In the history of the burlesque world, what are the stories of Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun?

At that time, there were two main ways for opera actors to become popular, one was singing on the radio, and the other was the performance on the stage, and the Yao Zhou brothers sang well on the radio, but they encountered an unexpected cold reception on the stage. People are celebrating birthdays at home, then the two of them go to the singing hall meeting, the two of them are from the radio, have not performed on the stage, so some situations do not understand, go on stage to sing the church meeting, sing what, come up and sing a Shanghai opera "Birthday Star Opening". "Life Star Opening" always sings very long and long, "Heaven descends on the Qilin Fu Shou Quan," "Life Star Opening" is not gimmicky, there is no gimmick, after singing well, the following is silent. It would be embarrassing, so the footsteps were chaotic, singing to the back and then changing one, changing a "Ningbo Musician", to send (24), rice yarn to take (mi so c do re35712), who knows the two children sitting below this paragraph they are very familiar with, each stall of funny said, wait until (Yao Zhou) they said to send (24), rice yarn to take (35712), they immediately pick up below, do not take (41), to send (24) immediately below, come to Laxi, still no gimmicks, Singing blushing. This failed performance began to make Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun pay attention to the particularity of stage performances different from radio singing, and after joining the Laughter Troupe, frequent performance practice also gave them more opportunities to exercise. In 1942, Jiang Xiaoxiao and Bao Lele were acting on the stage, and they acted together in his troupe. The troupe's first play was "Absurd", which was a small passage that Jiang Xiaoxiao usually had been performing on the radio, and later expanded it, expanded it, and turned it into a big drama. Teacher Jiang Xiaoxiao is not in good health, and every mistake is called Yao Mu Double Generation Role, so Yao Mushuang often has a role to play, because Jiang Xiaoxiao's role is the main and important play, let him substitute it, it is really good to come, and learn a lot of things.

When starring in "Zhu Zhishan Makes a Big Fuss About Minglun Hall", Yao Zhou seized a rare opportunity. In the book "Zhou Baichun's Self-Description", it is said, "One day, the opening bell at the front desk had sounded, and Jiang Xiaoxiao, who played the protagonist Zhu Zhishan, was mistaken due to the seizure of opium addiction, and the backstage was chaotic. In a hurry, Yao Mushuang temporarily replaced him. Then Teacher Jiang Xiaoxiao played Zhu Zhishan more "Wen", and Mr. Jin Huisheng played Zhu Zhishan more "bluffing", so later Yao Mushuang played Zhu Zhishan, folded in it, neither tepid nor robber Zhu Zhishan, so he played Zhu Zhishan more appropriately. "Coincidentally and coincidentally, within a few days, Bao Lele, who plays another protagonist "Xu Zijian", also suddenly fell ill... In addition to the consternation of the crowd, in desperation, they helped Zhou Baichun change his clothes and rushed to the stage. Yao and Zhou actually hit a hit and made a splash, the theater box office door was blocked, the audience passed ten, ten passed hundreds, the selling seat far exceeded Jiang and Bao, the field was full, and the continuous performance did not fade, and it was this performance opportunity that Made Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun gradually replace Jiang Xiaoxiao and Bao Lele in the artistic status of the comics world.

