STAGE

“The Music Man,” the first American musical ever staged in China, opened in Beijing on Friday with an old-fashioned production of the 1957 Broadway show about swindler-salesman Harold Hill and his escapades in River City. “Seventy-six Trombones” rang through the Tianchao Theater as the all-Chinese cast of 60--many of them in blond, red and light brown wigs--danced and sang to Meredith Willson’s score. The production was translated into Chinese, but the only other apparent concession to Chinese culture was a Chinese flag carried with an American one in the final scene.