Romantic drama

Carl Portal, the choreographer of the French production, was invited to direct the Chinese edition. The schedule was tight, and the Chinese production, consisting of four groups of performers and dozens of dancers, seemed especially challenging for Portal, when he first landed on the job in China. However, on the second day of rehearsal, he became more confident he says. "I saw dancers coming back well practiced and rapidly improved, as soon as they understood what I wanted."

The Chinese dancers were trained and rehearsing with them, he says he felt like "a child at Christmas, with each of them unpacking their Christmas gifts for me".

Portal praises a Chinese dancer, who portrays "death" in the musical, saying as she is trained in traditional dance, she is able to present the role with a poetic touch, embodying the sadness and cruelty of the destruction of youth and love at its full blossom in the musical.

Romeo and Juliet is such an emotionally charged musical that after seeing it countless times, Portal says he is still moved watching the rehearsal of the Chinese edition, and hopes his production can take audiences on an "emotional rollercoaster" and that they "enjoy the ride".

Qiao Jing, president of Joyway, says the decision to have four pairs of Romeo and Juliet for the Chinese production was to "achieve the highest quality possible, and hope to create a Chinese musical that can run a long way" by choosing "the best cast we could find". She says she hopes the show will tour "from first-tier cities to the fourth" in the country and move anybody with "faith in true love".