Friday Night, And The Lights Are Low

Sitting in the dim, with waves of blue light playing on the curtain before us, and strains of familar music washing over us. And then we were greeted with a sweet, pure voice, singing of her dream, as the curtains raise to reveal a simple yet picturesquely beautiful Mediterranean set. And there sat Miria Parvin (playing Sophie), on the steps.

Certainly not a dramatic way to begin a show, but soft and lovely is fine by me, too. Besides, there was plenty of drama as well as fun being served up through the rest of the sellout show that was Mamma Mia... live in Kuala Lumpur. Who woulda thought we'd see such a quality stage performance here!

And oh mamma mia... and so much there was to love about it. My, my, how can I resist...

The sight of hot, hunky guys prancing about in flesh on the stage right in front of my eyes!

Of course, the girls were great as well. Ms. Parvin, for one, carried her songs beautifully. I could tell Jackie Clune (who played Donna) had a really good voice too, though she probably wasn't feeling too good cause her voice faltered every now and then, and she was constantly drowned out when singing with others. Or maybe it was the sound engineer's fault, but I should have liked to have beheld her in full prowess. Still, it was quite impressive.

It was as impressive as the sight of hot, hunky guys flapping about in wet suits!

I wonder how they do it night after night after night. Mamma mia, here I go again... and yet they do it repeatedly with unflagging energy and enthusiasm. All thumbs up to Leigh McDonald and Geraldine Fitzgerald, with their roles of Rosie and Tanya (the Dynamos), for their high spirits, great showmanship and bawdy behaviour ("Blow, don't suck" is such a classic line).

They easily out-bawdied the hot, hunky guys wickedly dirty dancing!

The rest of the principals all had their moments to shine as well. I particularly liked the sequences for Thank You For The Music, Our Last Summer, Take A Chance On Me, and the comic takes on Chiquitita and Dancing Queen (oh my back!). The Winner Takes It All, of course, is now a classic "talk to the hand" theme. And the ensemble pieces! Voulez-Vous was fantastic, what with all the Vogue-esque speedup/stop/slowmo-dancing in the shadows in time to each a-hah...

Gives one time to appreciate all those hot, hunky guys posing in various stages of undress!

Sigh, it's definitely worth more than every penny I could've spent on it. Hollwood rarely gets it right with their remakes, and I'm glad the stage show came here to set this right and make sense of the script, cause the movie was oh so wrong.

Except for their gratuitious use of hot, hunky guys!

Boy, I certainly had no need for a jacket in that theater, the heat from the stage was simply sizzling!

And yay, to the best closing for a musical, for when the show ended, the performance went on! The encores were so great and lively, I just wished our local audience would be less prim and proper (though I do believe a large number could have been simply clueless), and got up and danced and sung along as we were meant to do. But the cast had enough energy to pack the halls anyway. A standing ovation to you guys!

Oh, and a special shoutout goes to a particular dynamo in the ensemble/swing - the petite yet powerfully muscled hottie with a bald pate and razor sharp dance moves; well, whoever it was, I'M A FAN!!!

So I say thank you for the music, for giving me such a wonderful start to the new year!

Mamma mia, here I go again!

High On The Hill

What an amazing time
What a family
Gwen Stefani

Gorgeous! Fabulous! Stupendous! Absolutely fucking wild!

Despite the half hour wait. And the anthem preceeding that wait.

She came. She sang. She had us eating out of her hands with simple "terima kasih"s and "you guys are one of the best crowds I've had" (probably says that to everyone, the hussy) and "my father-in-law's wife is from Malaysia which makes her my son's step-great-grandmother, you know" (guess she is a natural blonde then).

Never mind the leotards. She was gorgeous. Absolutely.

Harajuku girls. Cute.

And the male dancers. Hunky. Very.

The band was great. Her backup singer almost stole the show from her.

Youngsters of all races and quite a few nationalities were mingling freely. They were enjoying themselves, even. Not-so-young ones, too!

Yes, the stage was kinda small. But she worked it, running from one end to another. She even ran out to the stands to shake some lucky audience's hands (the bastards).

And the little screen behind showing clips. I so did not get the Sayuri's kelumumur dance (as she sang Early Winter). But those clips of her with that album cover look - stunning.

I bopped. I clapped. I waved. I sang along. I screamed till my throat was hoarse. I'm still hyped up now though I really really should be getting to bed.

What an amazing time indeed.

