6 years ago
The conscience of domestic drama "The Pretender"
Set off a "red whirlwind" on the whole network
6 years later
The musical "The Pretender"
After the premiere, it attracted countless fans and received enthusiastic responses
Pretenders
After 2 years of incubation and creation, nearly 60 days of intense rehearsals, the word-of-mouth masterpiece "The Pretender" returned to the form of a musical on September 15, 2021, and the first round of performances ended successfully.
On November 24th, the second round of performances of the first work of the musical "The Pretender" trilogy of home countries, "May This Body Serve the Country for a Long Time", is about to return, and the high-energy espionage war is about to re-emerge, and it is about to start!
After six years, the blood is still the same
The feelings of home and country are embedded in touching emotions, and the value influence is hidden in the topic of choice and growth. The musical "The Pretender" not only narrows the distance between the red theme and the young audience, but also fills the gap in the field of "red theme" in the creation of China's large-scale original musical.
--Wen Wei Po
From the screen to the theater, how can you recreate the thrilling legend of disguise and inject freshness? Adhering to the theme of "classic reconstruction, not reproduction", the musical "The Pretender" specially invited the original author Daniel Zhang to act as the screenwriter, and worked hard to adapt the whole story, which comprehensively upgraded the entire story. In addition, Jin Dong, the actor of the TV series "Ming Lou", participated in all aspects of the adaptation as a producer, leading the audience to feel "The Pretender" again, sighing: "After 6 years, the pretender is still a surprise to me."
△ Jin Dong at the launch of the musical "The Pretender"
"May You Have This Long Life to Serve the Country" is the first part of the musical "The Pretender" in the trilogy of home and country, with a clear and sincere perspective as the main plot, telling the story of his multi-dimensional espionage war that holds the disguised identity of a new government official and a Kuomintang agent, and is actually an elite agent of the underground party of the Ccp. Under the eyes of Ming's eldest sister Mingjing and younger brother Mingtai, who were also underground anti-war, they were misunderstood and tossed several times, and they were on the verge of revealing their disguised identities. In order to protect their identity and continue to spy, the crowd continues to grow in the tribulations and starts a "hunting" war.
In the play, you can see the warm Ming family reunion memories of killing, although the next second is shattered by a phone call to break the warmth of this moment. Hidden behind is the Ming family's tortuous life course and the many cruelties and helplessness carried in the disguised career...
As soon as the scene turns, the gunfight in the Suzhou warehouse is about to erupt, and what moves the audience the most is the struggle and confusion faced by Ming cheng's heart, for every "pretender", the most cruel thing is often not death, but the painful choice that must be made - personally ending the life of comrades. Complex and poignant emotions haunted the stage and brought a long-lasting shock to the audience.
The musical "The Pretender" shows the audience this period of espionage from the perspective of individuals and families, and witnesses the protagonist's choices, perseverance and growth in the dark war era. As soon as the audience came out of the theater, they said that they wanted to brush it twice: "The whole plot has ups and downs, the feelings of home and country are the main line, the blood is hot and magnificent, and I am ready to watch it again, looking forward to the actors' more refined performances."
The best polishing camouflage continues
"The Pretender" is equipped with a luxurious cast and a large staff, inviting the original author Daniel Zhang and the top people in the industry to incubate the script, ensuring the standard of the play online.
——People's Daily
In order to continue the reputation of this phenomenon-level spy IP, the "Pretender" musical is not only carefully polished in the story, but also in the hardware. The stage recreates a number of scenes such as the gloomy dungeon, the drunken navy club, and the luxurious Ming family living room, just to create the most immersive stage effect and let the audience return to the wind and clouds of the years.
The fusion of traditional choreography and new media technology made the audience praise the visual vision of the "Pretender" musical. The Western-style bungalows rich in the style of old Shanghai and the simple and exquisite Haipai style allow the audience to immerse themselves in the scene and return to the years full of turmoil and change; the space elements such as fog, gun smoke, high beam, ink painting, and stacking, with montage-like transition stunts, "resurrected" the era of bloody rain and wind, and the shadows of espionage.
The two layers of space in the stage provide a contrasting relationship between the upper and lower, front and back, and internal and external character spaces, and exert unlimited dramatic possibilities. Shen Li, who led the stage design of "The Pretender", said that these innovations are not simply technical shows, but at the same time expand the audience's viewing perspective and sense of space, they will bring everyone into a new realm of experience. Through this effect, it is also hoped that the audience can retain their own space for thinking, and have a deeper and more diversified understanding of that special era and the predecessors who bravely struggled in that era.
Lighting design Ren Dongsheng introduced that the lights on the stage also have a syntactic meaning, which can show the relationship between "hidden" and "real", so that the audience can feel the "invisible brilliance" in the confusing character identity.
In addition to the visual immersion, this work hopes to further penetrate the audience's heart through the ingenious and polished music. Letting the audience hum the melody that moves them the most is the ambition of the vocal director Li Tang. The 21 songs in the musical "The Pretender" have undergone half a year of polishing, and the lyrics have changed their drafts several times and finally taken shape, showing a very rich emotion. Whether it is the four sisters and brothers of the Ming family singing "Let the fire burn more vigorously" with disguises and beliefs, or Ming Cheng's solo "Edge" in the struggle and confusion, they all use lyrics to tell the mental journey of each protagonist, and more perfectly interpret the emotions of hardship, hardship, intensity, tension and so on with their hearing.
The choreography of the musical "The Pretender" in the dance is also a major attraction, and more than 23 outstanding group performers skillfully cooperate with tap, Latin, swing and other dances, bringing windfalls to the audience: in the thrilling Suzhou warehouse shootout, the heroic feelings of the revolutionaries and the Japanese army to fight to the death are vividly displayed; at the dance party of the Navy Club, the restless carnival of the paper drunken gold fans is repeated one by one in front of the audience.
Many viewers are "face fans" of the musical "The Pretender", and they are fascinated by the nearly 140 costumes that appear on the stage. Emerging costume designer Yang Donglin carefully designed the chic protagonist group shape, using animal images to metaphorically portray the character image, so as to design a clothing style that fits the identity and is very textured. For example, the use of "leopard" to highlight the eight-sided exquisiteness and swiftness of Mingcheng, the code name of Ming Lou "Viper" as inspiration, highlighting its thoughtfulness and calm dormancy, and using "wolf" to experience the warrior side of Mingtai who is determined and extraordinary.
The production team of the full strength school makes this ORIGINAL IP adaptation musical with the core not only tell the Chinese story well, but also become one of the veritable annual must-see plays. After the successful conclusion of the first round of performances, the high-quality creative team will continue to innovate, refine and polish with the best standards, interpret the story of "holding a blade in the heart and holding flowers" with the power of faith, and convey the power of touching people's hearts to more audiences.
The pretense continues the faith is immortal
The past of espionage warfare is on the verge of breaking out
Large-scale original musical "The Pretender"
The first part of "May This Body Serve the Country"
The return to Shanghai in November is now invoicing
More touring cities are awaiting official announcements
Performance information
Performance time: 2021/11/24-11/27
Venue: Shanghai Grand Theatre
For more exciting videos and articles, please pay attention to
WeChat public account / Sina Weibo: Beam Drama
Articles and videos reprinted Please mark: Beam Drama and Original Author
If you like please follow me