China's first production of the Broadway hit Jekyll and Hyde was staged by graduating musical theatre majors -- although the translation ended up being an imperfect imitation.

The conflict between good and evil is an eternal theme in art, music and literature. One of the best musical representations of the conflict is Jekyll and Hyde, adapted from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

On Sunday, professors and students from the acting department of the Shanghai Theatre Academy will present a Chinese version of the sold-out Broadway musical. This will be the first time the musical has been staged in Chinese -- representing a brave but amateurish attempt.

The cast is comprised mainly of musical theatre majors and this performance culminates four years of study, making Jekyll and Hyde the final presentation of the first graduates of the four-year course of study.

The story of a man with a double personality may seem cliché, but the story's fantastical bent and the internal conflict inherent within it are exactly what a good musical needs, according to Xu Weihong, director of the musical and professor in the acting department.

"Musicals are very different from dramas. They need a dramatic story that can be expressed through music, while the story cannot be too realistic. In reality, people don't just sing out of nowhere," says Xu.

Although called a Chinese adaptation, it is actually a direct Chinese translation of the Broadway show, without adapting the Western gothic-styled musical to Chinese culture and background.

According to Xu, the reason for this is that the musical strictly limits changes to contents of the script and staging, from lighting to music.

Moreover, the musical business in China is just beginning and imitation is unavoidable, Xu says.

"We are still at the stage of imitation. Lacking good original musical scripts, what we can do now is to perform classical scripts from the West and understand our distance from top quality musicals."

Since the cast and crew are mainly senior students from the academy and the stage is rather small, that distance is clear. The gothic-styled mise-en-scène looks cramped and performers appear packed on the tiny stage. The Broadway show relied heavily on lighting for the story's sharp contrasts; yet, lighting in the Chinese version lacks the necessary layering crucial to the schizophrenic plot.

Furthermore, the students seem too young to interpret the characters of Dr. Henry Jekyll whose struggle between fantasy and reality defines the story, as well as Hyde, the evil consciousness of Jekyll.

However, it is a brave and constructive attempt for Shanghai's first musical theatre graduates. The major work came in translating the lyrics.

"It was a long and difficult process, because those are lyrics for singing, which are much harder than normal translations. We have to consider the rhythms and the rhymes. All the students and professors discussed the translation together over and over again," says Xu.

Compared with the booming musical industry in Japan, Xu maintains a rather positive attitude about the start-up Chinese market for musicals.

"Although the market for musicals is booming in Japan, the most popular shows are still classical shows from the West. Japanese started this imitation stage 40 years ago and they are still at the same stage. I believe that sooner or later, after enough experience of imitating, we will create something original and Chinese."

(Shanghai Daily January 12, 2007)