The Morris Theatre has three floors, with a total of about 1,700 seats, and is a medium and large theatre in London's West End, with larger theatres of more than 2,000 people, and a slightly smaller theatre with four or five hundred seats. Most of the time, many theaters have a fixed residency program, even if it is not a masterpiece like "Les Miserables" and "The Phantom of the Opera", which has been performed for ten or twenty years, there are many productions staged throughout the year.

For example, Rudy's Wyss Theater, which has a new play like a marquee, is relatively rare.

At this time, Ivan Statham, who was in the pool seat on the first floor, and his old friend Howard, were talking about the problem - a dream start for the Morris Theater. But in the end, it is still uncertain whether Morris Jr. can seize the opportunity, and "Mo" can convert attention into word-of-mouth and audience through excellent quality.

Ivan is an old critic, but not an authority, because he has been writing for small and medium-sized newspapers, and the Internet age has not changed its way — he has a good relationship with Morris Sr. Howard, a film critic with a much wider influence, accompanied Ivan to see "Silence" this time, and also had the idea of wanting to see the core story of the movie "Silence" in advance.

"Little Morris is more capable than I thought he would. Ivan straightened his gray beard: "Old Morris is a very conservative theater manager, and his greatest wish in life is to make a production of the level of "The Phantom of the Opera", and to remember it with the Morris Theater by history." ”

Then he must not have imagined that today, his son found a big Asian star who can bring bloody wind and rain to star in the work, and the whole West End, and even London, England, and Europe will be eyed. ”

"Haha," Ivan laughed approvingly, "old Morris is not even happy to advertise, he thinks that the best plays must be able to impress the audience, and then accumulate word of mouth and prestige over the long years, which he thinks is necessary and the reason why a theater is great." None of this would have happened if he had been around. ”

Howard looked at the velvet curtain, it was not new, as if it still had the pride of the owner.

"But if he is still managing the theater today, he may have to consider selling it, after all, the old thinking is completely outdated-" Howard paused, and suddenly said again with a wicked taste: "Maybe it will be sold to the Chinese, after all, they are the richest now." ”

"They might be more willing to buy a football club than a theatre. Ivan added.

The British are now able to discuss the strength of other countries very prosaically, after all, the empire on which the sun never sets has long been and has long since adapted to it.

Howard no longer mentions this topic, in the field of film, the presence of Chinese is not so high, for several years, Ji Ming and his "Mo" have been the most watched Chinese films, according to the news he knows, and some warm-up from the British distributor of "Mo", this Chinese film is likely to be released in Europe in January, achieving a good result, is a high probability - for non-English films.

And after a series of recent hot news, Howard believes that the interest of movie fans and audiences in "Mo" has even surpassed that of many English works.

He's also looking forward to seeing the film – after all, some of his friends have seen it in Venice and have given it very high reviews.

"Do you think this play will last?" Howard asked Ivan, curious.

Ivan shook his head: "Not sure. In fact, many media say that this is a Chinese musical, which is not correct. Aside from the lead actor and the original film, it's not much different from other West End musicals. Maurice Jr., unlike his father, is not a loser who knows nothing, and the quality of the musical should be guaranteed - but even so, no one can be sure that he will be an evergreen in such fierce competition. Such a high level of popularity is a double-edged sword in itself. And I've noticed that James, Jaime Dawson, there's a weird sense of hype about "Silence," he's not a good thing. ”

"You can remind little Morris. ”

"If he needs me to remind him, he's dead. ”

Howard laughed, he just said casually, because before he came, Ivan always said that he had a friendship with Morris Sr. - but apparently, the friendship had passed with the wind, and it was not enough for him to worry more about Morris Jr. and Morris Theater.

......

The Chinese version and the English version are actually very different, because the style of domestic musicals and foreign musicals is different. Ji Ming's singing and dancing in China are more timeless, and in terms of style, domestic audiences will not want to see the noisy "Mo". But the Western Region version will indeed be larger, because the other co-actors, both in terms of action and singing, are more relaxed and have a more obvious sense of drama, and Ji Ming certainly needs to match the overall style.

Special mention should be made of the interaction with the audience.

Domestic audiences may watch movies and TV series more, but in fact, they are not so adaptable to the staring of actors and actors, and they will act. Especially if the location is better, the actor will come over and sing "Ah, you negative man......" or "I'm going to stab a knife into your heart to see if the blood is black ......", and they may not be able to stand it. But the West End audience is very well trained, and a lot of times you have to stand in the front of the stage, facing the audience, especially the singing part, and it's best to spray saliva in their faces.

