Beijing's Tianqiao Theatre has been turned into a junk yard, waiting to stage the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Cats" once the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is over and theatres are allowed to reopen.

    Cao Wei of the China Performing Arts Agency, which is promoting the musical's Beijing run, said: "When all the other shows had been cancelled, we did not stop working on promotion until April 28. 'Cats' was the last show to be cancelled in Beijing."

　　He said that, after talks with the Really Useful Group, the musical's production company, the show was postponed until the end of December. It was originally scheduled to begin a run of 72 performances in Beijing on May 20.

　　On Monday, the musical ended its final performance in a 53-show run in Shanghai. The longest-running musical in the city generated a huge sensation and set a box-office record, although the Shanghai Grand Theatre has yet to release final sales figures.

　　About 80,000 people went to the show, despite ticket sales being hurt by SARS in the last few weeks. The show ended four days earlier than originally scheduled.

　　Theatre spokesman Zhang Xiaoding said ticket sales for the last 16 shows had been affected somewhat by SARS, but the theatre still sold 85 per cent of all tickets for those shows.

　　The show opened in the city on March 28 and the first 21 performances were already sold out, said Zhang. For the following 16 shows, 97 per cent of tickets were sold.

　　In Beijing, since the news of its coming was announced in early March, "Cats" indicated it had considerable commercial potential to fascinate the capital city.

　　The China Performing Arts Agency adopted a series of innovative promotions to attract potential audiences as well as sponsors.

　　"As a Western product, a musical is just like McDonald's. It has its own taste and its way of being sold," said Cao. "So we try to sell the hit musical in its own commercial way."

　　The promotion started by tackling two aspects at the same time.

　　One was to increase people's knowledge of the musical, a genre born in and popular in London's West End and New York's Broadway. The other was to spread and strengthen the commercial impact of "Cats" in minds of potential sponsors.

　　Sponsorship was also divided into two types. Sponsors could sponsor the show itself or the promotional activities.

　　"We designed a variety of promotional activities connecting their (the sponsors') products and brands with the show," said Cao.

　　The main activities included the Sports Cats campaign in co-operation with fitness centres and manufacturers of fitness equipment and outdoor sports equipment. The Fashionable Cats campaign brought in cosmetic companies and fashion labels and the Cats Mobile Phone campaign focused on mobile-phone games.

　　On March 29, the China Performing Arts Agency donated a ticket for the Beijing premiere to the Beijing Rotary Ball, which was held to improve HIV/AIDS awareness and raise money for prevention and cure. The ticket for seat 1, row 1 was sold for US$8,000 at an auction at the ball.

　　On April 14, the front wall and a side wall of Tianqiao Theatre were covered by a 3,200-square metre mural of cats.

　　That was the first step taken by the promoters and sponsors to turn the theatre into a home for the group of cats to celebrate who they are on one special night.

　　Other activities were planned but did not get started, such as the Cat Cars auto exhibition and cross-country race and the Cat Food campaign sponsored by chain-store groceries.

　　Moreover, as the sponsors got a great commercial impact from the activities carried out, people who found out about or took part in the "Cats" promotions become potential audience members.

　　Meanwhile, forums and discussions on musicals were held in universities and neighbourhoods, on TV talk shows, the radio, in newspapers and on the Internet. All these helped the general public get some knowledge of the Western theatrical genre in a short time.

　　Thanks to all these efforts, "Cats" looked set to do well at the box office. Shi Xiaoyu - manager of the Clear Sea Culture Development Co Ltd, the company promoting the show alongside the China Performing Arts Agency - said eight shows had already sold out 10 days after they started to sell tickets on March 18.

　　Cao said that 70 per cent of tickets for all 16 shows for which tickets were being sold before April 18 had been sold out by that date.

　　Zhang Yu, general manager of the China Performing Arts Agency, said: "'Cats' not only lets Chinese people know what a real musical is but has brought a totally new concept of theatrical marketing. It teaches us how to turn a wonderful show into a success at the box office."Enditem (China Daily)