Why West End's biggest stars are drawn to the East

Enthusiastic audiences

Life of Pi is a visually stunning staging of Yann Martel's best-selling book, also an Oscar-winning movie, about a boy who survives a shipwreck.

Tom de Keyser is chief executive of Royo, a production company with offices in London and Shanghai, that has taken Life of Pi, and also the thriller Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, around China.

He told China Daily top class facilities, a rich local heritage and enthusiastic audiences made China one of the most exciting places in the world to operate.

"A few years ago, you'd only have played Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but now a lot of second-tier cities have developed fantastic state-of-the-art modern theaters and have built up a real appetite for high-quality theater, so we will now tour for 10-14 weeks, across many different cities, whereas previously we'd only have done two or three weeks," he explained.

Royo having British and Chinese staff working together in both countries means that in addition to its own productions, it helps other companies' shows get on the stage in China, making for a diverse performance schedule.

"Shows from all over the world are forming part of the program at these new theaters, alongside home-made Chinese performances, and that makes for a really eclectic program that you don't see in other countries, which also helps with engaging younger audience," he added. "It's not like there is an attitude that theater is just for one type of person."

Shanghai is a particular magnet for touring shows, and De Keyser called its principal venues, Shanghai Culture Square and the Shanghai Grand Theater, "two of the most magnificent state-of-the-art theaters I've ever seen anywhere in the world".

Someone who has had a chance to see Chinese audiences up close and can compare them to those in the West End and on New York's Broadway is performer and recording artist Kerry Ellis, known as the Queen of the West End.

Her resume includes many of the biggest roles in shows such as Oliver, Miss Saigon, My Fair Lady, Les Miserables and Wicked, on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as concert performances, which is what took her to Shanghai, first 12 years ago, and also this year.

"What I love about our industry is you can connect with people whether you speak the language or not, so I love to travel and perform all over the world and China is up there with my favorite places," she told China Daily.

"I was first there about 12 years ago in Shanghai, when I went with a concert show, doing hits from the musicals. I remember speaking to local audiences and promoters who said 'it's early stages (of development) so we can only do a bit of it', but the love for it is there.

"When I went back and did my own solo show at same venue, it was a 'pinch me' moment, to sell it out on my own. They don't see my shows and I'm not in their lives, so to have an audience across the other side of the world — that was a real moment for me, and to have that response there was incredible."

The Shanghai skyline has changed radically since Ellis's first visit, and so has China's theatrical landscape. "There's a real buzz about theater, there's been a real gear change, you can sense it with all the musicals going in and out, there's a hunger for it," she added.

Ellis will return to China for more performances next year, and said one cultural difference that had taken some adjustment was the respectful pre-show silence of Chinese audiences.

"In London or New York, there's always a hum from the audience before you go on, but in China it's not like that at all, which freaked me at out at first as I'd not experienced it before — you wonder if anyone is out there," she said.

"But then you go out to a wall of love and appreciation, so that took me by surprise a bit."