Leading actors, Liam Doyle and Lucy Jones, portray Sam and Molly in the musical Ghost, adapted from the movie of the same title. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"It's about universal love. I want to say that life is beyond our understanding," the 72-year-old says of Ghost in a video he recorded at his home in northern San Francisco, which was played in Beijing at a news conference launch of the musical's China tour.

According to the associate director Paul Warwick Griffin, who was in Beijing along with the leading actors, Liam Doyle and Lucy Jones, Rubin has been invited to turn Ghost into a play many times during the past 20 years.

"He didn't want to put the story into the hands of people he didn't trust until producers Adam Silberman and David Garfinkle visited Rubin and convinced him to turn Ghost into a musical," Griffin says in Beijing. "Rubin not only did the script but also wrote lyrics for the musical. He was with us all the way through the production."

Scored by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, the musical was premiered in Manchester, England, in March 2011, and was later staged in Broadway. It has won three Tony nominations.

According to the associate director, the musical not only conjures up nostalgic emotions for audiences but also brings avant-garde futuristic special effects with the help of magic tricks and visual technology.

"You will see Sam walk through a closed door and a fight in a running New York subway train," says Griffin. "But usually the audiences are so busy crying that they don't have time to think about the magic."

(China Daily 05/22/2015 page24)