China's first original Broadway-style musical, Butterflies, is to debut in Europe next year and the United States in 2012.

China's first original Broadway-style musical, Butterflies, is to debut in Europe next year and the United States in 2012.

The performance would feature in the Year of China activities in Italy, which will start in September, a spokesman for production company, Songlei Culture & Media Communications, said Wednesday at a press conference on the sidelines of the China Art Festival in Guangdong Province.

Li Dun, producer of Butterflies, reached a deal with Tony Stimac, a musical theater consultant and president of U.S.-based Musical Theater Works International, for the production's tour of Spain, Italy and Germany in 2011 and the United States in 2012.

Li said Butterflies marked the beginning of "an era of Chinese musicals."

Often described as China's Romeo and Juliet, Butterflies is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional romance, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, known as the Butterfly lovers, with an international production team.

Songlei invested more than 60 million yuan (US$8.8 million) in Butterflies, which was "unprecedented domestically for a musical," he said.

Since it debuted in 2007, more than 150 performances had been staged on the mainland, and in Hong Kong and Seoul, with a box office exceeding 40 million yuan.

Li said it was a good result although the production was still 20 million yuan in the red.

"The most impressive part of Butterflies is that it operates in a completely commercial way, which is rare for Chinese stage performances."

Market operations are still new to Chinese art troupes, especially those run by the state. The government used to decide the themes of shows and allocate money for troupes to produce performances.

Reform of the country's state-owned art troupes is underway, requiring those operating "iron rice bowls" to become shareholding companies, able to operate independently and profitably.

Li said Butterflies was managed "completely in a Broadway style," headed by the producer. The Beijing Poly Theater Management Company ran the ticketing system.

"All we've done for Butterflies is a trial run for the operation of China's original musicals in the future," he said.

Musical Theater Works International, established in 1983, has produced 60 original musicals in the United States, six of them moving to Broadway, and two -- Beauty and the Beast and Aida -- for the Disney organization

A musical specialist, Stimac came across Butterflies, while touring with the Broadway classic 42nd Street in China in 2007, and was impressed by the audience reactions.