After the performance of "Zhu Zhishan Makes a Big Fuss in Minglun Hall", Yao Zhou's career is even more in the sky, many burlesque troupes have invited two people to join as the main actors, at the same time, Yang Huasheng, Zhang Qiaonong, Xiao Xixi, Shen Yile composed of "Yang Zhang Xiao Shen" combination and Cheng Xiaofei, Xiao Liu Chunshan, Yu Xiangming composed of "Cheng Liu Yu" are also quietly rising, and soon formed a three-legged momentum with Yao Zhou, how will this artistic competition between peers affect the lives of Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun? At the beginning of 1950, less than 100 meters away from the Red Treasure Theater on Nanjing Road and a comical arena in the Tiangong Theater were in full swing, Yang Huasheng and seven other comic masters formed a cooperative burlesque troupe to perform "Living Bodhisattva", while Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun's Bee Burlesque Troupe welcomed guests at the same ticket price, and the "brother file" met the "Seven Giants", and as a result, everyone was "full every day" and played a "draw". Teacher Tong Shuangchun said, "From the drama point of view, it is very strong, Yao Zhou and "Yang Zhang Xiao Shen" and "Cheng Liu Yu" they play in the ring, not inferior at all. Xiao Liu Chunshan said, "At that time, Yao Zhou's bee burlesque troupe and I (him) cooperated with the burlesque troupe were very close, everyone had to compete in business, the cooperative burlesque troupe was dedicated to playing "Living Bodhisattva", Yao Zhou was acting in "Broadcast Mandarin Duck" and "Red Girl", why these two were better and the selling rate was relatively high, because in this play Zhou Baichun dressed as a woman. "The role of "Red Girl" should be reversed, to act like a woman, once Zhou Baichun wanted to try, to test himself to look like a woman, so one night, he put his mother's sea tiger velvet coat on his body, and wrapped a gauze turban on his head, to the outside, at first he walked on the road and did not feel anything, and then he found that there was a person stalking behind him, and then he walked back, walked to BaileFang, he turned in from the small alley, and this person also followed up. On the one hand, he was anxious, on the other hand, he was quite happy, and he felt that the experiment had been successful. When the performance was performed, the audience liked it, and the performance lasted for more than half a year, and at that time there was no drama performed for more than half a year. Zhou Baichun's anti-string female characters caused a sensation, and even had the reputation of "Zhou Meiren", and Zhou Baichun's performance style seems to be related to the fact that he was raised as a girl by his mother when he was a child. His mother called him "sister" and "sister", and from an early age she dressed him in flowered skirts and flowered shirts. Because he had a big sister (sister) before, he died very early, so his mother asked him to dress as a woman. In November 1950, when the country's first opera work conference was held in Beijing, Zhou Baichun was cordially received by Premier Zhou, who hosted a feast at the Beijing Hotel and invited their representatives to go together, and Premier Zhou went to every table to shake hands with each representative. He shook his hand, and he said Premier Zhou, I sang on the radio in Shanghai, Singing funny, and before liberation, Yao Mushuang and I sang comically. Premier Zhou said I know, I heard, and then when he came back, the person who came to pick him up at the train station put a garland on his head and neck, and several people heard him shake hands with Premier Zhou, and they all came over to shake hands with him, because he had shook Premier Zhou's hand. Inspired by the times, Yao Zhou's creative enthusiasm has also been rising, before and after this, they have successively sorted out many popular works such as "Learn English", "TangQiao in Various Places", "Ningbo Musicians", "Yellow Fish Tune with Fish", "New and Old Law Marriage" and so on. Zhou Baichun once said that "Ningbo Musician" also had such a small passage before, but it did not develop like this later by me (him). It is said that the owner and apprentice of a tailor shop are both from Ningbo, because they are a tailor shop, and once the boss called the apprentice, laifa (24), and then the apprentice answered him what was the matter (56), and the rice yarn was brought (35712). Zhou Baichun's youngest son, Zhou Zhi'er, said, "My father always lay on the table, one was lying on the table to write his script, and the other was that every morning when he got up very early, he practiced his throat every day." Tomorrow's performance, the day before will go to Yao Qi'er's father's house, this is probably the younger brother to take care of the older brother, always the younger brother to the older brother's house, to his home, and his father to argue. Sometimes they would listen from the side, sometimes his uncle would ask, Qi'er, Yong'er, you also listen to it, do you think it's good to say this, they were only teenagers at that time, they also laughed, (Yao Qi'er, Yao Yong'er) When they laughed, they had the bottom in their hearts.

While sorting out the tradition, the Yao Zhou brothers did not stop the creation of new repertoire, they have successively launched masterpieces such as "Pediatrics" and "Old Accounting Room", and the artistic pursuit of the troupe has become increasingly clear. Tong Shuangchun remembered that the first play he played in the troupe was "Pediatrics", "Pediatrics" received tax exemption rewards, and "Old Accounting Room" also received tax exemption awards. In fact, his social benefits are very good in all aspects, and they have also participated in the research of East China opera, such as the quyi conference in the north and south. In addition, there is a play "West Looking at Chang'an", "West Looking at Chang'an" is a drama book, when the drama was also performed, but their performance effect at that time was better than the drama, three months in a row, three months full, when the film studio filmed "West Looking at Chang'an", they also sent people to watch their play. In April 1960, the Bee Burlesque Troupe was assigned to the Shanghai People's Art Theatre and renamed the Shanghai People's Art Theatre Burlesque Troupe, with Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun as the main actors. In the early 1960s, when he was the director of the Shanghai People's Art Theatre, he formally proposed to absorb the Bee Burlesque Troupe led by Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun into the Shanghai People's Art Theatre. Teacher Tong Shuangchun said that when they entered the "human art", Huang Zuolin had an idea, what idea did Dean Huang have, to cultivate Chinese-style comedy, consider cultivating Chinese-style comedy, and considering that they needed a comedy drama to cultivate, so they selected their drama genre and prepared to cultivate their drama genre into a typical Chinese-style comedy.

