I caught Grease, the musical, playing here in Singapore a few days ago and if you do not know what Grease is all about, where have you been?
Anyway, Grease is made popular by the movie of the same name starring John Travolta as Danny Zuko and Olivia Newton-John as Sandy. However, it was actually a Broadway show before it turned into a movie and I have to say that I prefer the movie than the stage version.
I just came back from watching a local production of Next To Normal by Pangdemonium and I would just like to simply say that it was a brilliant performance by such a stellar local cast alongside West End star, Sally Ann Triplett.
The Addams Family musical came to our shores and of course, being a musical fan that I am, I took the opportunity to watch it last night with three of my friends before it ends its run tonight.
Let me first just begin by saying that the experience of watching a musical/stage play includes the venue where the musical/stage play is held and Resorts World Sentosa’s Festive Grand Theatre is actually pretty nice. For a fifth row seat, the price is way lower than that of a fifth row seat at the Marina Bay Sands’ MasterCard Theatre. There was also no one patrolling up and down the steps of the theatre before the show telling the patrons not to take photos of each other and/or the stage unlike that of the other theatre mentioned, which can get really annoying. Audience of a musical/stage play usually pretty much know how to behave in this setting so “babysitting” the patrons can really get on their nerves. There is a difference between giving great service and babysitting us. So, the experience in the venue was a good one for me as it was my first time there.
Yes! The first stage review for me on this blog!
Dirty Dancing: The Musical is currently playing in Singapore and being a musical fan, I caught it yesterday with a few of my pals.
Everyone knows Dirty Dancing so I’m not going to get into the plot. It is a classic story of Baby and Johnny, two different people from two different backgrounds who came together and dance their way through the summer. This very classic story is now put on stage into a musical featuring one of the timeless classic, “Time Of My Life”.
I am pretty disappointed with the musical. It literally puts what was in the movie onto stage and it gets really cheesy for me especially the scene in the ocean. What was a romantic scene in the movie became a joke on stage. It was also really draggy as they follow the movie through and through. Now, movie and stage are two completely different mediums and you need to know how to differentiate the two. What I wanted to see was not a replica of the movie onto stage. What I wanted to see was the musical interpretation of the movie. So what I ended up watching bored me out. I would also like to point out how there are times when the band drowned out the voices of the singers so you had to strain to hear what they were singing. But the musical does have a redeeming factor – the dance. The dancing on the stage was really great. I’m glad they do not screw that up in the least. You can’t screw that up. The dancing made Dirty Dancing dirty dancing.
So, if you have not watched the musical wherever you are and are considering watching it if it is on tour in your country, I would suggest watching the movie instead.
The trailer:
This Siti Never Sleeps At Night 