La La La (Part 2)

Watching a musical in the known-to-be-lousy setting of the KL ConCentre auditorium was probably not a very bright idea to begin with. Watching that musical exactly one week after catching Phantom in the Esplanade Theatre (which is a real theatre), well that was really a downright idiotic idea.

But then again, the timing was such that the tickets for Phantom had already been booked (targetting what was supposed to have been the closing night before they extended it... again!), and the other show was on a severely limited run in KL.

And of course, having not seen any of the divine Ms Hepburn's movies (they were too old, even for me), I thought I should at least have an idea of what My Fair Lady was all about.

Here's what it turned out to be (at least the musical version of it): Arrogant old man picks up rude young woman off the streets and teaches her to speak proper English. As in, the way English is spoken it in England, so long as you are nowhere near either the countryside or the gutter. Apparently.

Thus educated, the young lady-in-the-making gets unleashed among genteel society, to make small talk about the weather (the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, etc.) and one's health (like how me mom died). Eventually she succeeds only to discover herself now too classy and refined for her family and her old friends. So she goes and lives with the arrogant old man.

Please forgive me if I wasn't too inspired by all that snobbery.

So apart from that, there were other things about the musical that didn't quite impress me:

- there was only one set, and it was fixed. Scenes were changed by moving the furniture in and out
- it was shown in auditorium instead of a proper theatre so it wasn't quite suitable. Still, the acoustics were far better than when I watched Grease in the same place
- the songs were very ho-hum

Well, I wasn't expecting all that much to begin with so I wasn't too disappointed. In fact, I thought it had a certain kind of charm, like a high school musical. Except, of course, high school musicals don't charge over a hundred bucks for a show. But I'll just console myself by thinking of the good parts:

- the lead in the role of Eliza Doolittle was pretty good
- the opening tableau really was a tableau. How quaintly old school!
- the dancing was nice
- some of the guys were rather hot

All in all, it wasn't too bad a night out. If I just completely ignored the second act. Sigh, I really need a fix of Les Mis!

La La La (Part 1)

Scream, you two-timing starlet! Screeaaammm!

Hmm. I might have misquoted that one. But really, that's what the guy's sentiment should have been anyway. Like, there was this dancer, right, and she like, wanted to become a singer? No no, I'm not talking about Paula A.

But anyway, right, this dancer who like, wanted to become a singer, right, used her feminine charms on this genius but who has half a rotten ugly face with the rather unfortunate name of OG. And OG, right, he like, taught her to sing soprano and all, and even bullied out the resident diva so that the she could have her break. Killed some people too! And when she got all that, what did she do? The hussy runs off with a young, rich, handsome, probably well-endowed but otherwise totally useless nobleman who once saved her scarf but failed to save her modesty. And how she rubbed OG's half rotten ugly face in it.

Why, if I were her, I would've... would've... done the same. Didn't I say he was young, rich, handsome, and probably well-endowed?

Ah, life in the musicals. The drama's cheesy, but what a show!

Watching The Phantom for the second time (third, if you count the movie but we all know movies don't count) was great. Better still, what with Marc sitting next to me. The show lived up to all my expectations, as it should, and was worth every cent I had spent on it. Again.

Well, I might have remembered a few things differently. Or rather, my deteriorating memory might have embellished certain things. Like the chandelier did not crash down so dramatically (it was slowly and rather awkwardly lowered). But otherwise, oh my, oh my!

Musicals are such that when it's a good one, you should go watch it only after you know all the songs by heart. That way, you can enjoy the music without struggling to understand what they're singing, which leaves you free to pay attention to all the going ons on stage.

I must say my heart was just beating wildly when the lights went down. Of all the musicals, Phantom must have the best opening of all. Starting rather mysteriously (for those who haven't seen it before) with an auction scene, we are tantalised by the tinkling from a monkey music box. Then, the chandelier is revealed and raised, the orchestra kicks off, and we see the stage being transformed back to the glory of the opera house.

Sigh. I'd go again and again just for that one scene.

It was an amazing night. The sets were fantastic, the tricks and illusions were wonderful, and the principals... such great, strong vocals. Perhaps it helped that the last time I watched this it was... shit... 1997. But yes, I was impressed. All over again.

Now if only I could go watch my absolute most favourite musical one more time - Les Mis! But that's kinda wishful thinking for now. Hmm... wonder if catching another musical right now would be overkill. Especially one that most certainly would not stand up to any comparison against Phantom.

Oh, what the heck. A night out's still a night out. And a night out with music would be even better :)