Wang Jingli wangjingli0715@163.com THE Chinese musical “The Island” adapted from the Chinese movie of the same name will debut at Shenzhen Poly Theater on Friday night. The musical producer Zhong Lifang, director John Rando, and Huang Bo, the original movie director and the musical artistic director, and other cast members attended a meet-and-greet Wednesday night to share stories behind the scenes. Sharing reasons of why he chose Shenzhen as the first stop, Huang said that Shenzhen is a city full of vitality and it has a diverse cultural background, which make him very confident about the success of the show in Shenzhen. Rando, also a Tony Award-winning director, said he is very excited to come to Shenzhen. “It’s such a great city, such a great location. It’s such a beautiful theater. It has excellent facilities. It is a great opportunity for us to open here. It’s really a wonderful show that is suitable for here because I understand that Shenzhen audience members are really special. They love musicals and we have a really special show to give them,” said Rando. Zhong said that “every time we come to Shenzhen for performances, the audience members in Shenzhen always offer us good feedback so we want to bring the best works to the audience here.” Huang said he believes there are new things for audience members to discover in the story through this brand new adaptation. It is worth noticing that the musical adds a new character, a bat, which will be played by Huang. He said the bat is like attending as a third person during the musical. It will sometimes sympathize with characters and sometimes jeer at them. The movie “The Island” was released in 2018 and its box office exceeded 1.3 billion yuan (US$187.86 million). The movie tells a story of a company’s employees being shipwrecked on a desert island when they go out in a team-building trip, and each can survive only by cooperating together. After Shenzhen, the musical will move to other cities in China including Haikou, Zhuhai, Chongqing, Changsha, Shanghai, Wuhan and Beijing. Time: 8 p.m., May 5-7, 10-14 Tickets: 280-1,280 yuan Booking: WeChat account “SZpolytheatre” Venue: Shenzhen Poly Theater, Nanshan District (深圳保利剧院) Metro: Line 2 or 11 to Houhai Station (后海站), Exit E | 