Dancing features highly in the musical, combining Chinese elements and Chinese culture. "We put more emphasis on dancing than the first version. Audiences will see a grand picture of some 200 people performing Chinese traditional dances on the stage," explained choreographer Kim Mok-yong.

Kim Il-huang as Jia Baoyu. [Global Times]

The musical is performed in Korean with Chinese subtitles.

"The delicate presentation of the love story allows for a wide range of audience - no matter in North Korea or in China, to experience the powerful emotion of tragedy. I, as well as my colleagues, cried to the end," Tong Shandan, senior project manager at China Arts & Entertainment Group, the show's promoter, told the Global Times Several Chinese performers traveled to North Korea last year to help with the production.

"The group dance in the second act with many flower elves dancing around the pond in the mist is very impressive," commented Wang Yabin, a dancer at Beijing Dancing Academy, after her four-day visit with the company.

"After a three-hour nonstop rehearsal, I didn't see any hint of exhaustion on the faces of the actors. Instead, they smiled. It's very beautiful, like a flower," she added. "Although many of the actors were born in the 1980s, I saw in them a sense of dedication to their work rarely seen among Chinese actors now," said Han Chunqi, director of art design at Beijing Dancing Academy.

The casting of actors in the leading roles of the production was a result of a national talent search in North Korea. Young actor Kim Il-huang, whose grandfather stared as Jia Baoyu 50 years ago, was chosen for the same leading role. When he and his grandfather appeared on stage during the September debut in Pyongyang, the audience stood up and applauded, Kim Young-rok said.

The work has been performed over 50 times with audience numbers exceeding 100,000.

"It amazed me that foreigners could understand Chinese classical literature work so well and present it in such a subtle way," commented audience member Hu Yi on online forum tianya.cn, after seeing the performance in Pyongyang.