What's on

Ya'akobi and Leidental

When: Dec 25-28, 7:30 pm; Dec 29, 2:30 pm

Where: Beijing Drum Tower West Theater

Written by Hanoch Levin, one of Israel's better-known playwrights, Ya'akobi and Leidental is a comic escapade through the failings of friendship and love. It's a provocatively entertaining performance that was first presented in December 1972 at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv.

Ya'akobi and Leidental's close friendship is being destroyed by their idle pursuit of happiness. After Ya'akobi decides that it's time to start living, he cuts all ties with his best friend and meets the seemingly perfect woman, who possesses a "very exotic combination" of spirit and flesh.

The Chinese version is directed by Wang Zichuan.

Li Yundi Sonata 2020 Piano Recital World Tour

When: Dec 27, 8 pm

Where: Shenzhen Poly Theater

Li Yundi is well-known for being the youngest pianist to win the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition at the age of 18. He has long been admired for his technical brilliance and dexterity.

His second recording of Liszt for Deutsche Grammophon, for which he recorded exclusively until November 2008, was released in August 2003 and named Best CD of the Year by The New York Times.

Starting this year, Li plans a run of 100 piano recitals around the world.

The Grand Mansion Gate

When: Dec 31 and Jan 1, 8 pm

Where: Shenzhen Poly Theater

It has been 18 years since Chinese director and script writer Guo Baochang created The Grand Mansion Gate, a 72-episode TV drama based on the story of his adoptive father.

It tells of the Bai family in Beijing through one of the most politically tumultuous periods of modern Chinese history, from the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) until World War II. The story has been adapted as a Peking Opera of the same name.

In the TV drama, the focus is on Bai Jingqi, a rebellious and ambitious young man. He carries the hopes of his family, which runs a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Beijing.

The drama version was created by the National Theater of China. It premiered at the National Center for the Performing Arts in 2013.

The Murder of Hanging Garden

When: Jan 1-11 and 14-18, 7:30 pm; Jan 11, 12, 18 and 19, 2:30 pm

Where: Beijing Citycomb Theater

Directed by the avant-garde theater director Meng Jinghui, the six-scene musical has all the characteristics expected in a Meng work: abstract settings, bizarre costumes, a ridiculous story, exaggerated actions and absurd anecdotes told by the performers between scenes.

The story starts with the rumor that the real estate magnate Mr Wang has been murdered. His wife offers the villa, Hanging Garden, as a reward for information leading to the murderer's arrest. The reward is so enticing that three people confess to the murder.

At the same time the director explores love, friendship and father-children relationships in three independent storylines linked by a common desire for wealth and fame.

February

When: Jan 15-22, 7:30 pm

Where: National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing

February is based on novelist Rou Shi's 1929 novel, and tells the tragic love triangle story between primary schoolteacher Xiao Jianqiu, his lover Tao Lan and widow Wen Sao.

Created by the National Center for the Performing Arts, the play plunges the audience into the bedlam of the May Fourth Movement, a patriotic campaign launched in 1919 by young Chinese to fight imperialism and feudalism. Xiao is sent to the countryside, where is courtship of Wen sparks the lurid disapproval of the townspeople. The melodrama champions New China while walking a tightrope between schmaltz and political allegory.

Come From Away

When: May 8-10 and 12-17, 7;30 pm; May 10, 16 and 17, 2 pm

Where: Shanghai Culture Square

Come From Away is a breathtaking musical written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein and produced by Tony-nominated director Christopher Ashley.

It is set in the week following the Sept 11 attacks and tells the true story of what transpired when 38 planes were ordered to land unexpectedly in the small town of Gander in Newfoundland, Canada, as part of Operation Yellow Ribbon.

The characters in the musical are based on real Gander residents, as well as some of the 7,000 stranded travelers they housed and fed.

Cats

When: May 15-24, time varies

Where: Shangyin Opera House

Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot and produced by Cameron Mackintosh.

It presents a tribe of cats called the Jellicles on the night they make what is known as "the Jellicle choice" and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.

Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, Cats first opened in the West End, London, in 1981 and then with the same creative team came to Broadway in 1982. It won numerous awards, including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards. The London production ran for 21 years and the Broadway production ran for 18 years, both setting records at the time.

Its China Tour will present the authentic West End theater experience.