by Xinhua writers Ji Hang, Zhao Jiasong

HANGZHOU/LONDON, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- "You alone can make my song take flight. It's over now the music of the night." British musical actor John Owen-Jones closed his concert with this signature song from "The Phantom of the Opera," bidding the audience farewell while wearing a traditional Chinese-style suit in a theater packed with more than 1,000 people in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The audience responded with thunderous, sustained applause.

After stops in Chinese metropolises including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, Owen-Jones and six fellow performers recently concluded a concert tour that consisted of 12 shows, starting on New Year's Day.

These concerts, featuring many Western musical highlights delivered by star singers, underscored the diversification now evident in China's musical theater market. In addition to complete musicals, such as "The Phantom of the Opera" currently on a China tour, and musicals in concert, exemplified by the recent "Les Miserables" concert presentations, Chinese audiences are also embracing singer-led gala-style shows. Together, these formats suggest a market starting to show features akin to those found in London's West End and New York's Broadway.

According to China's 2025 Musical Theater Market Report, the country's musical theater market continues to expand. The box office revenue of musical theater performances totaled nearly 1.81 billion yuan (about 255 million U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 7.55 percent year on year, with imported original musicals accounting for over half of this total.

CHINESE PASSION FOR WEST END

In 2002, "Les Miserables," the West End's longest-running musical, made its Shanghai debut. All 21 performances sold out, setting local records for both consecutive sold-out shows and box-office takings, and signaling a turning point in the commercial rise of musical theater in China.

As "Les Miserables" marked the 40th anniversary of its West End premiere in 2025, Shanghai offered a clear measure of how far China's musical market has come since that first sellout run in 2002. The anniversary concert at the Shanghai Grand Theater staged 65 performances over a 55-day run, drew consistently sold-out crowds and grossed more than 90 million yuan in total box-office revenue, statistics from the online ticketing platform Damai.cn revealed.

Ticketing data showed that ticket buyers came from across China, suggesting that this enduring classic continues to draw audiences across age groups and interest circles. More than 8 percent of attendees returned for repeat viewings -- and the most avid fans went as many as 25 times.

"I wasn't born when 'Les Miserables' first came to China, but during last year's tour, programs across my company's venues featured an article about the show's journey in China. Reading it as a Chinese theater professional working in London, I felt deeply proud," said Katia Qi Shi, a staff member of Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, one of Britain's leading theater operators.

Having graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in China, she moved to London in 2024 to pursue a Master of Music qualification at King's College London, inspired by her love of Western musical theater. She said the West End stands out for its technical craft and diversity, from choreography to set design, and for its innovative, experimental scene that creates opportunities for young artists from different cultural backgrounds.

"West End musicals feel more story-driven, perhaps shaped by Britain's Shakespearean tradition, and that kind of narrative musical theater also resonates strongly with Chinese audiences," said Ge Xuan, who earned a master's degree in behavioral and economic science from the University of Warwick in 2024. She said her career path shifted after she joined a drama-therapy graduation project run by education-major students, an experience she described as "life-changing," and she now works in London's theater scene, taking part in a range of fringe musical productions.

For many Chinese fans, the 2011-filmed 25th anniversary celebration of "The Phantom of the Opera" at London's Royal Albert Hall, widely circulated online, proved a far more accessible introduction to English-language musicals, extending the reach well beyond earlier stage-only encounters such as the China debut of "Les Miserables."

In the finale of the show, after composer Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared onstage, Owen-Jones joined soprano Sarah Brightman and other cast members in the encore as past performers of the musical piece, a moment that helped many viewers in China discover the performer.

"It's very exciting to perform for people who know what we're performing," Owen-Jones told Xinhua, adding that Chinese theatergoers are very eager to "keep up with what is happening on stages elsewhere in the world."

Li Yameng, 29, a Shanghai-based pianist, recalled first seeing the recording in a high school music class, and said that it has remained a treasured classic for her ever since. "Years later, as a music teacher, I revisited the film and brought it into my lessons. My students were completely absorbed. Some even came to me after class to ask about the show and that curiosity kept me going," she said. "In a way, it feels like passing on something you love."

