In the summer of 2007, a sunny Greek island, a romantic love story, and ABBA's timeless songs all came to Beijing with the worldwide hit musical Mamma Mia!.

Now, three years after it presented the English language production of Mamma Mia! in China, China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) will collaborate with Littlestar Ltd from London's West End to produce a Chinese language version of the show.

It will be the 14th language the musical has been performed in.

"In 2007, the fantastic audience response to Mamma Mia! in both Beijing and Shanghai convinced us the show had a future in China and that a Chinese-language production could be successful," says Judy Craymer, producer of the London production of Mamma Mia!.

"For the past three years we've been carefully considering how best to produce the show in China and who should be our Chinese production partner. I believe CAEG is a right choice," Craymer says.

Zhang Yu, president of CAEG and Andrew Treagus, director of Littlestar and international executive producer of Mamma Mia!, signed a five-year licensing agreement for the Chinese language production on Wednesday afternoon in Beijing. The show is scheduled to open in Beijing next June.

Littlestar will help to select a local creative team, including the director, choreographers, technical staff and will also assist in auditioning and training the all-Chinese cast.

A three-round audition process will take place in August, November and January 2011. Applicants can log on to the website http://mamma-mia.caeg.cn to enroll for the auditions.

After its premiere in Beijing in June 2011, the production will tour Shanghai and Guangzhou in the second half of 2011, then move to Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Singapore before playing selected second-tier cities in China.

Zhang told China Daily that CAEG started to explore the possibility of developing musicals in China a decade ago, at a time when very few English language musicals had been presented in the country.

"Our business covers a performance agency, producing, marketing and a nationwide ticket sales network and we now manage several theaters in Beijing, Guangzhou and other cities. We are confident that all these networks and resources will help us to produce, market and tour a successful major musical," Zhang says.

David Lightbody, the UK co-producer of the Chinese Mamma Mia!, says he has spent much time in China over the last five years, trying to understand the country and find the right approach.

"Now with the signing, we can finally move Mamma Mia! out of the meeting room and into the rehearsal room. The next year will be intense. We take it seriously because this is about the industry, not only a show. Our team from the West End would like to share its stage techniques and experience in producing and marketing shows and auditioning and training performers."

The UK team, including director Paul Garrington, began work this week. They visited theaters and art schools and looked for the right translator to ensure that the Chinese versions of the ABBA songs remain true to the original.

"Musicals need triple talents, performers who can sing, dance and act. And for Mamma Mia! the performers need an extra ingredient that we call the 'Mamma Mia! factor', which is the ability to deliver the humor and happiness to an audience," says Garrington, who has already directed several foreign language productions of Mamma Mia!.

"I was impressed by the students' presentations when we visited the Central Academy of Drama the other day," he adds.

Since Mamma Mia! is its first musical, CAEG plans to collaborate with arts schools to train more young talent.

"The Central Academy of Drama had musical courses from the 1990s, but because there were few musicals to perform in China, most of the students turned to TV and movies," says Tian Yuan, general manager of One World Culture Communications Co Ltd, CAEG's subsidiary company, who also serves as the China co-producer of the Chinese Mamma Mia!.

"Sun Honglei, one of today's popular actors on the screen majored in musical acting when he was a student at the Central Academy of Drama," Tian says. "We hope to offer opportunities for veteran actors such as Sun as well as discovering and training new young talent."

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