As Shanghai prepares for the arrival of the Broadway production of "Les Miserables" on June 22, the normally staid Shanghai Conservatory of Music is getting into the swing by launching a musical theater curriculum.

"Musicals blend catchy songs and dynamic dance, reflecting a freedom of expression that is very contemporary, making it one of music's more accessible forms," says Xue Bai, 18, one of the 30 incoming freshmen who will be studying musicals next year.

"The musical is a bridge between classical and pop, a different genre altogether. It has also been an extremely successful industry in the West," notes Yang Liqin, president of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. "Either way ?whether it's for the art or the money ?we shouldn't miss this boat."

It's a boat that has sailed before: The Beijing-based Central Academy of Theater created China's first musical theater department in the early 1990s, and not long afterward, the Beijing Dance Academy launched the second. Yet the musical as an art form was slow to capture the mass imagination.

Yang believes that was because China was simply not ready for musicals, both culturally and economically. "Productions often require major investments," Yang points out. He also cites a lack of qualified teachers, which was the key factor in the late establishment of the Shanghai Conservatory's musical theater department.

The new department's founder and assistant dean, Liu Jian, offers another explanation for the slow development of the musical in China: "Have you heard the story of six blind men who feel an elephant and describe six very different creatures because they each touched a different part ? Early musicals in China suffered the same fate. Everyone knew it involved music, dance and theater, but very few understood how to create the harmonious mix that is the musical."

The 44-year-old conductor refutes Yang's suggestion that financing was a problem. "It has been estimated that no fewer than 100 domestic musicals on different scales have been produced since 1995, but almost none of them are performed today. Why? Because our musicals have been more like song & dance shows," says Liu. "It's not hard to find investors. What's hard is to find the right producer and performers."

Liu came by his passion for musicals almost by accident. In 1987, he studied conducting in the United States with Maurice Peress, a former assistant to Leonard Bernstein during his tenure at the New York Symphony Orchestra. At the time, he studied the structure and characteristics of music in musical theater, and returned to China to produce domestic offerings. Beijing was his first stop.

Liu began a process of educating audiences that included concerts (half classical music and half musicals) and jazz bands for song & dance ensembles and art institutions.

In 2000 he created what would be a prototype of his musical department: a three-month short-term class, for which he invited a lineup of teachers from different academies who had studied under visiting American musical professionals in the fields of music, dance and theater.

All this laid the groundwork for the establishment of a major in musical theater - but Liu was challenged nonetheless by the conservatory's more conservative professors who didn't think popular musicals had a place in the classics-oriented program.

Yang disagreed. "Ignoring genres like jazz, pop and rock, which have become part of our life and are featured in modern musicals, means we get left behind," says Yang, who holds degrees in composing and piano from the State Music & Theater University of Hanover Germany. "We will maintain the classical tradition, yes, but we need to stay in step with the times."

The new major will be taught by young teachers from all over the country who specialize in music, dance and theater. Guest professors from the United States will be invited later this year.

The new major struck a chord with Tang Aimin, headmaster of the Arts School affiliated to Nanjing Institute of Arts. "Personally, I like musicals," says Tang, who is also an opera singer, "they are a mixture of everything that is beautiful and modern." So eager was Tang to have his students selected by Liu's five-person jury that he gathered the best available teachers to train six of his students with a great promise for musicals. After two months of training, all were accepted.

"We studied many musicals on video and trained 12 hours a day in jazz, river dance, step dance, natural-voice singing and performance," says Xue Bai, 18, a voice student, whose knowledge of musicals was limited to a handful of popular songs prior to her training.

China seems poised for a musical theater revolution. Liu Jian worries, though, that the limited scale of musicals in China will prevent profitability. "It is difficult for us to produce big productions, and little or no profit can be made from small-scale ones, which require a minimal investment of (100,000 yuan or US$11,500)," says Liu. It is hoped that the new crop of musical theater majors, the "guys and dolls of the future," will pave the way for bigger and better productions in China.

(eastday.com June 22, 2002)