Chinese musical "The Ballad of Murder" will open its fifth round of performances at the China Grand Theatre tonight, with musical actor Liu Lingfei as the new director and the "rain curtain" on the stage. For many musical theater audiences, this play is not unfamiliar - it is the first Chinese version of the musical in China to sing without dialogue, using 42 songs to string together the whole story; the ear-catching rock style, the warm live atmosphere, and the "contemporary love story" derived from the life of urban young people have made the previous four rounds of performances quite popular.
"Rehearsal for me is not only a recovery, I like to be adventurous, bold, unexpected, whether the actors in the cast (in the past) have acted or not, it is a new play for the creator and the audience, a new creation." 」 Liu Lingfei said. The new round of performances is not only from the small and medium-sized theaters with about 500 seats to the Grand Theater of the China Grand Theater; there are great changes in stage design and overall card division. Just as "rearrangement" means in performance markets such as Broadway and West End: new definitions and interpretations, and new elements are added as the audience's tastes change.
The story tells that after Sara, an urban woman, breaks up with bartender Tom, she meets Michael, a steady poetry doctor. The two married and gave birth to a daughter, but the triviality and blandness of life make Sara eager to return to the passionate life of the past, and she rekindles her old love with her first love Tom at the bar. But feelings of guilt for her family and possessiveness towards Tom make her realize that what she is doing is a dangerous choice...
Originally from Off Broadway, The Murder Song was co-written by screenwriter Julia Jordan and indie rock singer Juliana Nash. The 2012 New York premiere sold out, and four months later it was quickly introduced to Korea to produce a Korean version, and in 2016, the West End edition of London invited the famous musical actor "Phantom" Ramin Karimloo as the lead actor, which caused a heated discussion.
"Last year, the number of performances reached 100, and this year's new round will reach about 150, and it is relatively rare for the Chinese theater's musical theater IP to reach so many performances in China." "Murder Ballad" executive producer said. The reason why it can set off a wave of drama watching one after another stems from its classic emotional propositions and strong dramatic tension that directly hit people's hearts. Although the story originated in New York, it can still hit the heartstrings of today's Chinese urban men and women: the character Michael in the play is a textbook companion of marriage, representing the yearning for a stable life, and is also the favorite marriage object of many women. But complex human nature is not satisfied with this, just like the choice between red roses and white roses, on the one hand is the freedom passion symbolized by Tom, on the other hand, the peace and happiness symbolized by Michael, how to choose?
After many rounds of performances, the producers also continued to polish the appearance of the performance. The producer invited Liu Lingfei, an actor who had starred in the previous rounds of "Murder Ballad", as the director of the new version of 2020, Liu Lingfei redefined the work with the words "desire", "instinct" and "choice", and tried to break through from the two directions of cass and stage. In terms of stage design, the "water" that alludes to "desire" is put on the stage, and the emotional entanglement between the protagonists is echoed by means of water waves flowing and creating a "rain curtain", adding richer elements and more abstract connotations to the plot. Movable triangular tables, rickety chandeliers and floating balloons, various props are cleverly interspersed into the plot, passed by the protagonists to each other, and also hint at the complex and changing relationships of the characters. At the same time, the set installation of this round of performances also uses new media art for the first time, presenting a more figurative expression in addition to intuitive performance, forming a subtle cooperation with the projection of water waves, and further expanding the artistic space on the stage.
"I have worked with Liu Lingfei in "The Rock Age" and "The Moon and Sixpence" before, and when rehearsing and performing, I sighed (he) how he could act so well, but there were few opportunities for communication during rehearsals." Actor Liu Haoran said that working with Liu Lingfei as a director for a month this time has a deeper understanding of the serious attitude of the drama, the in-depth interpretation of the script and the working method of comparing the translation and the original text.
It is reported that after the premiere, the new version of "The Ballad of Murder" in 2020 will continue to be staged at the China Grand Theater in Shanghai until October 25, and will tour in Nanjing, Ningbo, Hangzhou and other cities from November.
Courtesy of the organizer
Author: Wu Yu
Editor: Wang Licheng