1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan originally thought that after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was taken away by Kanter and others, he would never come again.

But after their rehearsal that day ended, Jabbar showed up again.

"Mr. Y, can we talk some more?"

Jabeur directly stopped Zhou Yan at the entrance of the hall. It seemed that he had been waiting there for quite a long time.

Seeing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's sincere expression, Zhou Yan sighed, "You probably haven't eaten yet."

Jabbar shook his head. "Not yet."

"Come on, if you don't mind, come with us to the hotel to eat."

"Of course I don't mind." Jabbar's eyes lit up. He knew what Zhou Yan meant.

After arriving at the hotel restaurant, Zhou Yan asked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar while eating the not-so-authentic Chinese food, "Have you ever directed a musical yourself?"

Jabbar nodded. "Of course. I have written and directed seven plays in total."

Seven?

Zhou Yan looked at Jabbar with some surprise.

This number is not ordinary, because musicals are very time-consuming, and many directors spend many years on just one musical.

The creative process of a musical is different from that of a movie. It is continuous. Even if the preliminary work goes smoothly, when the musical actually goes on stage, the creation continues, and the director will make continuous adjustments based on the situation on the scene.

The same play may be completely different after the first performance and the hundredth performance.

"These seven musicals don't include your homework at school, right?" Zhou Yan asked half-jokingly.

"Of course not. These seven musicals have all been performed publicly. Of course, five of them have no more than fifty performances, and only one has more than a hundred performances."

This result is not particularly good, but it is pretty good.

Zhou Yan asked in confusion, "Then why are you still working as a resident director?"

Since Jabbar has performed his plays over a hundred times, it proves that there is still a market for them. He doesn't need to be a resident director for others and can just rely on his own plays.

Being a resident director for others is very time-consuming and energy-consuming. As a director with creative ability and experience, Jabeur has no reason to do this anymore.

Jabbar explained with a smile, "The Sound of Music is the first real commercial drama I participated in. I have feelings for it. Besides, my residency is limited to Houston. I don't have a lot of performance tasks on weekdays, so I have a lot of time to do my own things."

"Is your own play still being performed?"

"There are no performances planned this month, but there are six next month, all in Houston."

Zhou Yan nodded. He roughly understood Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's situation. He had underestimated Kareem Abdul-Jabbar before. He thought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was just a tool.

"It's a shame. If I could stay longer, I would definitely check out your play. What's the theme of your play? An adaptation or an original?"

"It's an original work, called "A Night at the Circus", and it tells the story of..."

Jabeur spent about ten minutes introducing his "A Night at the Circus" to Zhou Yan. This is a very conventional stage musical, different in form from classic musicals and opera musicals. The plot is relatively complex and interesting, and the music used is basically popular.

Of course, although the form is new, the core of the story is still the same old plot, which is about a rich boy falling in love with the daughter of a circus director.

In order to see his beloved girl, the rich boy went to the circus in the dark. He happened to encounter the circus rehearsal, so he had to dress up as a clown and join the circus rehearsal.

Naturally, there were all kinds of problems along the way, and it seemed as if this rich kid would be exposed at any time.

In the end, the rich kid successfully spent the night and met the girl he loved, but all this was under the watchful eyes of the circus director.

It turns out that the circus director has long known that the clown is a rich kid.

The plot is quite good. At least after Zhou Yan listened to it, he became interested in the drama.

However, whether this play is good or not still depends on the on-site presentation. What is on the stage is always different from what is in the script.

Especially for musicals, many scripts may seem like ordinary stories, but when presented on stage, they are very contagious.

Those classic plays have been performed for many years without changing their scripts, and many theater troupes have imitated them, but the effects presented by different troupes are very different.

This not only tests the director's choreography ability, but also the actors' performance ability.

After Jabbar finished talking about his musical, he kept looking at Zhou Yan, trying to judge Zhou Yan's attitude towards the musical through his expression.

However, Zhou Yan did not make any unnecessary expressions, nor did he speak, as if he was thinking about something.

Seeing that Zhou Yan was thinking, Jabbar didn't want to interrupt him.

After about a minute, Zhou Yan finally spoke, "Do you know Barnum?"

Jabbar was stunned for a moment. He thought that after Zhou Yan was silent, he would comment on his musical "A Night at the Circus". Unexpectedly, Zhou Yan asked him if he knew Barnum.

However, this question does not seem to be off topic, because Barnum is a very important figure in circus history.

Jabbar didn't know Barnum before. It was only when he studied the history of the circus to write "A Night at the Circus" that he got to know Barnum.

"I know Barnum, he has had a profound influence on the development of the current circus."

Zhou Yan nodded. Some people said that Barnum was the King of the Circus. At first glance, this title sounded as if the circus was invented by Barnum.

Of course, this is not necessarily the case. There were circuses long before Barnum, but the circuses back then were very different from the circuses of today.

It was the emergence of Barnum that innovated the form of the circus and made the circus popular among the general public.

"Have you ever thought about telling a story about Barnum?" Zhou Yan asked.

"That... I haven't thought about it."

