Phantom Haunts Beijing.docVIP

Phantom Haunts Beijing 　　The Phantom of the Opera―a musical on stage in the Chinese capital city for the first time since it debuted in 1986―wrapped up the last show of its Beijing tour on January 10. 　　The musical， also staged in Guangzhou in south Chinas Guangdong Province， took in a total box office revenue of over 100 million yuan （$15.2 million）， pushing Beijings musical revenue to 120 million yuan （$18.2 million） in 2015， an almost 230-percent year-on-year increase. 　　The musical first opened at Londons West End in 1986 and on Broadway in 1988. It won the 1986 Oliver Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical. It is the longest-running show in Broadway history. 　　The Phantom of the Opera is based on a 1910 French horror novel by Gaston Leroux and follows a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House. He lives in an underground cavern and tutors and composes operas for a young soprano star-in-the-making， Christine. But when Christine reaches success and a handsome suitor from her past reappears， the reclusive Phantom goes mad and terrorizes the opera company. 　　 A fitting venue 　　The musical first came to China in 2004 when nearly 100 performances were given at the Shanghai Grand Theater. It returned to Shanghai in 2013 and was staged 64 times. Despite being the capital city and China’s cultural center， Beijing lacked suitable theaters to host the musical. 　　Tian Yuan， General Manager of the Beijingbased One World Culture Communication， said she approached the musicals copyright owner about importing the musical in 1999. But no Beijing theaters at the time met the technical standards required for the musical’s stage setting. 　　“Although there were multiple large and medium-sized theaters in Beijing， they were primarily designed for concerts rather than musicals，” Tian said. 　　When construction on the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center started in 2012， Tians company reached an agreement with one of the center’s investors to make the main theater