Shanghai Ballet has a packed schedule this month: Aug 24-25, they're presenting The Last Mission of Marco Polo, Swan Lake is on Aug 27-28 and In The Mood for Love will be Aug 30-31 as well as Sep 3-4.

That’s Shanghai peeked in on the backstage lives of some of the pros.

Inspired by Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism of the same name, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center put full theatrical gusto into bringing the work to life on stage.

The Capital is showing daily now through Aug. 29 at Majestic Theater, 7.30pm, RMB100-580 (6473 0123)

“Who wants to control the capital? Who wants to owe wealth? Who wants to be the master of money?” The Capital explains all, with plenty of humor along the way.

Leading actor Xu Zheng talked to That’s Shanghai about the makings of a play based on a economic literary work.

Marx’s The Capital as a drama … how does that work?
Yeah, of course! In the last 30 years, due to the reform and opening-up of the economy, this is one of the most popular topics today. Especially considering the economic crisis in 2008, at that time The Capital sold out at bookstores overnight. It’s an interesting phenomena, our producer Yang Shaolin thought so and decided to adapt it to drama.

How Much Can Love be Messed Up is showing now through Aug. 22 at Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, 7.30pm, RMB120-200.

The retelling of a classic drama that has been performed over 200 times, this play details the life and loves of playboy Ding Yibai. That’s Shanghai talks to the director Li Bonan, known as “Feng Xiaogang” in drama field. After 3s ladies and Mr. and Mrs. Single, How Much Love Can be Messed Up is the final one of his love drama series. Don Quixote, the leading character, in his ten years’ pursuit of love, he is dumped by his first love, brain brushed and growing to be a man. The three women appeared in the story are his mentors on his way back into love. 

Puccini’s classic opera comes to Shanghai this Wednesday.

Puccini’s Bohemian tragedy about love vexed by poverty is one of the world’s most frequently performed operas. But chances are rare to see it performed by the same house that first staged it back in 1896. This month that opera house, Teatro Regio, is bringing La Bohème to Shanghai’s Grand Theater, proudly sponsored by That's Shanghai.

A play about the year the Maoist regime ended, opens in Shanghai tomorrow Thursday, July 29. Go here to see a video clip.

Yu Rongjun is a funny guy. At an interview over coffee, he paused to narrate into the recorder "we are now stopping the interview to stir sugar in our coffee."

The playwright's sense of humor was surprising, considering the serious nature of his play, 1977. The play is a stage adaptation of the move Examination 1977.

1977 was the year Chinese high school examinations — or gaokao — were reinstated by Deng Xiaoping after the end of the Maoist regime — this is the somber and simultaneously uplifting theme the play portrays.

Yu Rongjun talked about his 30th play and why “1977” is so important to him.