Life
UPDATED: 20:16, August 17, 2004
Beijing expects Broadway hit The Sound of Music
The Broadway hit "The Sound of Music" is coming to Beijing Friday to celebrate the musical's 45th anniversary, and people are excited.
"Beijing will hold eight performances with ticket prices ranging from 1,200 yuan (about 145 US dollars) to 100 yuan (12 US dollars), with the low price set for children and students," said Li Qin, general manager of the Beijing Performing Art Agency.
Before Beijing, east China's Shanghai has already witnessed the musical comedy's popularity among people.
Tickets for the play's 38 performances in Shanghai were all sold out, and each time when the familiar tunes "Edelweiss" and "Do-Re-Mi" ring in the theater, audiences sing along, mingled with laughing and cheering, according to a staff working at Shanghai Grand Theater, the place staging the play.
The play earned 17 million yuan (2 million US dollars) box office, and Beijing expects profitable box office mainly from the lower price level, the performing arts agency said.
"Just like Coca-Cola and Mcdonald's, modern musical comedy is produced by universal standards wherever it goes," said Wang Luoyong, a Chinese actor who once performed in Broadway. "So Chinese viewers can enjoy the play just as people in other places have."
"It's nothing grand -- one heroine and seven children, simple plots and a small scale band. Still, 'The Sound of Music' has won unparalleled honor," said a teacher from Central Drama Institute, one of China's top performing institutions. "It has conquered people all over the world of different generations."
"The Sound of Music" won five Tony Awards in 1960 and the film was released in 1965, capturing five Academy Awards that year. "It will ignite in Chinese people yesterday's passion," the teacher said.
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