Jabbar knew about Barnum's influence on the development of the circus, but he didn't think there was anything to be said about Barnum's story.

Barnum was actually a thorough businessman. He would do anything to succeed and sell tickets. For example, he once bought a paralyzed black female slave and released the news that the black slave was 161 years old and was Washington's mother. In order to squeeze out the value of the slave girl, he exhibited her for more than ten hours a day.

The most outrageous thing is that he even held an autopsy show for admission after the slave girl died.

He also trained a four-year-old child and packaged the child into a thumb general.

In addition, there are a large group of strange characters such as bearded women, dog men, four-legged girls, etc.

From the perspective of entertaining the public, Barnum is undoubtedly a genius. He is always able to take advantage of the audience's curiosity and present unique performances.

So much so that today, more than a hundred years later, the circus is still following the same path that Barnum took.

In Jabbar's view, Barnum was a profiteer with no bottom line who only cared about entertaining the public. If a musical were to be staged for him, he should be a villain in it.

After thinking for a moment, Jabbar said, "Y, you may not know much about Barnum. Maybe you have read some of the early stories that were circulated, but in fact, these stories were made up by Barnum to create a good reputation for himself."

What Jabbar said was true. Barnum did try every possible means in the early days. But as his fame grew and he gradually entered the upper class, he began to pay attention to his image.

In order to change the public's impression of him, he even bribed many newspapers to write articles favorable to him.

In that era, these articles obviously played a role.

So Jabbar thought that Zhou Yan might have said that because he had accidentally seen those old stories.

But he had to let Zhou Yan know that the real Barnum was not as good as described in those stories.

Zhou Yan shook his head. "I know Barnum a little bit, and I also know that he is a pure entertainer."

As a pure entertainer, I can’t tell whether it’s praise or criticism, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar thought it was quite appropriate.

"I don't think there's anything worthy of praise about Barnum," Jabbar said directly.

Zhou Yan put down his chopsticks with a smile, "A musical is not a historical play. Historical figures can be just a symbol, a symbol, like a ball of thread. We just need to find a thread end. Barnum's legendary experience can serve as this thread end."

Jabbar also reacted quickly. He frowned and said, "You mean, just take a little bit from his story?"

"It's OK as long as we find what we want. No matter what means Barnum used, his entrepreneurial history is still quite inspiring."

Jabbar nodded in approval. "Indeed, putting aside some of his unscrupulous actions, his career path is indeed very inspiring. In any case, he did bring a lot of innovation to the circus, and his influence is real."

"So, if we follow this clue, we can definitely stage an inspirational musical."

"That's true, and those strange performers in the circus can also..."

Halfway through his speech, Jabbar suddenly stopped.

He didn't understand what he was doing. Why was he suddenly discussing a new play with Zhou Yan? He came to Zhou Yan to ask Zhou Yan to work with him to make "The Chorus" into a musical. But now the content of their discussion had completely deviated from the topic he wanted to discuss and became related to the circus.

"Mr. Y, I don't actually want to stage another circus-related musical." Jabbar tried to change the topic to "The Chorus."

However, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "But after listening to your "A Wonderful Night at the Circus", I have some ideas."

"But……"

As soon as Jabbar started to speak, Zhou Yan interrupted him, "If you're willing, we can try to work together on this new play. As for The Chorus, I'm not ready to do it for now."

Zhou Yan's words made Jabbar not know how to respond for a moment.

Of course he still wanted "The Chorus", but Zhou Yan had already said it so firmly, there seemed to be no point in him insisting any further.

As for the new drama, although he only had an idea now, and he didn't even know what Zhou Yan wanted to do specifically, he didn't want to miss it. After all, it was Zhou Yan sitting in front of him.

Since Zhou Yan was able to make "The Chorus", can he also make another equally excellent work?
Let’s not talk about the script for now. By working with Zhou Yan, at least I don’t have to worry about the music anymore.

After a long pause, Jabbar said, "I would be extremely honored to work with you."

"But I can't write the script until the end of the year," Zhou Yan said.

"No problem at all."

Jabbar even felt that being able to see the script by the end of the year was beyond his expectations. Creating a musical script from scratch took only a few months, which was extremely efficient.

The film Zhou Yan wanted to collaborate with Jabbar on was "The Greatest Showman".

"The Greatest Showman" is a musical film that received very good market response, with a global box office of over 400 million US dollars.

Zhou Yan thought of this movie after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talked about his own musical. Zhou Yan thought that he might as well take this movie and turn it into a stage musical.

It can be considered as a test run. If the effect is good, it can be made into a movie in the future, whether he does it himself or gives it to other directors.

Of course, Zhou Yan is not necessarily going to cooperate with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. For now, all he knows about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is what he heard from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar himself.

He must find a chance to watch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's musical before making a final decision.

……

After dinner, Jabbar did not stay any longer. After the two exchanged contact information, Jabbar said goodbye.

After returning to the room, Zhou Yan wrote "The Greatest Showman" on his schedule again.

His schedule is basically full during this period. He will have time to work on "The Greatest Showman" only after the filming of "Time Traveler" is completed.

