Taiwan top-selling original musical to hit New York in 2025

Taipei, Oct. 29 (CNA) Taiwan-produced original musical "Don't Cry, Dancing Girls" (勸世三姊妹) is set to make its overseas debut in New York in 2025, as the local creative industry navigates the road to commercial success, its director told CNA.

VMTheatre Company co-founder and director Tseng Hui-cheng (曾慧誠) said despite two sold-out tours in Taiwan since 2023, bringing the musical to off-Broadway in New York is not just about sharing Taiwan's culture, but also about learning how to achieve commercial success on the global stage.

"I never thought this could happen," said Tseng, who holds a master's degree in music theater from New York University and established the theater group with friends in 2007.

New York is the global capital of musical theater and Broadway represents the highest level a commercial theater production can reach, Tseng, 49, told CNA in an interview in mid-October.

In mid-September, Tseng announced in a Facebook post that "Don't Cry, Dancing Girls" in the format of a reading concert will be staged at the Theater Row complex in New York from Jan. 23-25, 2025.

"We will bring the musical in a reading concert format, performing in Taiwanese Hokkien and Mandarin. A narrator speaking in English has been added, and the pace of the show has been adjusted in the hope of attracting people working in the commercial theater industry in the West to see our shows," Tseng told CNA in the interview.

"Don't Cry, Dancing Girls" tells the story of three siblings' rediscovery of a soul-guiding song ritual their parents performed at funerals to make a living during a trip back to their hometown in Huwei Township, Yunlin County.

Through the traditional funeral ritual of singing, dancing and storytelling originated in Taiwan, and the siblings' reconciliation with the past, including their abandonment by their heavily indebted father, the musical seeks to tackle issues, including life and death, as well as complicated family relations, VMTheatre told CNA in a statement on Sunday.

The next step, Tseng said, is to bring in these people in the industry to create a new production based on the original story for an English-speaking audience.

According to VMTheatre, the group has planned a networking event in New York on Oct. 30 to introduce itself and pitch "Don't Cry, Dancing Girls" to the Taiwanese community in the area.

Through the networking event, the theater group will send out invitations to people working or involved in the industry, as well as local arts lovers for the four invitation-only shows in January, it said.

Although the musical enjoyed commercial success in Taiwan, including selling out 12,000 tickets for 10 shows in Taipei on the 2024 tour in eight minutes, VMTheatre said it does not plan to bring the same show abroad.

The theater group hopes to find investors or production teams interested in developing new works based on its original story and Taiwan's unique funeral culture for their own local audience, according to VMTheatre.

South Korea, Japan and the Philippines all have original stories and productions aiming at Broadway, because the ability to export culture is part of a country's competitiveness, Tseng said.

After wrapping up its 2024 tour in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung between June and August, VMTheatre took part in the Ministry of Culture's free tour around Taiwan, with a revised version of "Don't Cry, Dancing Girls" for outdoor performances.

VMTheatre said in a Facebook post that its performance of the musical as part of the line-up of the Ministry of Culture's tour at Zhunan Sports Park in Miaoli County on Nov. 16 will be the last show in Taiwan before 2026.