In late December, as night fell slightly, thousands of spectators in the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center held their breath and waited together for the melody of the original German musical "Mozart!" to play. Xiaoxiao, who works in Beijing, has a special fondness for musical plotlines. She can't remember how many times she has walked into a theater this year. When the stage lights up and the actors raise their voices, they feel 'worth the ticket price', "she sighed. Musical theater has been gaining popularity in recent years. By 2025, the number of musical performances nationwide will reach 19700, with box office revenue exceeding 1.8 billion yuan. As an important premiere location for many international original plays, Beijing has attracted a large number of audiences who pay for high-quality musicals, contributing about 10% of the national musical market share and about 18% of the box office share. This year in Beijing, countless nights echoed with the moving rhythm of musicals, and the "City of Performing Arts" grew vigorously in classic and innovative movements. The original musical "The Wind" created by Beijing Performing Arts Group has sparked a craze for performances. Recently, its performance at the Poly Theatre in Beijing came to a successful conclusion. Since its premiere in September this year, the play has sparked a craze for performances, with 50 shows sold out. In recent years, Beijing has always adhered to the people-centered creative orientation, vigorously implemented the Cultural Boutique Project, and launched a number of literary and artistic masterpieces with profound ideas, exquisite art, and excellent production, including musical works. As a representative of the "national team" of literature and art, China Oriental Performing Arts Group has been continuously cultivating in the field of musicals in recent years. Its new masterpiece "Searching for Li Ergou" has become the first musical work to win the Wenhua Drama Award with profound humanistic care and artistic appeal. The National Centre for the Performing Arts has also ventured into the field of musical theater for the first time, launching its first original work "War and Peace". With grand narrative and exquisite artistic presentation, it expands the boundaries of musical theater creation and brings audiences a stunning audio-visual feast. Private institutions represented by Beijing "Happy Fried Dough Twists" have gradually become an important force in the field of original musicals, enriching the content supply of the capital's musicals market with a young perspective, innovative expression and diversified artistic styles, and providing more diverse choices for the audience. Jing Junmei, Deputy Director of the Institute of Culture at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the successive emergence of works such as "The Wind", "In the Distance", and "Southern Confucius" demonstrates Beijing's original strength and spirit of cooperation. The performance venues are becoming increasingly diverse, and the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center, located on the southern central axis, has become the "first stop" for foreign high-quality musicals to come to Beijing with its unique geographical and cultural advantages. Since its completion in 2015, Tianqiao Art Center has witnessed the vigorous development of Beijing musicals over the past 10 years. As of November 2025, Tianqiao Art Center has staged a total of 185 musicals and 1318 shows, attracting 1.33 million viewers and achieving a box office success of 654 million yuan, with foreign original plays accounting for 44%. Beijing resident Jia Nan is a music theater enthusiast. He said he goes to the theater at least once or twice a month to enjoy the stage quality and storyline of musicals. He shared his feelings about watching the musical "Phantom of the Opera" at Tianqiao Art Center last month: "The whole show was particularly satisfying, and the actors' performances were very infectious, completely immersing people." On one hand, traditional musical performance venues continued to make efforts, and on the other hand, new performing spaces such as Huguang Guild Hall attracted young audiences with small-scale musicals, forming a diverse performance pattern for musicals. More and more musical performers are stepping out of traditional theaters and into shopping malls and parks, bringing unexpected artistic experiences to citizens. Beijing, as a national cultural center, not only gathers rich cultural resources, but also provides support for the cultivation of musical talents with the unique advantage of gathering art universities. Higher education institutions such as the Central Academy of Drama, Communication University of China, Beijing Dance Academy, and Beijing Film Academy have all established majors in musical theater, cultivating a group of middle-aged and new generation musical theater actors who are active on stage. Jing Junmei introduced that Beijing has established a virtuous cycle of teaching, practice, and feedback in the cultivation of musical talents, which not only cultivates performing arts talents but also incubates composite creative forces such as directors and stage designers, laying a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the industry. At the same time, diverse support systems such as the "New Era Capital Script Incubation Project" and the "Great Play Watching Beijing" literary and artistic creation incubation platform also provide comprehensive creative support for young literary and artistic talents in various art categories, including musicals. From providing financial support to connecting with mentor teams, from conducting cross disciplinary art seminars to organizing exchanges and collecting styles, we help young talents transform their creativity into stage masterpieces. In December of this year, Tianqiao Art Center joined hands with Communication University of China, Central Academy of Drama, Beijing Dance Academy, and Shanghai Conservatory of Music to establish the "Musical Theatre University Alliance". This measure aims to break down the barriers between universities and the market, by strengthening the deep integration of art works and market demand, and creating a "testing ground" and "incubator" for original works and professional talents. It is reported that Beijing is vigorously promoting the construction of the "City of Performing Arts" and providing diversified financial support and policy guidance for various performing arts works and activities, including musicals, to promote the vigorous development of the musical theater market. In the past three years, the Beijing Culture and Arts Fund has provided funding for the creation, production, and performance of nearly 30 musical theater projects. Introduce the "Support Measures for Promoting High Quality Development of Performing Arts in Beijing", focusing on supporting high-quality plays to be performed in Beijing, promoting innovative development of performing arts enterprises, encouraging the integration of new performing arts spaces, and creating a set of "combination punches" to effectively reduce costs and stimulate market vitality. Musical theater is one of the most important and popular performing arts categories during the annual autumn "Big Play Watching Beijing" exhibition season. During this year's performance season, international classic plays competed with local original works on the same stage, and many performances sold out immediately after receiving tickets, with high enthusiasm among fans. The stage in Beijing is inclusive and diverse, accommodating a wide range of art forms. ”Professor Zhang Xiaoqun from the Musical Theatre Department of Beijing Dance Academy said. The construction of Beijing as the "Capital of Performing Arts" is showing a vigorous and powerful development trend, from the hall level international original drama with no empty seats to the popular dialect masterpiece "Ten Years of Grinding a Sword" in Beijing. (New Society)