The stage is higher.

Based on such differences, from the arrangement and lyrics to the choreography, it will actually be different, as Ivan said, this is a typical West End musical production product. Ji Ming himself doesn't have any intention to make aesthetic iterations for Western audiences, he just makes a play.

The English version begins a little longer than the Chinese version, and it puts the former Qing explanation in front - Yang Ming, dressed in white pajamas, in the dim light, tells about his dreams, his own stage accidents, and communicates with colleagues who died in stage accidents, showing how much he hopes to stand on the stage again and regain his excitement for the dance career. He also showed some choreographic dance moves, difficult and beautiful...... Strive to amaze the audience at the beginning.

As he sang the sad "My heart is getting cold, the soles of my feet are getting cold, my dreams, don't go away, don't go away...... as he bows down on the ground, and the first act ends with the sound of a faint heartbeat.

In the second act, Yang Ming woke up, sang passionately in surprise, regained his instinct for movement and dance step by step, and then returned to the Red Star Dance Troupe, and traveled a long way in the limelight......

The second act is a very easy scene to feel the level. If the singing of the first act is a sign that, ah, the lead actor is a powerful singer, the second act is an indisputable demonstration of the control of a musical actor.

The emotions, characters, and plots are in different tunes, and in different voice interpretations, they are like butterflies wearing flowers, which is dizzying. And that kind of solidarity between colleagues, actors and the stage is also very close, which is very important. Even though the set is very good, it is still not a simple matter to convince the audience that the scene is the scene in the story, and it will only be convincing when the actors pull the scene into the performance and into the plot.

This is his room, this is the Red Star Dance Troupe, this is the remote dance practice room, this is the rehearsal hall where Yang Ming and Ai Qi are charming under the oblique sunlight...... The stage play, the stage and the play are truly integrated, which is the best state.

Between the second and third acts, there are many more professional people in the audience who are aware of this.

Like Ivan and Howard.

"This Mr. actor is too strong in personal ability. Ivan didn't go into too much detail, this wasn't a review of the play, and Howard knew all about it and didn't need him to explain it.

Howard was actually more amazed than Ivan.

As a double critic of movies and stage plays, in fact, sometimes he inevitably sighs that both sides have their own advantages, such as the variety of perspectives of the film, including many wonderful editing, which are beyond the reach of stage plays. And the face-to-face strength that the stage play has, the realism of the living performance in front of you, is also beyond the reach of the movie. He often thinks that if this advantage can be passed on to each other, then it may be a new era for the development of theater.

And right now, he did have some such illusions.

The rendering of Ji Ming's emotions in the scope of space, the invocation and display of his physical movements on the stage, and, of course, the overall attraction of the audience into a certain optical illusion, that is, ignoring and reminding them that all this is a flaw in the scenery - at least to some extent.

Ivan said a lot, this is a great actor with strong stage dominance and theatrical expressiveness, and on his own, he has transcended some of the inherent birth defects of the medium, which is almost magical.

Unbelievable.

From the third act onwards, Yang Ming gradually realized the existence of the problem from the vitality of his new life.

If the second act wins with stage presence, then the third act is the essence of the plot of the play, like a flower called "uneasy", under the noses of the audience, from a seed, to a black dahlia that covers the sky, everything is in the service of this uneasiness and struggle.

The music and dance also show a completely different style and direction from the first and second acts - so that the audience, for more than an hour, there is still no aesthetic fatigue, but there is always a sense of freshness to keep them focused.

Howard unconsciously began to imagine the movie, this part of the plot, in the movie with a variety of perspectives, close-ups, light and shade, composition, long and short shots, montages...... Ah, he couldn't help but sigh, and almost thinking about it, he felt that it was an incomparably wonderful enjoyment.

The producer is too smart and has a lot of trust in the actors, and this effect will not be just for Howard, because he is more familiar with the movie, so he will deepen the plot in a cinematic way, but if the other person is interested in music, about the performance, about real life...... and so on, then they will also understand these plots in a way that they subconsciously focus on, and empathize with them.

In terms of plot communication, "Silence" is obviously extremely successful, and the means are clever.

Call.

Howard felt that if the final act could be kept up to par, he would be willing to give it a super high score of more than 9 — a score that would be good enough to be included in the ranks of the top musicals.

He didn't realize that when he arrived in the fourth act, he almost had a pleading mentality - don't mess up, let me score this 9 out.

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