Professor Barbara Stewart
ESL: English For Research Skills
December 3, 2013
The Success of Chinese Version of ‘Mamma Mia!’ Shows to the Chinese Musicals Development
Abstracts In recent years, musicals in China are being paid much more attentions than in the past. The show of Chinese version of ‘Mamma Mia’ has a bigger purpose than profit: it is part of a much larger drive towards a new Chinese creativity. The article will explain why Chinese version of ‘Mamma Mia!’ made such a great achievements in China, and examine what Mamma Mia! 's success means for Chinese theatre, including the copyrights introductions, marketing strategies, and management modes. Then it will seek ways of creation and survival of Chinese musicals and give some inspirations for them.
Introduction ‘Mamma Mia!’ is the first musical that was purchased from western country and was translated into Mandarin in China. It made a huge success. Also, it is a breakthrough for Chinese musicals and made considerable significances. But before that, musicals in China actually almost have failed. According to Zipeng Ren writes in the Chinese Musicals Survey that in 2011, there were 285 musical performances in Beijing, but the number of audiences is less than 30 million. That means that compared to the total number of performances in Beijing is 13,470,000, the musicals only accounted for 2%. The drawbacks are evident. First, the story is not moving which is unable to attract Chinese audiences. Hui Lu criticizes in the Survival and Development of Chinese Musical that the level of Chinese musicals is not high enough to meet the requirements. The second reason is the inexperienced business operations. Marketing and operation of a musical is indispensable. Third, because of the immature market, Chinese musicals lack professional actors and creative directors. However, everything is changing really rapidly in China, including musicals
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