School of Rock, the latest musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is on tour in China for the first time. After four weeks of performances at the Shanghai Grand Theatre starting on Friday, the show will head on for three weeks at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Since 2002, when the Shanghai Grand Theatre presented Les Miserables, the first original Western musical production to debut in China, Shanghai has grown to become China's largest and strongest market for musicals. This year, SMG Live will take Webber's School of Rock on its first China tour. The musical will be staged at the Shanghai Grand Theater for four weeks starting on Friday. Based on the 2003 film of the same title, School of Rock premiered on Broadway in 2015.

"School of Rock will challenge people's perception of Webber, who is widely recognized for masterpiece musicals in the 1980s such as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera," says Zhang Xiaoding, general manager of the Shanghai Grand Theatre. This new musical will feature a music style that is completely different from his previous creations, as well as an unprecedented cast consisting mainly of teenagers.

"Good shows don't target particular groups of audiences. Everybody will find it relevant and be touched. We want everybody to understand that musicals are relevant to our time and lives. We want to reach younger groups of people, so we have reached dozens of middle schools in Shanghai to introduce musicals and School of Rock," she added.a