China Broadway Entertainment Announces Road to Heaven: The Jonathan Lee Musical
(© David Gordon)
China Broadway Entertainment announced its latest global musical, Road to Heaven: The Jonathan Lee Musical. Adapted from a novel by Li Xiuwen, the jukebox musical will feature music by Jonathan Lee, one of China's most iconic singer-songwriters, who wrote and produced songs for celebrated Chinese pop stars such as Sandy Lam, Karen Mok, and Coco Lee.
Executive-produced by Don Frantz (The Lion King), Road to Heaven will feature English lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. (Ain't Misbehavin' ), book by John Dempsey (The Pirate Queen), and direction by Eric Schaeffer (Gigi).
On December 12, the Signature Theatre will host a developmental reading of Road to Heaven. Afterward, the musical will be translated back to Chinese for a world premiere in Shanghai in 2018. English-language productions are planned for New York and other U.S. cities after the Chinese premiere.
Road to Heaven is described as "the story of a beautiful young woman and her young, but terminally ill lover. Driven by an endless well of passion, she works five jobs, breaks the law and risks her life in her efforts to keep the man she loves alive. The timeless love story by Li Xiuwen is married together with some of the greatest hits from the Jonathan Lee songbook. In a career spanning nearly four decades, Jonathan Lee is known throughout Greater China as 'the godfather of popular music.' In addition to producing his own chart-topping solo albums, Lee has written and produced songs for China's greatest pop stars and received 25 of China's most prestigious music awards, including seven Golden Melody Awards (the Chinese equivalent of The Grammy Award)."
