Recently, Stage One, China’s first music and theater trendy bar, opened in Beijing Pingyuan Beihua Jiai Factory.

What is surprising is that such a wonderful combination is actually another bold crossover for the comedy label Happy Twist.

This is the first bar business under Happy Mahua, and it is also the first collision combination of musical theater + bar in China. What kind of pleasure can be created by the ingenious fusion of art and alcohol in a tipsy atmosphere, shaking wine glasses?

Obviously, under the new consumption trend, Happy Mahua strives to capture more young audiences in the performance consumer market. It hopes to break the original traditional drama performance scenes and performance forms in the form of drama + bar, and increase The sense of interaction with the audience makes the drama more youthful and trendy, giving the audience an extra layer of visual and spiritual pleasure in a relaxing drinking atmosphere.

From the current official ticket price, the original price per person is 380 yuan, which is nearly twice the ticket price of Happy Twist Theater. The business hours are 18:30-2:00 am, which is not a long time for a bar. . This is another cross-border attempt after Happy Twist's transformation from dramas to movies, short plays, and variety shows.

01

Breaking the Circle: Niche Drama on the Spring Festival Gala

Happy Twist was founded in 2003. The founding team came from a very strange combination, led by the construction engineer Zhang Composed of Chen Chen, magazine editor Yu Kai and drama director Tian Youliang. Initially, the three of them aimed at the film and television industry. With a start-up capital of less than 300,000 yuan, they registered the "Beijing Free Element Film and Television Culture" company and obtained the film and television adaptation rights for Zhong Mo's novel "The Difficult Love of Diamond King and Lao Wu". However, unexpectedly, the sudden outbreak of SARS caused the trio's original plan to fail, and they turned their attention to drama.

At that time, the drama market was almost completely occupied by the national regular army. There were only a few private theaters and it was difficult to survive. Because the cost of producing dramas was high, renting a theater, signing actors, and creating and rehearsing all required financial support, and new theaters It is certain that it will be difficult to sell tickets when the publicity is not enough in the early stage. This also means that in the early stage of the drama, the drama basically loses money and earns publicity.

In 2003, a comedy "If You Want to Eat Twist, I'll Twist It for You" was staged at the China National Opera Shaw Theater. This was Happy Twist's first work when she first entered the industry, and it was also the source of the name "Happy Twist". . At that time, Shen Teng, who was still a senior at the People's Liberation Army Art College, auditioned for this drama and got a small supporting role, and then officially became associated with Happy Twist.

However, the difficulty of the start was beyond expectations. The Happy Twist Team, which had no market appeal at the time, booked 40 performances but sold very few tickets. Shen Teng later recalled in the program "Interviews with Yang Lan" that the most disastrous performance was a snowy day when only 7 tickets were sold. The theater manager persuaded the performance to be canceled out of sympathy. The creators and founder team of the show stood at the entrance of the theater, apologizing to the audiences who came to watch the show one by one. "For every audience member who comes, I will refund a ticket and pay for a round-trip taxi. At that time, I felt that there was no future or hope." Shen Teng recalled. .

Fortunately, "If I Want to Eat Twist, I'll Twist It for You Now" has a hilarious plot and humorous lines, and at the same time delivers warmth and positive energy in the happy ending. The turning point becomes more and more obvious as the number of performances increases. In addition, the founder Zhang Chen tried his best to mobilize the audience to come to watch the show, and even used buses to pick up the audience in batches. "After losing thirty games, I finally started to have a chance to make a comeback." Zhang Chen said later when recalling the past.

Subsequently, Happy Twist successively staged works such as "Love Flu", "Crazy Stone", "Somali Pirates", and "The Count of Wulong Mountain". These works allowed Happy Twist to gradually explore his own comedy style, and also Gradually established a firm foothold on the drama stage. It is understood that starting from the second drama "Mahua 2: Love Flu", the company has managed to barely lose money; by 2009, "Sweet and Salty" could make millions of dollars in profit after 57 performances; in 2008 , Happy Mahua turned the Lunar New Year stage play into a regular performance; in 2009, the company gradually became clear about its direction and planned to actively borrow capital to help.

It was also during this period that with the increase in hit works and performances, the founding team became more determined to expand and considered longer-term capital paths. If Happy Mahua seeks to be listed in the future, there are only two capital markets in the mainland, Shanghai and Shenzhen. In order to improve its brand effect, Happy Mahua chooses to expand its performance business in these two cities first. Therefore, in 2011, Happy Mahua started to go out of Beijing and went all out to expand to Shenzhen and Shanghai.

It was during this period that Happy Twist's reputation continued to rise and it came into the sight of CCTV. This also ushered in the first turning point in its destiny. In 2012, it appeared on CCTV with the sketch "Today's Happiness" Spring Festival Gala. This is also the first time that Shen Teng and Ma Li are well known to the public and have successfully created the well-known "Hao Jian" character. After receiving rave reviews on the Spring Festival Gala stage, Shen Teng and Ma Li, the ace comedy duo, have appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage for four consecutive years. While they have established a reputation among the audience, the team behind Happy Twist has gradually become well-known to the public.

02

Crossover: Become the King of Comedy with 5 Billion Dollars

And after appearing on the Spring Festival Gala stage in 2012, Happy Twist has been able to move forward smoothly in terms of capital. It took a step forward and received an investment of 45 million yuan from the China Cultural Industry Investment Fund, selling 15% of its shares.