Art School Musical is the first attempt at a musical by Golden Horse award-winning playwright, Edward Lam. Rather than revisit his past works, Lam has decided to stage the story of The Butterfly Lovers Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai – better known to westerners as the Chinese Romeo and Juliet. However, this version takes place in a modern art school morphing its heartbreaking love story into a discussion of self-identity in today’s world.
Why did you base this musical around such a well-known folk tale as The Butterfly Lovers?
I watched the traditional opera adaptation of the story and was deeply drawn to it. Then, several years later, Disney’s High School Musical became a global hit. It inspired me to do a musical, but about art. The idea of marrying that traditional story into such a modern environment really appealed to me.
Describe your modern rendition of the show.
According to the story, the female character Zhu Yingtai is banned from schooling because of her gender, which is impossible to imagine today. Many youngsters in China today are unwilling to choose Art as their major, which is why I chose an art school as the main setting.
In this musical, Zhu and Liang are both art school students. Zhu is a self-motivated and independent girl – the same qualities she exhibited in the original story – who yearns to continue her Art studies against her family’s wishes.
In contrast, Liang is the son of an unsuccessful artist couple who attempt to stop him ending up like them. Unlike Zhu, Liang has witnessed his parents’ failure growing up, so he has a complex about not doing well in art. The disparity is obvious and the story naturally unfolds when they meet.
And we must not ignore Ma Wencai – a descendent of a powerful family who causes major trouble in Liang and Zhu’s relationship. What are your designs for this character?
It’s really interesting that Ma renders such a negative image. In fact, according to my research, there are eight different versions of The Butterfly Lovers’ story, varying greatly from each other. So, what we serve today is an edited version from our ancestors.
My interpretation of Ma’s character is public value. What are you pursuing – artistic value or public value? In my play, Ma is a group of people with different voices, genders and appearances that mirror various facets of our society.
Getting to the root of it, it’s our culture to follow the rules and obey orders. We’re not supposed to raise questions the public doesn’t have answers for. As a result, people like Liang who can’t bear the weight of loss and are afraid of getting judged will find a way to survive. By contrast, Zhu dies protecting her belief and love. It’s a twist on an old story.
Although this is your first musical, you chose to work with actors who didn’t major in music. Why?
Yes, the lineup consists of TV actors, stage performers and professional musical actors. The funny thing is, if you trace musicals back to their origin, they weren’t made to please the audience but to reflect reality. And it wasn’t a popular genre. But once it became more sugar coated and staged in extravagant settings, it transformed into commercial success.
I aim to produce a natural, authentic musical. Putting all the razzle-dazzle aside, I want to invite the audience to hear what the performers are really singing and delivering.
Apr 1-3, 7.15pm (Fri-Sat) and 2pm (Sun), RMB80-580. Shanghai Culture Square, tickets. See event listing.
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