couldn't have a better partner than the China Arts & Entertainment Group," Mackintosh says. "This year, they celebrate 50 years as China's leading arts agency; between us, we have 90 years of experience, so it should be a good start.

"They understand every aspect of what the country can create, and they also understand exactly what we need to achieve in the forms of excellence to make the musical theater in China preeminent in the world."

Mackintosh recently celebrated his 40th year as a producer, during which time he staged hundreds of productions, including the legendary Cats, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera - the three longest running musicals in Broadway history - and Miss Saigon.

(China Daily September 26, 2007)