A Chinese version of the long-running hit, I Love You,
You're Perfect, Now Change, will be performed at the Westside
Theatre on Broadway from May 9 to June 4. During this time, the
American original drama will also be presented in rotating
repertory.
This is the first time Chinese actors and actresses will present
a Mandarin show on Broadway, as well as the first American musical
to be performed alongside its foreign version.
I Love You became a great hit in Shanghai after it was
translated into Chinese. In light of this, the American crew
decided to move the Chinese version back to New York and let it
play at the same time as its American original.
The show will be presented in Mandarin with the English
subtitles projected, said Joel Bishoff last Thursday. He is the
director of the Chinese version last Thursday, and also the man who
made the original play a hit in the United States.
The show was translated by Yu Rongjun, who incorporated Chinese
people's preferences and attitudes in his work. This is the first
time that an American Broadway stage drama was translated into
Chinese and performed entirely by Chinese stage artists. In 2006,
the show was put on stage for 31 performances in the Shanghai
Dramatic Arts Center and was regarded as the most romantic and
humorous Broadway love drama in the winter show season.
The show will be presented at the Capital Theater in Beijing on
April 17 to kick off the opening of the 2007 Beijing International
Art Festival. After that, the Chinese cast will go to New York to
give 23 performances, before returning to China for a tour of 20
cities.
(Chinanews.cn April 3, 2007)
