Ultimate Broadway

Shanghai Culture Square is China's first theater designed and constructed especially for the performance of musicals. Since its opening four years ago, the theater has systematically introduced musicals from various parts of the world, as well as popular plays from Broadway and West End.

The theater began to produce its own shows three years ago, and created the Ultimate Broadway series, a gala concert of musical highlights that is presented every year.

The upcoming Ultimate Broadway show will cost up to 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) to produce, according to Fei Yuanhong, artistic director of the theater. Shanghai Culture Square will create the settings, props and stage designs, hire veteran designers and directors to work with recognized actors from Broadway and West End.

The concert has become an established brand among Shanghai's musical lovers so that once the box office opened, "a ticket was sold every eight seconds," Fei said.

A concert is more "executable, or "operable", he said, than a full-length musical play. In a mature market such as Broadway, a musical is regarded successful after 100 to 200 performances, while in China, no theater show has had such vitality yet.

Fei anticipated that in five years' time maybe, China's market will be strong enough for residential musical performances that will go on for years, "when those born in the 1980s become the majority of China's middle class population."