She said that she was captivated by Owen-Jones' rendition of "The Music of the Night" in the recording, which inspired her to attend his concert in China in 2024 and later to see two shows during this year's tour in Shanghai. She praised the Welsh actor's stage command and "the care he puts into refining the show based on audience feedback."

"West End musicals are important for both music majors and students of foreign literature in China, offering them a shared reference point for understanding Western society and cultural traditions, while motivating some students to adapt and create for Chinese stages," said Lyu Chunmei, director of the School of English Studies at Dalian University of Foreign Languages in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Lyu, a professor of Western drama and theater literature, said the school has expanded theater education to introduce more acclaimed musicals and stage works to students. The program combines English drama and British theater studies with hands-on practice through scriptwriting and an annual drama-and-musical performance competition, a campus tradition of more than three decades.

MORE DIVERSIFIED, MORE PROFESSIONAL

"I usually go to full-length productions, but this time it was refreshing to hear so many classic numbers, and see several familiar performers in one concert," said Jiang Wenyu, an audience member at Owen-Jones' concert titled "Unmasked." "It felt more interactive and immersive," Jiang noted.

"Requiring fewer sets and props, singer-led gala-style shows help keep production costs down and allow more direct communication between creators and audiences, often using storytelling to build resonance while giving newcomers a fast, accessible way into musical theater," Liu Xujia, a co-producer and co-investor of the "Unmasked" shows, told Xinhua, explaining that by packaging standout selections from Western musicals, such concerts can draw in more Chinese fans and broaden the audience base.

In this type of show, where the voice takes center stage, Chinese audiences' technical scrutiny has also become part of the experience.

Owen-Jones said he had been struck by how closely Chinese audiences listened, adding that their focus on technique and detail was a surprise to him.

"Audiences are far more discerning and professional than they were 10 or 20 years ago. They no longer just follow the plot. They analyze every detail," Chen Xin, general manager of the Hangzhou Golden Sands Lake Grand Theater, which opened in 2023 with a focus on musical theater, told Xinhua.

Chen said that overseas productions used to ship sets and technical equipment to China almost in full, but co-productions are now becoming more common. Domestic venues are increasingly able to provide comparable hardware and technical support, he added, citing what he called first-class facilities and a growing pool of skilled local crew.

Owen-Jones also said that this shift was evident on the recent tour, during which he worked with more Chinese musicians, artists and technical staff than on previous visits. "Every time I come here, it gets better and better. I can't wait to come back," he said.

China's fast-growing musical theater market is also showing an appetite for variety, with multilingual imports gaining traction. One example is the French rock-opera musical "Le Rouge et le Noir," which ranked among the top performers on the annual box-office list for imported original musicals.

Industry insiders believe that as Chinese audiences become more engaged, they are also looking beyond the familiar pipeline of West End and Broadway titles. Chen said his Hangzhou venue has presented musicals in English, French, German, Italian and Russian, with French- and English-language productions currently delivering the strongest box-office results. "We noticed that many attendees at French musicals don't even rely on subtitles, a very encouraging sign for the market," he said.

Owen-Jones said China's growing audience for Western musicals could help spur a new wave of strong homegrown works, adding that a growing number of polished original Chinese musicals are already emerging. He argued the country was "on the edge of becoming a very important force" in musical theater and a China-made musical could one day break through internationally.

Ren Shuxin, director of the musical theater center at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, said that in recent years, China has seen more musical theater companies that integrate creation, production and operations, with workflows ranging "from writing and composition to rehearsal, marketing and ticketing" becoming increasingly mature.

"I need to do some research on the Chinese musicals because I'm sure that there are absolute gems that everybody will know about one day. So I need to find them first before everybody else does," said Alistair Barron, co-producer of the "Unmasked" shows.

(Xinhua reporters Duan Jingjing and Liu Che in Hangzhou, Yu Aicen in London also contributed to the story.)