Beijing prepares to be blown away by US Civil War classic

The world premiere of an English-language musical version of Gone With the Wind will be staged in Beijing from Nov 30 to Dec 9. Then it will tour Xi'an, Shaanxi province, from Dec 15 to Dec 22 and Shanghai from Dec 29 to Jan 13.

Based on the original French version of the musical, entitled Autant emporte le Vent, in which both lyrics and music were written by the French musical writer Gerard Presgurvic and which premiered in Paris in 2003, the new musical version of Gone With the Wind is a collaboration between the composer, Presgurvic, and the Beijing-based company, Joyway. The company brought Presgurvic's musical, Romeo and Juliet, to China in 2016.

According to Zhang Ligang, founder and president of Joyway, the project of adapting the French musical into English started more than two years ago. Zhang and his wife, Qiao Jing, a former host on China Central Television (CCTV), who is the producer of the English version of the musical, flew to Seoul in 2015 to meet Presgurvic, when the musical's Korean edition was staged.

Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War in the 1860s, the musical follows the life changes of the main characters, Scarlett O'Hara and her lover Rhett Butler.