Puteri Gunung Ledang Musical
Esplanade Theatre - 25112006
That Saturday evening saw us stuck in the frenetic jam at the Rochor exit of ECP, with the hampering drizzle for company.
I was only trying to avoid the much streotyped Malay trait of tardiness. What more when going to a musical. Hell freezes over should I be one of those who crept in after the show starts.
Anyway, boy am I glad I wore a sweater there. Konon nak feeling2x macam negeri sejuk. Memang sejuk pon.
Eh first time masok the theatre, you! Slalu lepak kat luar aje. Jakun lah sikit. At last I'm at THE OTHER part of Esplanade!
The theater was.. erm... smaller than expected. I guess the pics I saw online were taken at an angle that somewhat lengthen the interior. But all's well. Smaller space means better acoustic and our 7th-row-from-the-front seats are nearer that expected, too. Near enough to see the faces of the cast and far enough to avoid the (very loud) orchestra in front.
I seriously didn't expect the late-comers to be let in despite it being 15mins into the show. And they sat IN FRONT, in the MIDDLE. Of all places!
But I guess THAT'S WHY they were let in. Must be some blardee v.i.p. Pfft.
The interior of the Esplanade Theatre.
My dad reading the booklet.
Sue, Natra & my dad.
Me & Sue.
I'll be lying if I say that I'm very much a happy-camper after watching the show. From what I see, AC Mizal doesn't really live up to his role. Gawd, I can speak better Javanese than he does. And what's with that posture? So wayang kulit! But he's good also, la. His angry scenes had me really scared, liao (the sound effects, helped, somewhat)!
I spotted those moments when Tiara and Stephen faltered on their lines but their overall spectacular performance made up for those glitches.
If previously I wasn't really a fan of Adlin (Sultan Mahmud), now I am. The lyrics he wrote showed a different side of him. And unlike his speech vocals (esp. in the movie version), his singing vocals are not bad, actually.
And that part when he did "the cabaret" is simply AWESOME! Sue was cackling like some hysterical maniac and I had to slap her thighs many times to warn her of that scary laugh of hers.
Tiara's singing sounds much much better in the high range and Stephen Rahman Hughes singing induced some goosebumps-popping moments. Superb! Like a hindi movie liddat.
Datin Tiara does deserve that standing ovation. All of them, actually.
Kudos, y'all!
The round-up of the cast at the end of the show. *applause*
PS: I can't help realising that I end up reading the subtitles all the way, during the musical. It's interesting to see how the literature-malay language is being translated to English.
Brings me back to those moments when watching Malay dramas on tv and reading the subtitles instead, despite understanding the spoken language. Weird!
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