The musical Turn Left, Turn Right-Love, Or Regret will be staged in Beijing in March.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A musical based on Taiwan illustrator Jimmy Liao's popular graphic novel, A Chance of Sunshine, is coming to Beijing. Chen Nan reports.

He is a violinist, and she translates books. They are neighbors who haven't met because he always turns right and she always turns left when they leave their houses.

Then, one day, they finally meet by chance outside the neighborhood and fall in love. But the rain ruins pieces of paper which they use to exchange phone numbers.

So, they begin to look for each other again, without knowing they live nearby.

The story is from A Chance of Sunshine, a graphic novel by acclaimed Taiwan illustrator Jimmy Liao.

The book has sold millions of copies in China since being published in 1999. Turn Left, Turn Right, a 2003 film directed by Hong Kong veterans Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung in the lead roles, has been the most successful adaptation of the novel so far. TV series have also been made on the story.

Beijing residents can watch the romantic tale unfold onstage later this month through the musical Turn Left, Turn Right - Love, Or Regret, which is helmed by Taiwan theater director Li Huan-hsiung. The musical has toured other parts of Asia since 2008, when it debuted in Taipei.

The fourth version of the musical, produced by the Mr Wing Theater Company Li founded in 2006, will be presented in the Chinese capital March 24-27, with Taiwan singer-actress Waa Wei starring as the heroine and Chinese-American singer-actor Dawen Wang as the male lead.