Zhang Yuan, who has long been the top in the city, welcomes new ways to play these days. On the side of Maoming North Road, "Lao Bai's home" attracts visitors. This is a special pop-up store for the musical "The Myth of Love", and it is also another manifestation of the spillover effect of the Shanghai-style cultural IP of "The Myth of Love".
As part of the 2024 Shanghai Jing'an Modern Drama Valley Showcase and a special performance of the Spring Season of La Land, the musical "The Myth of Love" will be performed at the Majestic Theatre for 21 consecutive performances from May 2 to 20. Before the curtain opened, "Lao Bai's Home" appeared first in the play. Citizens and tourists can not only immerse themselves in the scenes in the "White Phase" musical, but also have a cup of love mythology co-branded coffee in their left hand and a bag of co-branded snacks in their right hand, wander around Zhangyuan Garden, cross the block, and feel a different Shanghai charm from inside and outside the play.
Theatre, as a special cultural practice, has long been internalized as part of Shanghai's urban development. Zhang Nan, a musical producer, told reporters that they took the initiative to move the art stage into the public field and turn the vivid scenes in the play into a way of life within people's reach, hoping to further promote the penetration of drama into the urban fabric and into daily life, "implanting cultural IP into important commercial landmarks in the locality, innovating a new model of cultural flow into market consumption, empowering the symbiosis of drama and the city, and trying to provide a new practical sample for the deep integration of culture, business and tourism."
With the connotation of urban culture, we will continue to forge the big IP of urban culture
In the new Internet era, how can an "old IP" that has been born for more than two years be renewed? This may be a useful exploration made by the musical "The Myth of Love" for Shanghai, which is building the performing arts capital of Asia and the best practice place of Xi Jinping's cultural thought.
As early as the end of 2021, a Shanghainese-speaking "The Myth of Love" became a dark horse of Chinese films, and the discussion about Shanghai's food and women, and the love of people in the market swept all major online social platforms for a while. In October last year, the Shanghainese musical "The Myth of Love", adapted from the film of the same name, premiered in Shanghai with great success. After half a year, the second round of rehearsals for the musical began. Director He Nian revealed that the second round of rehearsals made new attempts in the combination of actors, in addition to Zong Juntao, Wang Hao, Zhao Yijie, Jiang Qianru, Ding Zhenying, Zhao Jiayan, Nian Manting, Xu Lei and other original lineup of the collective return, Liu Lingfei, Shi Zheming, Zhao Chaofan, Liu Haoran and other musical actors with both strength and popularity, and popular actors Jing Yanqiao and Feng Difei in the youth season of "La La Land" will also make a surprise appearance in the second round of performances. Talk show actor Wang Mian and Shanghai opera actor Xu Xiang will also present their cross-border debuts, and singer Huang Ling, who is full of energy on the debut stage, will once again play the role of Gloria.
Yesterday, in the pop-up store for a limited time, the musical "The Myth of Love" also held a group building meeting. On the first day of joining the group, Liu Haoran, Shi Zheming, Wang Mian, Zhao Chaofan, Jing Yanqiao, Feng Difei and other 6 non-Shanghainese new members ushered in a Shanghainese test. Although the on-site test questions were not easy, Xu Xiang, one of the examiners, said that he did not want to play the role of a "Shanghainese judge", "The language evolves with the times, and the Shanghai dialect is in line with the spiritual character of the city, and it is also open and inclusive." Rather than struggling too much with a few Shanghainese pronunciations, he and the other creators hope that the language is as pleasant as the city. In fact, Shanghai city and Shanghai-style drama have always been symbiotic and empowering, forging the soul and gene of the city's cultural IP.
Break the "boundary" of drama, decipher creation and strengthen interaction
The musical "The Myth of Love" uses a movie-level setting to put all the scenes of Shanghai's alleys, pavilions, cafes, bars and other scenes on the stage, and there are more than 150 sets of actors' costumes, some of which have been moved to Lao Bai's "new home" in Zhang Yuan. Stepping into "Lao Bai's Home", the audience will pass through different theater spaces in turn, and through exhibitions and interactive installations, they will experience the whole process of the musical "The Myth of Love" from script writing, music creation, costume design, prop production, etc., to understand the birth of a musical.
Taking the golden sentence display set up at the entrance as an example, the words that condense the comprehension of love are all from the lines and lyrics of the musical, such as "Breaking away and leaving must remain decent", "Loneliness is also a kind of freedom", "Life needs ups and downs", etc., which make people have an aftertaste and imagination. In the "cloakroom", three dresses of different styles are waiting for their respective owners, and in Lao Bai's "living room", the walls are full of photos of "Lao Bai" in the musical - as easter eggs, these photos are all from the private collections of the leading actors of the musical.
If "Lao Bai's Home" deciphers the bits and pieces of creation in the form of a pop-up store, then when the audience follows the little leatherman in the play to the blue bottle coffee in Zhang Yuan, taste a musical co-branded model, and then carry a few bags of snacks, and then walk through the urban cultural atmosphere created by the drama, the boundaries of the theater are being further opened, and the city is the stage. It is worth mentioning that the collaboration between musicals and coffee is not a simple addition, but by amplifying the multiplier effect of their respective IPs, the benefits will be passed on to the people. In other words, audience members of the musical "The Myth of Love" can enjoy a discount on drinks with their ticket vouchers, and coffee shop customers will have the opportunity to receive a discount on tickets for the musical.
It is conceivable that in the commercial landmarks of the city, performing arts + coffee are connecting the emotional link between cultural consumption and life consumption, and the dimensional wall between audiences, tourists and consumers is also disappearing. With the integration of local culture and experience economy, drama can write a dynamic stroke of the city's soft power, and it can once again prove that in Shanghai, culture is never ethereal, it has an infinite variety of forms that can be seen, heard, felt, played, and consumed, and is an important source of a better life.
Text: Wang Yan, Jiang Fang
Photo: Courtesy of the event organizer
Editor: Wang Xiaoli