Theater that strikes the right note

Views from insiders

Among those who are consistently on the monthly list is Zheng Chanyi, or Amulet, on Sina Weibo, who is known for her reviews of theater productions and theater-related vlogs.

The 25-year-old has been working in theaters for three years, or as she says in jest, a "theater laborer", in fields like stage management, technical operation and translation, and has worked on world-renowned musicals, such as Wicked, Kinky Boots and School of Rock.

Her passion for musicals started with a screening of the classic musical production Cats in her middle school music class, when she became captivated by the character Rum Tum Tugger, and the crush lasted for years.

Later when Cats toured China, she attended multiple performances amid pressing school work and waited for the performers at the stage door. In her brief discussions with the performers, she found that the theater lifestyle appealed to her. During her undergraduate studies in an irrelevant field, she made up her mind to go to Australia and pursue a master's degree in a theater-related discipline, meanwhile taking training courses and working in theaters.

She started blogging about theater life years ago, which she hopes would serve as a complement to her role as a theater practitioner.

"Being a blogger allows me to give a voice to the staff behind the scenes. In my vlogs, I'd introduce the backstage roles and stage designs. To me, it's meaningful to let more people know about the technical side of theater work," Zheng says.

She also hopes, with herself as an example, to encourage more females to participate in technical work: "Women who can climb up and down and control large machinery are actually quite cool."

Emerging interest

Since Super Vocal, a musical-or bel canto-themed singing reality show, was broadcast by Hunan TV in November, more talented musical actors have been brought into the public eye, and Chinese musical fandom now boasts an ever increasing number.

University student Xie Qing says that she has always been intrigued by similar entertainment shows and other theater productions such as plays or dance dramas, but it is Super Vocal that sparked her interest in musicals. She has been to two musicals performed by Zheng Yunlong－h(huán)er idol and a contestant of the reality show－and also many other musicals, both imported and Chinese productions.

For her, the charisma of musical actors, such as Zheng Yunlong, is that they are able to bring the audience into the scene with their voice. "He becomes the role and turns the entire stage into the set along with him," Xie says.

From her observation, though new fans indeed tend to care more about specific actors than the show itself, it is a good thing that more people are now willing to go to the theater.

"There are actually many people who are willing to learn and love musicals. For example, my roommate was never interested in these kinds of shows before, but now she has attended several musicals with me," Xie says.