Promotional material for Popeye Photo: Courtesy of Kuan You

The Popeye the Sailor Man and his girlfriend Olive Oyl are set to reunite on stage at the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in December for the rock'n'roll musical Popeye. 

The upcoming original musical follows the characters in the original US cartoon, but tells a very different story and explores plots such as the reason behind why Popeye becomes strong from eating spinach, said show director Li Zongxi. 

As the music is the core part of the musical, Fan Chong, the artistic director said that they have written 14 original songs specially tailored for the stage work.