On the afternoon of April 19, the famous musical "Sunset Avenue" composed by British composer Andrew Loyd Webber was officially staged at the AIA Theater on the North Bund. The picture shows a still. (Photo provided by the performance)

  The profound lines of Joe Gillis, the leading actor of the musical "Sunset Avenue", are: "Don't you know that the greatest work was born at the humblest moment?" Perhaps it condenses the most profound insight into the human nature of the play, and is also the most bitter irony to the "Hollywood" film industry era.

  On the afternoon of April 19, the famous musical "Sunset Avenue" composed by British composer Andrew Loyd Webber was officially staged at the AIA Theater on the North Bund. As a legendary composer in the field of world musicals, Weber's musicals "The Cat" and "The Phantom of the Opera" have long been well known and loved by the whole world. Since its premiere in London in 1993, the musical "Sunset Avenue" has won many Tony Awards and Oliver Awards, and is also a classic musical with a high performance rate. The tour was led by Sarah Brightman. At the end of the first performance, the audience thunderous applause and warm cheers witnessed the affirmation and love of the performance by fans.

  The musical "Sunset Avenue" shows multi-dimensional human entanglement through intricate theatrical contradictions and diverse and integrated musical styles, interprets themes about dreams, desires, vanity, greed, fear, obsession, loyalty, betrayal, and satirizes the arrogant glory and inevitable decline of the golden age of Hollywood. This new version, whether it is the perfect production of stage design, lighting, costumes, or the many artistic casts and the perfect performance of the band, makes the performance shine and shocking, creating an unforgettable audio-visual feast.

  The play adopts a stage expression method full of symbolic meaning and a combination of virtual and real. It cleverly uses a rotating stage to switch scene changes, and effectively uses lights to divide the stage area. The scenes are switched freely and the drama is smooth. As the "core" stage scene, the villa is luxurious, luxurious, noble and sophisticated, but with the combination of dark lights, it gives people a gloomy and dull visual experience, suggesting the decay and decadent feeling of the villa and its mistress being gradually drifting away from the times. In sharp contrast, there are fast-paced film shooting scenes and bars where young people gather. Through the nervous, busy and noisy lively scenes, the living conditions of different groups are shown.

  The soul of the whole show is the music created by Weber. The diverse and fusion of classical music, pop music and jazz music in the play injects core driving force into the development of the drama and the characters with emotional tension. Traditional orchestral music mainly depicts the heroine Norma Desmond and past eras. The theme music that forms orchestral music with semitones, triads and tension-filled harmony forms the orchestral music. It appears throughout the whole play, strongly metaphor for Norma's lonely, fragile and sensitive inner world. Jazz and pop music mainly express the busy, busy and full of the vitality of the secular life. The sharp contrast in music styles gives the best dramatic interpretation of the ambivalence of the male protagonist Joe Giles, and ultimately creates the highlight of the theme song of the same name "Sunset Avenue", which sang. With vivid dramatic techniques, it accuses Hollywood of hypocrisy and superficial glitz, and also shows the pain and cry of losing a free soul due to the pursuit of a luxurious life.

  In addition, classic singing segments such as "At A Look", "A Perfect Year", "As if We Never Say Goodbye" and the theme song of the same name "Sunset Avenue" have become very convincing stage highlights. The delicate and long-lasting qualities unique to Sarah Brightman's singing show Norma's empty and sensitive inner world. The singing of other characters, such as the mysterious and loyal butler Max and the youthful and energetic Betty, almost perfectly interprets the character's qualities.

  It is worth mentioning that during the premiere, the performance was paused for a moment due to technical failures. All the audience waited quietly in place until the performance restarted. After the performance, the audience received extra warm applause and cheers for the actors' wonderful performance. It has to be said that the high level of civilization of Shanghai's musicals has also made Shanghai the largest city in the communication and promotion of musicals, and the most dynamic "music theater capital" in the Chinese musical market. The development of musicals also corresponds to the booming city of Shanghai, which has the urban spirit of embracing all rivers, pursuing excellence, enlightenment, wisdom, and humility. We look forward to more high-quality imported musicals and original musicals in Shanghai in the future.

  (The author is Wu Jia, PhD in Music and Deputy Director of the Department of Music and Drama, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Drama)

[Editor in charge: Susan]