Four years after its debut in Manchester, the world-famous musical Ghost, produced by London-based Colin Ingram Limited, has finally arrived in Shanghai. Gauging from the award-winning production as well as fantastic critical and audience reviews, the accumulated expectations of long-waiting Chinese audiences will not be in vain.

Scenes from musical Ghost Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Fresh Vogur Limited

Scenes from musical Ghost Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Fresh Vogur Limited

Based on the timeless story of the Oscar-winning 1990 film Ghost, the English-language musical revives the touching love story between the spirit of deceased banker Sam (starring Liam Doyle for the China tour) and his living lover Molly (Lucie Jones).

Unlike the original movie, which was told through Sam's eyes, the musical focuses on Molly's story. The producers believed it would be easier for a live audience to sympathize with a living character rather than an apparition.

"There are things you can do musically that you can't really do in a film," Colin Ingram, the global general manager of Ghost, told the Global Times. "In a musical, you can attach music to a character and then you can move it around and fuse it and that makes a very interesting score."

Visually stunning, musically charming

To replicate the special effects of the original film, the production invited English illusionist Paul Kieve, who served as a "magic consultant" on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004, to create a series of stunning illusions onstage. Some highlights include Sam penetrating a door, a folding paper letter and a person suddenly appearing or disappearing in the blink of an eye. The visuals won Kieve a New York Drama Desk Award following its 2012 Broadway run.

Videos projected on the stage also give the production a modern, tech-influenced feel, reflecting the popularity of social media, video sharing and society's new dependency on constantly changing imagery.

Compared with the solemn feeling of the film, the musical offers its audience a lighthearted interpretation of some leading roles, such as a humorous psychic Oda Mae Brown (Wendy Mae Brown) and a rapping subway ghost (Stevie Hutchinson).

Film musicians Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, who have sold more than 250 million records between them, wrote the poppy compositions for Ghost. If the 1965 version of The Righteous Brothers' hit song "Unchained Melody" was the highlight of the blockbuster film's soundtrack, then audiences of the musical may find the soulful "I'm Outta Here," sung by the psychic, and clap-along hip-hop song "Focus" by the subway ghost, charmingly contemporary.

Six years in the making

It took six years for Ingram's company to prepare the musical, and even before it went to the theater the team undertook three workshops to receive every possible feedback from test audiences. The first workshop focused purely on the script, while the latter ones were simple readings accompanied by a band.

"I think it's hugely important (to do workshops), and I think that if I was to give any advice to any producer or director in the musical world, it is to get your script and your music right before you even go into a theater," Ingram told the Global Times.

Even after Ingram's team took their production to the big stage, the visual illusions posed all-new challenges. They had to constantly experiment in order to make sure that no matter where an audience sat in a theater, they could clearly see the visual effects, which is one of the show's highlights.

"Once you are in a theater, you have the crew and the cast, and it's costing a lot of money, and it's much harder to make changes. Even in rehearsals, it's hard to change things because you have to re-teach the cast all the things you want them to do."

Ingram's past successful musical productions include Gone with the Wind and Breakfast at Tiffany's, both based on popular Hollywood films. Prior to starting his own theater production company in 2005, Ingram worked on musicals such as Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, one of the world's largest musical companies.

"I produce shows that I want to have a mass popularity. So I feel, for me, they have to be branded, there has to be a familiarity to the title, or the story, or the composer, because that is going to call people into the theater," Ingram told the Global Times.

Ghost will be performing at Shanghai Culture Square (597 Fuxing Road Middle, 6472-9000) through June 14.