Making a musical of "The Greatest Showman" was more difficult than "The Chorus" because he had only seen the movie version of "The Greatest Showman" and had no way of copying it, so he could only adapt it based on the movie.

In this regard, he may need to communicate with Jabardo.

Alternatively, he could also ask his good friend Alan Rickman for advice, as he has extensive experience in musicals, especially in writing musical scripts.

After adding the itinerary, Zhou Yan started to work on the storyboards for "Time Traveler".

Perhaps influenced by James Cameron, Zhou Yan's drawing skills have improved recently, and his storyboards are much more detailed than before.

But there is another problem, that is, the more detailed the drawing is, the slower the speed becomes. The speed at which he produces storyboards is even slower than when he was filming "The Chorus".

But time is tight, so he now spends a lot of time every day drawing storyboards.

Basically, he would spend any free time he had working on the drawings.

Of course, if the drawing is detailed, it will be more convenient to take pictures later and save a lot of effort in explaining.

As soon as the others read the manuscript, they basically knew what Zhou Yan wanted, which meant sharpening the knife before chopping wood.

That night, Zhou Yan went to bed at around eleven o'clock, but got up from bed at seven o'clock the next morning.

After getting up, I had a simple breakfast and started working again.

Zhou Yan didn't stop the work until he went to the theater with the orchestra in the afternoon.

Zhou Yan had just arrived backstage and was fiddling with his bamboo flute and violin when the leader Zhang Lin came over and said, "Teacher Zhou, someone is looking for you."

"Looking for me? Who?"

"Beyoncé and her manager."

Zhou Yan was a little surprised, wondering why the father and daughter came here without even saying hello in advance.

"Let them in."

"it is good."

Not long after Zhang Lin went out, he came back with a tall black man and a tall little girl. The girl was Beyonce.

Matthew Knowles looks like a typical black man, but even though he is dark, you can see that his facial features are quite regular.

Although Beyoncé is only fifteen years old, she is already quite tall, probably close to 1.7 meters.

Beyonce now looks darker than she did later. Later her skin color was more bronze, but now her skin color is similar to Will Smith's.

As soon as he saw Zhou Yan, Matthew Knowles came up to him enthusiastically, "Mr. Y, I'm so glad to meet you. Welcome to Houston. I hope this place will leave you with good memories."

Zhou Yan probably understood. Matthew Knowles' family lives in Houston, no wonder he came here.

However, Zhou Yan still saw through Matthew Knowles's little thoughts. He only brought Beyonce and none of the other members of Destiny's Child.

"Come on, Beyoncé, say hello to Mr. Y."

"Hello, Mr. Y."

Zhou Yan looked at Beyonce. He didn't expect that the girl was a little shy. This was different from the Beyonce he imagined.

"Hello." Zhou Yan nodded and praised, "Your expressions in "We Are Young" are very good."

"Thank you."

At this time, Matthew Knowles tugged at his daughter's clothes, and Beyoncé immediately reacted and quickly said in broken Chinese, "Thank you."

Zhou Yan shook his head secretly. This Matthew Knowles was quite good at scheming. He even made his daughter learn a sentence in Chinese before coming.

But this trick is indeed quite effective. When Zhou Yan heard Beyoncé say thank you in Chinese, he smiled and said, "Your pronunciation is not bad. Can you say anything else?"

Beyoncé glanced at her father, then said, "Hello, have you eaten? Sorry."

It can be seen that she has tried her best to speak the Chinese words she remembered, and only the pronunciation of "hello" is okay.

But Zhou Yan still encouraged her, "Not bad, keep up the good work. Maybe next time we meet, we can communicate in Chinese."

Matthew Knowles was very happy to see that the few Chinese sentences he taught his daughter were put to good use. He added, "Beyoncé has loved Chinese culture since she was a child. It's a pity that there are so few Chinese people around us, so it's difficult for her to learn more about Chinese culture."

Obviously, this is a lie made up by Matthew Knowles. Beyoncé doesn't seem to be interested in Chinese culture.

However, Zhou Yan does not reject others trying to please him. Regardless of whether Beyoncé liked Chinese culture before, if Beyoncé gets to know Chinese culture because of him, the result will be good.

"Chinese culture is extensive and profound. It takes more than one or two days to understand it. If she is really interested, we can communicate more in the future."

“It would be an honor.”

Matthew Knowles achieved his goal and was naturally in a good mood.

He knew clearly that if Beyoncé could hold on to Zhou Yan, her future would be limitless.

If he had only considered Zhou Yan as a backup plan before, now he is determined to cling to Zhou Yan, and his change in mentality all comes from "We Are Young".

As soon as the song was released, it immediately became the Billboard weekly champion and has been at the top for two weeks.

Judging from the current situation, it should continue to win for a few weeks.

The Backstreet Boys, who were already on the rise, took their career to a new level thanks to this song.

Now they have firmly sat on the throne of the number one youth group in North America, and the two songs "Yellow" and "We Are Young" have lifted them to the top.

Although Zhou Yan has not written many English songs, they have been on the charts for a long time. His previous song "Young and Beautiful" has been on the charts for many weeks. (End of this chapter)