6 things you need to know about the Chinese 'Mamma Mia!'
After a year of preparation and three months of rehearsals, the highly anticipated Chinese version of “Mamma Mia!” will open Friday, July 8, at Shanghai Grand Theatre.
The stage drama has drummed up much enthusiasm among Shanghainese theater buffs, who are curious to see how one of China’s first translated attempts of a classic Western musical will turn out.
Although the Chinese “Mamma Mia!” is meant to be as close as possible to the West End original, Chinese touches are sprinkled throughout the show.
1. Chinese folk dances
Localized dance routines have been strong selling points in most international adaptations of “Mamma Mia!” In the Chinese version, Chinese folk dances take center stage.
In the scene set on the night before Sophie and Sky’s wedding, Sky’s eight friends come forth to tease the couple. Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian dances are all featured in this segment.
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When Donna’s best friend, Rosie, confesses her love for Bill in one of the final scenes, she breaks into a lithe performance of the Twisting Yangko (扭秧歌), a traditional Chinese folk dance.
All this, performed on a little Greek island.
2. Multiple dialects
The Chinese production will hit three cities this year -- Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. To accommodate regional audiences, actors will spout local slang within the mainly Mandarin script.
In Shanghai, renowned Shanghainese singer Shen Xiaocen, who plays the role of Tanya, peppers her lines with Shanghainese slang in order to find favor with local audiences.
Audiences will be able to detect traces of Beijinghua in the version performed up north, and Cantonese phrases in the Guangzhou shows.
As producers of the Chinese version plan to target the entire Mandarin-speaking region, sprinklings of Taiwanese and Singaporean dialects will be added to the script in the future.
3. Provocative love scenes
“The love scenes in the Chinese version will be realistic; we won’t dilute anything and we definitely won’t cut out anything,” says Lu Wanjun, media director of the show’s production company, United Asia Live Entertainment (UAE).
The Chinese “Mamma Mia!” will likely be the most provocative musical recently performed in Shanghai. In the slightly more than three-hour performance, hugs, caresses, kisses and other scenes of intimacy are plentiful.
Making this feel natural is no easy feat for the cast.
For example, one of the scenes requires a young male actor to cup both hands over Tanya's breasts. In the early stages of rehearsals, the shy male actor could not complete the scene without turning tomato red from embarrassment.
