A wide range of productions of all genres are set to leave audiences spoiled for choice in the coming months, Zhang Kun reports in Shanghai.

Shanghai's theater scene will welcome a slew of international productions in the coming months, with new concerts, operas and musicals set to premiere in the city.

The upcoming 2023/24 season at the Shanghai Grand Theatre consists of 58 productions, 70 percent of which will be shown for the first time in Shanghai.

Among the most anticipated shows is Inside No 9, an immersive theater show adapted from the TV series of the same title.

Created, written by and starring Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, the TV series has run for eight seasons since it was first released in 2014. Hailed as "a masterpiece of black humor", the series has a score of 9 out of 10 on Douban, a movie and music sharing portal.

Damai, a leading live entertainment company in China, started recruiting actors for the production in June.

In December, the new immersive production, which claims to be the first theater adaptation of the British dark comedy, will kick off at the Shanghai Grand Theatre as a resident program and feature "small, self-contained stories set in one location, and small casts," according to Shearsmith.

Also premiering in China in the coming months is a new Broadway production of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Adapted from a 70-page segment from Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, this sung-through musical focuses on Natasha's romantic obsession for Anatole and Pierre's search for meaning in life.

Written by composer and lyricist Dave Malloy, the original production, which was directed by Rachel Chavkin, premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre in 2016. The show later received 12 nominations at the 2017 Tony Awards, and won two.

A Spanish-language production premiered in 2014, followed by a Portuguese production in Brazil, a Japanese production in 2019 and a Korean production in 2021.

Jointly produced by the Shanghai Grand Theatre and West Bund Grand Theatre, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 will open before the end of the year at the West Bund Dome, a multipurpose show space that was previously the former Shanghai Cement Factory.

The Shanghai Grand Theatre has also joined hands with Theatre Young, a new facility that opened last year, to introduce a musical titled The Last Five Years.

Featuring two actors and hardly any props, the musical by Jason Robert Brown tells of the relationship between a struggling actress and a budding novelist as they fall in love, marry and divorce over the span of five years.

The musical was livestreamed on the Shanghai Grand Theatre's new media channel in 2021, when live shows in Shanghai were paused because of COVID-19.

"Audiences are aware of the high quality of the production. This is why the first round of performances at the Shanghai Grand Theatre have been largely sold out," says Bao Rongrong, program director of Theatre Young. "They are very much welcome to catch the second round of shows at our space from Oct 18 to 22."

The Last Five Years is one of 31 productions from six countries on Theatre Young's autumn/winter itinerary.

"We want to introduce to Shanghai high quality shows that are not necessarily of great box-office potential," Bao said at the news conference for the new season at the Theatre Young on Aug 11.

"We are a creativity-oriented theater targeting young audiences in nearby universities, and we believe it is part of our responsibility to lead audiences to appreciate the real good stuff," adds Wang Jie, general manager of Theatre Young.

Another play Brecht's Ghosts will have its Asian premiere at Theater Young on Nov 11.

The production is a puppetry show created by Suse Wachter, and revolves around celebrities and politicians coming together to hold a big party for the heroes of the 20th century.

Also premiering at Theatre Young are Juliet and Romeo (Nov 16-18), a modern interpretation of the Shakespeare's most beloved romance by Ben Duke, and The Nature of Forgetting (Dec 15-17), a show about patients with Alzheimer's disease created by Guillaume Pige in collaboration with neurologists at the University of London.

The 93-year-old Cadillac Shanghai Concert Hall unveiled its 2023/24 season on Aug 10.

It will feature 263 concerts in six categories. Renowned artists and groups such as the Kings' Singers, the Philharmonic String Quintet Berlin, Concerto Copenhagen, soprano Angela Gheorghiu, Vadim Repin, Daniel Hope and Leonidas Kavakos will perform at the concert hall.

From Sept 21 to 24, the institution will celebrate the opening of the new season with a mini-festival titled Project Bach.

Chinese violinist Ning Feng, the artist in residence this season, will perform a complete collection of Bach sonatas on three consecutive evenings.

The Music Infinity series will also take place at the Shanghai Concert Hall from March to April.

The series is a festival highlighting crossover creativity and new possibilities of music, which will introduce and recruit new productions from all over the world to audiences.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn