Curtain rises on return of international shows

The singing of Danse mon Esmeralda, the most popular number in the French musical show Notre Dame de Paris, by Angelo Del Vecchio at the Shanghai Culture Square theater on Tuesday, signified the return of overseas productions to the country's musical scene.

The Italian musical actor flew to Shanghai for the news conference at the theater announcing the venue's show plan for this year on Tuesday. It includes overseas productions, such as Romeo et Juliette, Titanic from Britain, a gala concert of French musicals, as well as the first showcase of Israeli theaters in Shanghai.

"It's been three years. I missed you so much," Del Vecchio says to the audience in Shanghai.

"I am so happy to be with you again, my friends."

He announces that he will be part of the gala concert of French musicals between Sept 14 and 17. He adds he thinks "it's time for the big return of Notre Dame de Paris", as he has been looking forward to in years.

Romeo et Juliette, presented from May 29 to June 11, will be the first overseas musical at the Shanghai Culture Square in three years.

First introduced in China by the theater in 2012, the production toured the country in 2016 and 2018.

In 2021, the Chinese edition was premiered at the Shanghai Culture Square, and then toured Beijing, Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and other cities in the country.

The British production of Titanic will be shown from Oct 11 to 15. Created by Maury Yeston, the musical is celebrating its 10th anniversary since its premiere in London in 2013.

While the 2012 James Cameron film of the same subject will be shown again in cinemas around China in April, Fei Yuanhong, vice-general manager of the Shanghai Culture Square, says that "the musical tells a different story, which features a group portrait of passengers, engineers and journalists on board the legendary ship".

The musical was shown for the first time in China at the Shanghai Culture Square in 2019.

"We have a series of other overseas musical productions planned for this year," Fei says. "We will make the announcements later when all the information is confirmed."

The theater will also have its first Israeli theater showcase, presenting four plays in Hebrew. The Superfluous Man by Israel Mitcha Figa Theatre, based on the novel Oblomov by Russian author Ivan Goncharov, will be shown on July 8 and 9. Director of the play, Yehezkel Lazarov says that he started to work on the play at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He wanted to use the story of a character that had frequent recurrence in Russian literature in the late 1800s, to address the "nothingness of being": what does it mean to be nothing; are we allowed to live life without leaving anything behind"?

The other three Israeli plays will be The Dybbuk by the Gesher Theatre, Hamlet by the Beit Lessin Theatre and Yakish and Poopche, by the Gesher Theater.

The epic Russian play And Quiet Flows the Don, based on the novel of Mikhail Sholokhov, will come back to the venue from Dec 1 to 3.

The 8-hour-long production made a deep impression among theatergoers in Shanghai when it was first shown in the country in 2019.