The musical's Beijing premiere was held on June 8 at Beijing Contemporary Music Academy. The academy, along with Shanghai Theatre Academy and The Sport & Art Academy of Tianjin University of Sport, co-presented the new interpretation.

"Guys and Dolls," based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure" by Damon Runyonis, is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.

Premiering on Broadway in 1950, the original production ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The original musical had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine.

The recent Chinese rendition bought copyright permissions from the United States and sold tickets for a symbolic one yuan each. "Let's see if this production is worth one yuan for you!" veteran actor Wang Luoyong said at the premiere.

Under the guidance of Wang, the students worked hard to put on a great performance. "We should put our hopes of the future development of musicals in China on our university students," Wang said, "Given a platform and sufficient opportunity, China's musicals can reach the rest of the world."

The Chinese version of "Guys and Dolls," with actors singing in English but translating dialogue into Chinese, won praise from audiences.

Wang Daocheng, the vice President of China Society for Musical Studies who attended the premiere, said "Guys" was an ideal musical for local adaptation.

"You have to have mass public in mind when you recreate something for a Chinese audience who has their own tastes," Wang said.

Originally debuting in Shanghai in May, The Chinese "Guys and Dolls" production will tour Beijing and Tianjin from June 8 to 13.

Several other Broadway musicals have made their way to China, the most successful one being "Mama Mia!" The musical was introduced into China market in 2010 and ran for 200 performances, earning around 85 million yuan (US$13.34 million) at box offices.