MUSICALS

Golden Lotus

Golden Lotus is George's musical adaptation of the most infamous Chinese novel of all time. The story follows the forsaken beauty, Golden Lotus, whose desire for true love leads her into a blood-soaked web of passion, deception and desperation with the valiant tiger slayer Wu Sung, the rich and powerful Xi Men, and the humble peddler Wu Da. Set amidst the dying, war-torn years of Song Dynasty China, Golden Lotus undergoes a spell-binding journey as the world around them burns into ashes.

Golden Lotus, the musical developed in New York and Toronto, had its world premiere in Hong Kong, where it won the Hecklers Award for Best Original Work. The live capture film of Golden Lotus has received over 60 international film awards, including Best Picture at the World Independent Cinema Awards, making it the top film from Film Fest International's 11 annual festivals across Europe. Click here to view the awards.

"With well-thought out theatrical elements and innovative presentations, Golden Lotus, a Ming Dynasty clas­sic has been successfully brought to the theatre stage. With its creative and bold elements, the musical offers more than an enjoyable theatrical experience.”

– THE STANDARD

“Represents a great milestone and a great achievement for the Chinese art scene, and is most definitely entertaining enough to elicit audience satisfactions across the board. Golden Lotus is a great and novel experience for the theatre lover ... brilliant on its own terms, and anyone who loves a good musical or a good story should go watch it.”

– MADDBUZZHK

“The musical does well in transforming a classic Chinese tale into one that is comprehensible to a larger audience. The story’s overall rendition has clear traces of some of the greatest Western musicals and literature. With many bold elements and fusions, this ambitious musical offers a pleasant range of styles and performances. Golden Lotus is an encouraging attempt to cross cultural and language barriers. In trying to convey and reinterpret a classic Chinese tale to the modern En­glish-speaking community they are essentially successful.”

– Hong Kong English Drama (HKELD)

"The tone of the music is very original and refreshing. The combination of asian instrumentation with more western tonalities and harmonies is a refreshing and original combination that is clearly working. The music is terrific.”

– Stephen Schwartz, Lyricist/Composer
(Wicked, Pocahontas, Godspell)

“A great story that the Chinese people know well and that none of us ever heard. A wonderful combination of timelessness and yet a great deal of mystery, intrigue and the excitement of it being set in a time we didn’t live in. The music is all really good… tuneful… nice on the ear. There is purpose to the energy of the music. The score has blood.”

– Craig Carnelia, Lyricist
(Working, Sweet Smell of Success, Imaginary Friends)

“An extraordinary, epic and ambitious work. Terrific, invigorating fusion. Western musical scale, western notes with an underscoring of chinese. A terrific piece – very, very interesting. You hooked me. I was interested. I cared about these characters. I wanted to know what was going to happen to these characters. To take a story that we are not familiar with and convey it to a western audience is a very, very exciting idea and has resonance with a community that does know it and with a community that doesn’t. I thought it was really terrific.”

– Bert Fink, Senior Vice-President: Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation