The Sound of Music, Hong Kong’s first Broadway musical since the pandemic, co-presented by a Chinese state-owned company

The Sound of Music, which runs until June 9 at the Xiqu Centre, is the first Broadway musical to be put on in Hong Kong since The Lion King in 2019

The musical is co-presented by the state-owned China Arts and Entertainment Group, which stages more than 5,000 cultural events around the world every year

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Maria and the Von Trapp children sing “Do-Re-Mi” in a scene from The Sound of Music, co-presented in Hong Kong by the China Arts and Entertainment Group, a Chinese state-owned company. Photo: The Sound of Music

Published: 7:15am, 22 Apr 2024Updated: 9:50am, 22 Apr 2024

It has been more than four years since Hong Kong staged a Broadway musical. The last was The Lion King in December 2019. The drought ended this month with the return of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic The Sound of Music.

Directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien, and led by an all-Broadway creative team, the production opened at the Xiqu Centre in the West Kowloon Cultural District on April 16 and runs until June 9.

The show, produced by Broadway International and Broadway Asia, is being co-presented this year by the China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG), China’s only state-owned cultural enterprise that stages productions worldwide.

Founded in 2004, CAEG has two subsidiaries, China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) and China International Exhibition Agency (CIEA). In 2021, the group became part of the Bauhinia Culture Group, a state-owned cultural enterprise that was founded in Hong Kong that same year with a joint headquarters in Shenzhen.

A scene from The Sound of Music, which tells the story of a young Austrian woman named Maria who becomes governess to Captain von Trapp’s seven children. Photo: The Sound of Music

Best known for organising the China pavilion at the Venice Biennale art exhibition in the 2000s, CAEG now presents more than 5,000 performances, exhibitions and cultural activities every year, such as the opera Marco Polo and musicals like San Xing Dui and, most recently, I Am What I Am.