Meiqi Grand Theater

Meiqi Grand Theater

Majestic theater, located at 66 Jiangning Road, Shanghai, was renamed Beijing theater after liberation. It was restored to its original name in early 1985. It was built in 1941 and designed by architect fan Wenzhao. It has a two-story reinforced concrete frame structure. When it was built, it was named Meiqi, which originally meant "beautiful and flawless". When it opened on October 15, it was praised as "the first in Asia" by people at home and abroad. There are 1261 seats in the theater.

On November 24, 2018, it was selected into the list of the third batch of "20th century architectural heritage projects" in China.

Historical evolution

Meiqi was founded by Lianyi Co., Ltd. at the beginning. It is the third theater built by the company after Beijing theater and Nanjing theater. He tingran, chairman and general manager, is a registered American business. The English name is Majestic Theatre, and the name of Maggie Grand Theater is determined for the purpose of publicizing the award-winning name to the public. In October 1941, the opening ceremony of the film was held, with the premiere of the American film "the beauty of the moon", which was the first round cinema specially for western films. In November 1954, Wang Rui was a public-private joint venture. In 1956, Wang Rui was under the management of Xincheng District. From May 1958, Wang Rui was directly under the Municipal Bureau of culture, and was transformed into a performance venue for films. It was renamed Beijing theater in 1966 (its original name was restored in May 1985), and has been managed by the municipal performance company since January 1985. Before liberation, Maggie performed occasionally, such as Mei Lanfang's comeback after the victory of the Anti Japanese war. Her first business performance lasted for 10 days, and it was held here, making a sensation. After liberation, especially after it was rebuilt into a theater, it became a large-scale comprehensive performance venue dominated by song and dance drama. At the same time, it is also an important place for performing arts groups from all over the world to perform in Shanghai. The Central Opera House, Beijing People's Art Theater and large groups from all provinces have come here to perform successively, and many operas and dance dramas from Shanghai Opera House have premiered here. In 1964, Shanghai People's Shanghai Opera Troupe performed "the fire of Ludang" (see the model play "Shajiabang") for half a year, a total of 284 performances. At the beginning of liberation, Maggie was once an important political gathering place in Shanghai. For example, in August 1954, the first Shanghai Municipal People's Congress was held here; on February 4, 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai made an important speech on the transformation of intellectuals to the cadres who attended the meeting of secretaries of provincial and municipal Party committees.

architectural style

American modern style architecture, but with the style of Art Deco. It covers an area of 2612 square meters, with a building area of 5416 square meters. There are 1328 seats on the second floor of the auditorium. The stage facilities and air conditioning are complete. In the 1980s, it was the first to build a 70 square meter hydraulic lift music pool. The audience rest hall adopts the common space design of the first and second floors. It is tall, broad and beautiful. In 1989, it was listed as an excellent modern architectural heritage protection unit in Shanghai. The front hall at the entrance is designed as a large circular hall, which is connected with the internal rest hall and ticket hall. The facade of the building is made with long straight windows. The rest hall is spacious. The functions of the hall, hall, stairs, hall and other departments are clear and the layout is reasonable. The stairs and floors are made of grindstone, and the walls of columns are decorated with novel colors, which shows the design techniques of modern architecture.

The Meggie theater is a modern Shanghai excellent architecture. It is elegant and unique, and combines the essence of modern and classical architecture. The huge tower at the entrance is of great momentum. The large crystal chandeliers are full of brilliant colors. The two big and small lights are overflowing with color, and the bronze sculpture is elegant and elegant. Its style has won the praise and favor of the teachers and students of the Architectural Department of famous universities in China, and has been listed as "excellent modern architectural protection unit".

Maggie status

Meiqi Grand Theater enjoys a certain reputation at home and abroad. It is a comprehensive theater in Shanghai that mainly performs large-scale opera, ballet, music and dance. It is also a main venue for cultural exchange at home and abroad. Before liberation and at the beginning of liberation, Mei Lanfang, a master of Peking opera performing arts, and ulanova, a world-famous ballet master, came to Meiqi to perform classic plays. In recent years, more than 60 art performing groups directly under the central Ministry of culture and more than 20 provinces, cities, autonomous regions and troops have performed in Meiqi. More than 50 world-famous art performing groups (groups) from 17 countries and regions in Europe, America, Asia and Oceania have also competed to perform in Meiqi.

It was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Shanghai in 1989.

Maggie Hall (6 pieces)

Address: Meiqi Grand Theater, 77 Jiangning Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai (near Fengxian Road)

Longitude: 121.45590049028

Latitude: 31.229362452282

Tel: 021-62173311

Ticket information: no ticket required. It depends on the play