I'm apologize to the dance seniors who are involved in the production, but I'm gonna be honest and say--
It sucks. Period.
The reason I went to watch it was to support the dance seniors who were involved in the production (Nic.tay, Han Zhi, Bong, Casey, Terrance, Andrew). I went to watch with the other half of the (former?) dance gang, Wilson, Tack Kian, Sali and Su Hui. To be able to hang out with them again was the other major reason I took this opportunity to watch the musical, when block test is so near.
Met up with Wilson for dinner before we went to watch the musical. Vanessa suddenly popped out of nowhere during dinner and accompanied us to get flowers for the performers. Tack Kian met us later at the MRT.
When I set my eyes on TK, I knew he looked different. He wasn't the upbeat and happy-going senior that I'm used to. Rushing to finish scholarship applications might be the major reason why he was sian diao today, but then I realized later that the reason he has toned down was because of NS. Somehow, when I was talking to him about NS, I realized that he was rather unhappy/sian diao because of NS. I wonder whether maybe he was just tired from completing scholarship appilcations, or maybe he was really unhappu about NS. Hope the old and cheerful Tack Kian will be back soon.
We made our way to RP's Cultural Centre. We managed to get into hall right before the performance started. The opening contemporary item was rather good, but things just went downhill from there. The play was bogged with lousy acting, poor dancing, tuneless singing and horrendous stooryline progression. It was rather painful for someone that had theatre experience to endure the poor script delivery. I literally cringe when the actors stutter while Sali was laughing away.
The problem with the play is that the actors are amateurs, and they can't dance well. According to Nic.tay, who choreographed some of the dance items, most if not all of the actors had no dance background. This was probably because the actors were casted first before they auditioned the dancers. So you could imagine how bad the dancing was.
It was quite a waste really, because there are quite a few of MAD seniors in the musical, but most of them became choreographers or just calefares. I think the musical would have been better if the actors are more professional and if the MAD seniors are allowed to dance and act.
Heck, I don't even know why the lead male chracter was chosen!!! His acting was seriously fucking horrendous and he stutters ALOT! N-n-n-ow if y-you rea-rea-lly w-want a stu-stut-te-ring pr-pr-prin-ce, y-you co-uld al-al-ways g-go f-for a par-par-rot-rot. In fact, even parrots don't stutter that much.
Oh, I haven't even talk about the singing! Most of the singing were
And the storyline progresses too fast at times, and too slow at other times. It was rather frustrating actually, because the storyline was actually quite good -- minus the lousy acting and dancing. Things were so bad that Sali, Su Hui, Wilson, Tack Kian and I were contemplating making our own musical halfway throughout the show.
That's not to say there's nothing good from the musical. For one, the music was composed by Daniel and his songs were dope! I really like his songs because they are very original. I also like the sets coz they looked quite good, though I think it could have been better. Though most of the actors can't act (what an oxymoron), there are a few outstanding actors among them. The fairy godmother, Big Mama and Stink deserve praises for their acting. Those 3 are probably the most entertaining and professional actors on stage. And some of the dance items were quite okay, though admittedly it's those that involve the dance seniors.
In the end, I felt that the musical didn't justify the ticket price. I wasn't getting what I paid for, so I felt kinda like I got cheated.
However, the real takeaway tonight was probably the time I spent hanging out with and catching up with the seniors. I really missed them alot since their graduation and funnily, I feel closer to them compared to some of the people in school. The last time I saw the dance gang was after the OSchool Recital, and 4 months had passed since then. Time sure flies. Some of the seniors have changed (some for the better, others for the worse), some still remained the same. Everytime I see the seniors, I feel like I'm JC1 again. Probably I'm still not used to being a senior.
Anyway, block test is coming in 2 more days and I haven't finished my revision. Been half-mugging and half-slacking these few days. Guess I'll have to go into full-mugger mode for the remaining days.
Till then, let fairy tales remain as fairy tales.
