Hong Kong’s new Leslie Cheung tribute musical is set to debut next month

Yim, who was born in 1977, the year Cheung started his career, grew up listening to a lot of the singer’s songs. He comments that “there wasn’t one time when the pop star wasn’t hardworking or devoted [to his music]. He put a lot of heart into each song. He delivered great performances. He was good looking. It’s hard to forget someone like this, and there hasn’t been anyone like him after. He’s a role model for Hong Kong [musicians].”

Chow, born in 1961, sees Cheung as a larger-than-life figure beyond his Canto-pop stardom. “He’s the representative of being avant-garde in Hong Kong,” he says. “Leslie challenged a lot of social boundaries and he did it with suavity. He didn’t let the ways of the world restrict his [artistic expressions and identity].” Long before Hong Kong became more inclusive and aware of the LGBTQ+ community, Cheung famously admitted in an interview in 1992 that he was bisexual, despite the risks of public outcry. He was also one of the few Asian actors to play openly gay and gender-fluid characters, such as a Peking opera concubine in Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine (1992), a gender-bending songwriter in Peter Chan’s Who’s the Woman, Who’s the Man (1996) and a gay man in Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together (1997).

Read more: 7 Hong Kong films that celebrate pride and the LGBTQ+ community

Chow continues, “People will always long for that sense of rule-bending freedom Leslie demonstrated. As a public figure, he had a lot of struggles and glorious moments at the same time; he motivated ordinary people like us to go after our dreams regardless of life’s conditions or restrictions, which in a way is our own moment to shine. This is why he is still relevant today.”

The musical is meant to celebrate Cheung’s legacy. As such, the story doesn’t have Cheung as one of the characters—he will only, the team teases, make a special appearance via AI. “Leslie is irreplaceable. No actor would dare to imitate someone as legendary as him,” says Yim. “If there was, this actor will be questioned: ‘Do you have what it takes to play him?’”

There are also other considerations in bringing the musical to life. “We had to select and arrange Cheung’s songs in a way that would tell the story,” Yim says. The 20 chosen songs come from different phases of Cheung’s life—from his early commercial, more generic love songs to the experimental, personal music of his later years—and cover a wide variety of moods and styles that narrate his metamorphosis as both a musician and an individual.

One of the great challenges has been creating acoustic arrangements of the songs. Yim spent much effort striking a balance between pop and operatic singing styles. “If it’s too pop-sounding, it won’t be a musical. But if there’s too much bel canto [operatic singing technique], Leslie’s songs, especially the softer ones, will sound very strange,” he explains.

Moreover, the Canto-pop sounds of the 1980s and 1990s are vastly different from contemporary pop: Cantonese pop songs in the past had a lot of acoustic effects and they could be quite echoey; nowadays, they are more sharp-sounding and don’t have as many technical effects, especially since the pandemic, when bedroom pop, meaning pop music made at home and shared on social media platforms, became popular. “When I arranged Leslie’s songs, I’m using 2024 technology to recreate the sounds and vibes of the 1980s and 1990s. I have to make sure that they fit his era. I can’t possibly turn them into a Justin Bieber or Billie Eilish song,” Yim says. “Those from the later period of his life are the trickiest to rework, because I want to retain the [artistic choices] and intentions of his experimental vision.”

That said, the musical isn’t just creating another Leslie concert onstage. As well as a blend of different singing styles, and acting and dancing onstage, Yim and Chow also created a new theme song, which sound is distinctly different from Cheung’s style. “It’s interesting to observe that the young generation today listens to old songs with a particular set of emotions [anemoia: nostalgia for a past one never experienced],” says Chow. “So how do you create a song that’s reflective of the era 30 to 40 years ago for the contemporary audience without creating just another song from that time? We want for the song to have Leslie’s DNA without being too explicit, and we want something that is relevant to the 2024 sound and sentiments without departing fully from the star of our show.”

In a way, the team hopes that while the musical reminds people of this legend, it also serves as a beacon for future musicians. “Leslie is a great example for Hong Kong to learn from,” says Yim. He observes that while Hong Kong’s arts scene is growing, it can also work towards exporting the city’s culture overseas. “Leslie and other Canto-pop stars of the last generation, such as Priscilla Chan and Alan Tam, had the foresight to do so by breaking into the international scene.” The team has a vision of taking Café I Do to the rest of the world after its Hong Kong run, so that the new generation of Hong Kong theatre performers and musicians, such as Ip and Wong, can get international exposure, while also drawing more global attention to Cantonese culture.

Yim says, “In the long run, I hope instead of just making tribute musicals to legends of the past, there will also be a strong future for our next generation.”

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