The Phantom of the Opera is now being staged at one of Beijing's newest cultural venues, the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center.

"This project was specifically designed for China. We wanted to find a way to expose Chinese audiences to the varied range of musicals of Webber," Comerford says.

Those shows launched long-term cooperation between Really Useful Group and the China Performing Arts Agency, including tours of Cats and The Sound of Music. Comerford also led the production of the first Chinese-language Cats, which toured 10 cities in China in 2012.

Andrew Treagus, executive producer of the company that teamed up with the Chinese agency in 2007 to bring the global hit musical Mamma Mia! to Beijing and Shanghai in 2007, agrees that musicals have a future in China. After the success of Mamma Mia! the company, Littlestar Services UK, produced a Chinese-language version of the show in 2010.

Besides The Phantom of the Opera, initial performances at Tianqiao Performing Arts Center will see a variety of performances from productions, including veteran director Tian Qinxin's dramatic work Beijing Fayuan Temple, and the multimedia show Cinematique by French artists Adrien Mondot and Claire Bardainne.

Yang Lan, a media guru and the host of a forum for the center's opening, mentions that the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is one of those places everybody goes to, no matter where they come from.

"I hope that we could have a place like the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in China, which emotionally unites the people who really understand the arts," Yang says.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

The Phantom of Opera Daily through Jan 3. Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, 1 Tianqiao South Street, Xicheng district, Beijing. 400-635-3355.