TEARJERKER MAKES IT TO STAGE
The lead player in a new version of a hit musical tells of how the latest rendering pulls on her heart strings, Cheng Yuezhu reports.
The 1983 classic Taiwan film Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (Da Cuo Che), which reduced viewers to tears with its heartrending representation of familial love, has been turned into a musical.
The musical, titled An Accident of Love, made its world premiere at Taichung Theater in Taiwan recently and is due to tour Chinese mainland venues in November.
This is the first time that the film has been put on stage in Taiwan, where the story is set, with Chris Tseng as the director, Andrew Chu as the music director and Chen Lerong as the artistic director, screenwriter and lyricist.
Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? tells of a speech-impaired veteran soldier, referred to endearingly as uncle, and an abandoned baby girl named Amei whom he finds. The two are totally co-dependent, struggling against poverty and hardship, making a living by recycling empty bottles. Amei grows up to become an acclaimed singer, and her career holds her back from reuniting with her adoptive father.
The latest production has Ding Dang, also known by her stage name Della, playing Amei. Ding Dang is a renowned singer born and bred in the Chinese mainland who rose to fame in Taiwan.
“Amei and I have a similar background,” Ding Dang said. “By that I mean we both want to become a singer and perform on stage. Her story very much reflects my experience, so playing her is like telling my own life story.”
Ding Dang left home and started singing in bars in 1999. The Taiwan-based record company B’in Music signed her up in 2006 and released her first solo album Run Away From Home in 2007.
“The difference between Amei and me is that she felt the love I didn’t feel as a child, because my parents divorced when I was 13. However, Amei eventually lost her familial love for the sake of her career, which is a kind of reminder to me that as I press on to succeed with my career I should never neglect my family.”
Ding Dang performed the role of Amei in the 2013 Singaporean production in which her talent for acting was evident.
Her latest encounter with Amei has pulled strongly on her heart strings.
“I am deeply moved to be able to perform in a locally produced musical adaptation,” she said.
Staging the musical is not easy. Though the film was first adapted into a musical in 1985 by the Shenyang Theater Company, and ran for three years, being performed more than 1,500 times, it took the director Tseng nearly four years of devising and two years of preparations to complete the current production.
“I have always dreamed about turning the film into a musical,” Tseng said. “In fact, I talked about the idea so much that people in my troupe got tired of hearing about it.”
So when Ding Dang approached him on behalf of her company with a proposal to stage the musical, Tseng immediately agreed.
The musical also stars Berson Wang, a talented singer, dancer and actor, as well as the singers Nylon Chen and Edy Hsiao, both popular among young people. Tseng says he
Any Empty Wine Bottles for Sale (Jiugan Tangmaiwu) and The Same Moonlight (Yiyangde Yueguang).
The latest production includes not only the soundtrack, but also well-known songs of Julie Sue and Ding Dang, as well as original compositions written by Chen Lerong and Andrew Chu.
“Chu ingeniously incorporates the old and new songs into one production,” Chen said. “However, we want the audience to be immersed in the story and even to have the impression that the new compositions must be from the 1980s.”
Apart from the six performances in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, the original soundtrack of the musical, The Same Moonlight, has been released by B’in Music. The mainland performances of An Accident of Love will open in Xiamen, Fujian province, and other venues will include Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.