Mentioning the burlesque play between Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun, we have to mention "Spring In the Garden". Waiter No. 2 in "Spring in the Garden" is an advanced figure, completely serving customers wholeheartedly, and the two people around him seem to be crazy, one is Waiter No. 4, "Dear comrades, great, great"; The other is the No. 8 waiter played by Wu Shuangyi, who is always yin and yang. The original script of the role played by Teacher Yao was written about an elderly worker, his old lover was sick, so he was unhappy in his heart, and later felt that this character had no comedy component, and then he consulted with the screenwriter and basically completely changed this character. Yao Mushuang spoke this waiter very quickly, the sense of rhythm is very strong, seeing that others always say "great and great", then it is very funny. In fact, the prototype of the No. 2 waiter is Sang Zhongpei of Wuwei Zhai, and the labor model Sang Zhongpei is the prototype, so he (Zhou Baichun) must not only have a good service attitude, but also have to make a gimmick in the burlesque, which is indeed a brain. When he played this role, he followed Sang Zhongpei for three days and three nights, working with him, receiving guests together, and working as a waiter together. We (and he) used a tape recorder backstage to record the laughter in "Spring in the Garden", and the tape recorder recorded it and found that there were more than three hundred large and small laughter. Under the personal guidance of Huang Zuolin, the troupe has carried out key processing of "Spring In the Garden". The most typical passage is that two colleagues come to look for trouble, and after the cigarette is lit, the match is ordered. He (director) wants to do this two matches, but how to draw two, his hand can not burn pain, Zhou Baichun he used a black line to tie the two matches on the head, the match box is all two together, take out a stroke, burn up the black line to break, the black line is broken matches are separated. In 1963, the crew of "Spring In the Garden" was also invited to Beijing Zhongnanhai to give a special performance for party and state leaders, and was highly praised. When he went to the small auditorium of the State Council to perform, Chief Chen Yi came up and said to Teacher Yao, "Great, great." Premier Zhou also came up and walked up to Yao Mushuang and said greatness, greatness.

In 1978, the Shanghai Quyi Theater Troupe was established, and for the brothers Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun, who had experienced ten years of catastrophe, the reconstruction of the troupe also heralded the arrival of spring, and the creative enthusiasm that had been suppressed for a whole decade broke out at this moment. We must continue to innovate and constantly surpass ourselves. The first is to get rid of low-level fun, mainly to make up some new programs. Wu Shuangyiyan, Yao Zhou and the two teachers attach great importance to the fact that we (they) have learned to sing and sing one-legged plays and its means of laughter, and they are very concerned about inheritance and development, and many works of the elders and the traditional works of the housekeeper have given it new vitality into the hands of the two teachers. Cultured humor is humor, humor without culture is funny. Looking back, there were indeed many plays at that time, and "Baby Under the Street Lamp" won five awards at the first Xiqu Festival, including actor's award, screenwriter's award, director's award, stage award, and music award. For a long time, due to the restrictions of dialects, it was difficult for burlesque to get out of the Wu dialect area, but Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun broke through the restrictions of this region. Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun not only sang the burlesque all over the country, but also sang to the other side of the ocean. Speaking of Yao Zhou, people have to mention another name at the same time, Wu Shuangyi, Wang Shuangqing, Weng Shuangjie, Tong Shuangchun, Li Qing, all of whom were on the funny stage at that time and now, were all from Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun. The name of the double character generation is taken from Yao Mushuang. Wang Shuangqing wanted to worship them as teachers, and I wanted to sing funny, so he wrote a letter and introduced himself. Later, they publicly replied on the radio, you come to play well, then he will go, so after knowing, gradually and gradually follow the study, from before liberation to the early stage of liberation, followed down, Yao Zhou only accepted him as an apprentice. As a student, the "double-character generation" inherits and carries forward Yao Zhou's art, and perhaps it can be said that the "double-character generation" is the greatest work of Yao Zhou's life. Why did Li Qing worship Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun as teachers, who were highly respected in their literary and art circles. When Tong Shuangchun was acting as an ordinary small actor at that time, teacher Zhou promoted him to the main actor, and he was willing to play a supporting role and play a second role. Even in the ancient rare years, Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun still worked hard to carry funny new seedlings. Teacher Zhou is very concerned about the cultivation of young actors, and under his training, there is indeed a group of people.

Zhou Baichun once said (interviewed in 1998) that he is now very pleased with Qian Cheng, and now the audience has a better impression of him, when the "Funny Spring and Autumn" was choosing who played the first leading role, he tried his best to recommend Qian Cheng. Qian Cheng said, "From the time when we first didn't understand and didn't understand at all, until we had grown up and cared about us. "Teacher Zhou can be said to have basically handed over to Qian Cheng to take care of, Qian Cheng cares for him very much, sometimes helping him up the stairs, helping him sleep, taking care of and serving him in the dormitory, it can be said that he is like a male nanny, and there is no complaint." Yao Mushuang and Zhou Baichun taught their disciples not only exquisite art, but also the principle of living in the world, and yao Mushuang said to them, Qi'er and Yong'er, since you have acted, then you will give me serious acting, and you must take the right path of burlesque performance. Usually (Yao Yong'er) their brothers and sisters have been asking Yao Mushuang how to be an actor, what are some tricks, go to the theater early, this is one of the tricks, come early, brew lines, think about the characters he plays, think about the performance, isn't it better.