A scene from The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Chinese version of the musical The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man premiered in Beijing on June 23 and will be staged in Shanghai on July 15.

The show is based on a children's novel of the same title by the late US writer Lloyd Chudley Alexander.

It's one of Japan's Shiki Theatre Company's most popular musicals and has been staged more than 2,000 times in Japan. Dramatist Asari Keita founded the company in 1953.

Its artists visited Beijing in 1995 to assist rehearsals by the first 30 students to major in musicals at the Central Academy of Drama. The students performed over 40 times in the summer of the following year.

The Chinese version's director, Zhao Yongbin, was in that class. Several others from the class performed in June alongside younger actors.

A scene from The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man [Photo provided to China Daily]