"In the past half a month, Hu Ge and I have been together every day, rehearsing 'The Great Journey'. They were also happy that The Pretender had been adapted into a musical. After many years, the audience is still watching "The Pretender", and nothing makes us feel happier and proves the value of the actor's existence. On July 8, the familiar IP "The Pretender" launched a new "stage reconstruction plan", Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group joined hands with its Performing Arts World Shanghai Musical Theater Art Center, the original author Daniel Zhang as the screenwriter, Jin Dong as the producer, launched the musical "The Pretender" trilogy. The first part, "May I Have This Body to Serve the Country", was auditioned at the Fancl Art Center (Yihai Theatre) Grand Theater on September 15 and 16, and the official performance began on September 17.
6 years ago, the TV series "The Pretender" came out, and Ming Lou, played by Jin Dong, was praised continuously. After 6 years, Jin Dong said, "I have a deep affection for The Pretender, and I very much hope that this work can continue its charm in other forms. ”
Jin Dong graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and was one of the first batch of musical theater majors in China, and he had a special love for the stage, "Seeing Daniel Zhang script, I pondered for one night, which was particularly wonderful. The familiar "The Pretender" is enriched and fascinating with music and dance. I am listening to the song sample of "The Pretender", and now I can basically imagine the relationship between the characters of the TV series on the stage, and I am also very excited and looking forward to it. ”
Jin Dong did not like to lie on the past report card, "Shanghai is magical, and what is even more amazing is that "The Pretender" is back." So many viewers are still watching "The Pretender", which shows that the writers, directors, producers, and actors have worked hard to complete the work with their own hard work at that moment. I'm very happy that it can be an IP. The work benefits from the dissatisfaction and unwillingness of the creator. I've worked as a TV series producer, a producer, and participated in investing in the production of musicals, which is really the first time. ”
Jin Dong compared, "Producers and actors look at problems from different angles, actors need passion, producers should be calm and rational, mobilize the enthusiasm of actors, and have strong resonance and empathy with the audience." He described the cooperation as "magical power pulling me", before many musicals found Jin Dong to talk about cooperation, he politely declined, "The sincerity of the Shanghai production team touched me, they seriously invited me many times, in addition to ideas, I saw the technology and attitude of the production team." ”
Watching the Shanghai Song and Dance Troupe of Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group in Beijing, "The Eternal Electric Wave", made Jin Dong make up his mind. "A red theme, from sound and light setting, to excellent actors with expressive ability, I see a very serious creative atmosphere."
Jin Dong is not only one of the co-producers of the TV series "The First Half of My Life", but also dabbled in the drama stage in 2017 as the producer of the drama "Lady of the Sea". Participating in the production of musicals for the first time, Jin Dong cooperated with the micro-documentary shooting from a first-person perspective, showing the moments of musical theater creation and polishing. Jin Dong said, "From the introduction of the original version, to the Chinese version of the production, to the original production, the Chinese musical theater market has undergone a cycle of cultivation and incubation, and is showing vigorous vitality. Polished original content is the core. "The Pretender" has entered the theater from the screen, and already has excellent innate conditions, and how to create surprises and freshness in the form of musicals is our goal. ”
Jin Dong and his Xianjun Film and Television will launch a series of strategic cooperation with the Shanghai Musical Theatre Art Center starting from the musical "The Pretender", work together to integrate multiple resources, incubate more original masterpieces, excavate and cultivate more high-quality musical theater practitioners, and empower the industry with high-quality content and talents. He modestly said, "For Chinese musicals, we don't even count the pavement, we can only pave the stones." Chinese opera set up a musical theater troupe, but soon disappeared, at that time there were no conditions, lack of economic foundation and social environment. Now we finally have the best time to develop original musicals. ”
"The Pretender" originated from the author Daniel Zhang's 2012 spy mystery novel "Spy War on the Beach", which was adapted into a TV series in 2015. Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group obtained an exclusive license for the adaptation of the original work. In April last year, the musical "The Pretender" was officially incubated by the Shanghai Musical Theatre Art Center of the World of Performing Arts, clarifying the theme of "classic reconstruction, not reproduction". The first part of the trilogy, "May I Have This Body to Serve the Country", takes the mingcheng and Minglou brothers as the main characters, telling the story of his name as a pseudo-government official and a Kuomintang agent, who is actually an underground party agent of the Communist Party of China. Under the eyes of Ming's eldest sister Ming Jing and younger brother Ming Tai, who are also engaged in underground anti-war work, the family has been misunderstood and tossed several times, and continues to grow and start a "hunting" war. Daniel Zhang created a special plot for the musical that did not appear in the TV series.
Gao Xuanxiong and Ma Chencheng jointly directed the musical "The Pretender", and the lyrics were composed by Gan Shijia and Tian Mi. Cao Yang played the role of Ming Cheng, who starred in the musical "The Secret That Cannot Be Said", etc., and won the fourth place in the country of "The Voice of China 2020" and the Newcomer Supporting Role Award of the Shanghai Magnolia Theatre Performing Arts Award. Ju Hongchuan, a music singer-songwriter who won the champion of CCTV's "Avenue of Stars" and the third runner-up of Hunan Satellite TV's "Singer", played Ming Lou together with Liu Yang, who participated in many musicals such as "Smoke" and "Rachmaninoff". Mingtai is decorated by Zhou Mohan and Zhao Chaofan. Zhu Fu, the actor of the eldest sister Spiegel, has a wonderful performance in "Almost Normal", "The Lion King" and "The Sound of Music"; another Mingjing actor Xu Meng has performed in the musical "Beauty and the Beast" and "Water Dawn". Huang Guansong will play Wang Tianfeng, who is also good and evil, and Shen Ni will play Yoko Nanda.
Cultural soft power is an important part of urban soft power. The average annual number of musical performances in Shanghai ranks first in the country. At the end of 2019, Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group established the Shanghai Musical Theater Art Center, which has made all-round efforts in theater, brokerage, marketing, and especially content, helping to build Shanghai's cultural brand and contributing to the construction of Asia's performing arts capital. As the center's first large-scale original work, "The Pretender" attracts more audiences to enter the theater and feel the original heart of red through the integration of red culture and Shanghai cultural themes. Ma Chencheng hopes that the topics related to personal choice and growth in the play can also have a profound value impact on the younger generation.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Zhang Yi Photo Editor: Xiang Jianying
Source: Author: Zhuge Yi