A Chinese version of the long-running hit, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, will be performed at the Westside Theatre on Broadway from May 9 to June 4. During this time, the American original drama will also be presented in rotating repertory.

This is the first time Chinese actors and actresses will present a Mandarin show on Broadway, as well as the first American musical to be performed alongside its foreign version.

I Love You became a great hit in Shanghai after it was translated into Chinese. In light of this, the American crew decided to move the Chinese version back to New York and let it play at the same time as its American original.

The show will be presented in Mandarin with the English subtitles projected, said Joel Bishoff last Thursday. He is the director of the Chinese version last Thursday, and also the man who made the original play a hit in the United States.

The show was translated by Yu Rongjun, who incorporated Chinese people's preferences and attitudes in his work. This is the first time that an American Broadway stage drama was translated into Chinese and performed entirely by Chinese stage artists. In 2006, the show was put on stage for 31 performances in the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and was regarded as the most romantic and humorous Broadway love drama in the winter show season.

The show will be presented at the Capital Theater in Beijing on April 17 to kick off the opening of the 2007 Beijing International Art Festival. After that, the Chinese cast will go to New York to give 23 performances, before returning to China for a tour of 20 cities.

(Chinanews.cn April 3, 2007)