sappy Air Supply

Aduh… Sungguh sappy…

I went of course prepared for the sappiness that will come my way but dear oh dear, I didn’t think it would be that sappy… Hahaha…

I am not a fan at all but I succumbed to the temptation of listening to them live singing their classics Goodbye, Making Looooove Out of Nothing At All and of course, All Out of Love.

“I 'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you
I know you were right believing for so long
I 'm all out of love, what am I without you
I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong”

Sing along everybody! Woo!

The moment they stepped out on stage I laughed out loud. I was covering my mouth actually, trying to not laugh too loudly for fear of offending some hardcore fans seated around me. Hahaha…

I just couldn’t help myself.

There they were, these two Uncles running and jumping around on stage to the soft rock ballads they were belting out.

One Uncle on each side of the stage doing their thing!

The shorter of the two was doing multiples of “step-step-skip” across the stage.

The other doing pirouettes with his guitar slinked across his chest.

Too funny!

I am sure they don’t intend to but man, hysterical!

Skip, skip, jump, jump! Hahaha…

Another laugh out loud moment was when the taller of the two, with a straight face and encouraging a response, said:

"Are you ready to fall in love?!!... Let us begin..."

HAHAHA.... how not to laugh?!

To be honest, I was laughing most of the time, laughing more than I was singing along.
I know the melodies but not the lyrics.
I had moments of yawning and getting sleepy but would suddenly burst out laughing just looking at their antics on stage.

Aduh Uncles…

Russell changed into a green batik shirt midway through the show... so cute!

Starting in 1975 with each other singing to empty cafes and bars in Sydney, they did admit that it was rough trying to break through but they hoped and they believed in themselves.

It sure takes a huge chunk of luck and of course talent to make it out there, they say.

It also worked in their favour that Russell Hitchcock, the Australian lead vocalist (the shorter of the two), has such a distinctive voice and that Graham Russell, the other vocalist who is British, is such a good song writer.

What Graham said was so true –

Simple chords, simple songs, simple messages but remains with you, is what is important in the end.

33 years and they are still playing and singing together and having fun together.

We should all be so lucky huh?

Goodbye

P. Ramlee The Musical 2nd Run

Where do I begin?

Words fail you when you are so grieved with shock and disbelief.

Right, let’s just begin with my initial reaction.


OH.MY.GOD!!

Review in one simple word:

UTTERLY LOUSY!

Oppss, two words. I cannot help it.

There I was, these few weeks, reading reviews from press and blogs about how great Musly played as P. Ramlee, that he was, or even, is better than Sean Ghazi.

What a joke!

What a far cry compared to his predecessor.

In fact, to me, the whole cast did not have the same energy and “umph” compared to the first run. When the centre of the story is not strong, everything else just caves in.

Could it also be due to the orchestra with only half its strength relative to last season’s?

Atilia, Melissa and Liza, who maintained their standard of acting and singing, tried hard to bring it up to the standard that it was, but quite frankly, as a whole, failed completely, although I must pay my compliments to Melissa who has improved significantly in her singing.

I am sure the current Ramlee trained and tried really hard, but to me, he failed and failed miserably. Musly, as a leading man, does not have the persona, the aura, the confidence, the physique, the power in his voice to represent the great man. He may have won some competition of impersonating P.Ramlee but that is all he’ll ever be - an impersonator, a parrot.

In a musical that requires strength of voice, mind you, it is a MUSICAL, the ability to tell a story via song and dance, to me, the team made a grief mistake of letting go of Sean, a grief mistake indeed.

In a musical, the three essentials are singing, acting and dancing, in that order. Musly was so stiff, not at all natural and relaxed on stage. Body language plays such a big part in theater. At times, he does not know what to do with his hand, what to grab, what to hold, how to stand, how to look. He does not have the confidence and the flare to play a leading man. He lacks stage presence, he lacks personality, to make the character his own. He can sing some what like P.Ramlee but God, he's stiff like a board, he cannot dance to save his life – during the train scene, he was so self-conscious of his steps, looking down most of the time, he was lost in the crowd – and not at all effective in delivering his lines.

I'm not saying this because I'm biased but seriously, it takes much more than just looking the part to play the part.

It is beyond me how good reviews are written about Musly. The only reason this season received so much publicity is because of the excellence of the first season. Had this been shown first, I and many more, I believe, would definitely not come for seconds.

I am not a fan of Siti, not in the slightest, but watching and listening to the new Azizah, I am suddenly so appreciative of Siti. I could hardly make out what the new Azizah was saying, let alone, singing.

Sigh…

After watching the first run of Ramlee, I had high hopes for our theater, hoping that one day we could showcase our stories and Malaysians, at London’s West End and Broadway, but man, we certainly took a nose-dive!

To all the good reviews, it is a true testament that taste is subjective and that beauty, so very true, lies in the eyes of the beholder and that we will only appreciate something when it’s gone.

Am I being harsh?...

Nope!

I am being honest.

latest read: A Wedding In December

This is a story about a group of close friends in high school namely Harrison, Nora, Agnes, Jerry, Rob, Bill and Bridget, finally meeting again after 22 years.

Harrison
Harrison married Evelyn, a girl he met at college and has a daughter.
Harrison is in love with Nora since he was 17 but Nora was Stephen’s girlfriend. Stephen was best friend to Harrison and a star baseball player but died at 17 where he drowned at sea due to being so drunk.
At the reunion, Harrison slept with Nora.

Nora
Nora married Carl Laski who was a famous writer but was a bully, had an affair and impregnated a young girl while still married to Nora. Carl however died of cancer. Nora owns the inn central to the story.

Agnes
Agnes is in love with a teacher since she was 17 and is still having secret affairs with that teacher though he has married and has two children. She is and aspiring writer.

Jerry
Jerry married Julie and has a child who is autistic. By their interaction with each other and how they speak to each other, it is very apparent that they do not have a happy marriage and do not get along well.

Rob
Rob is gay and brought with him his partner, Josh. Everyone did not know during high school in 1974 that Rob was gay but Rob himself knew but could not very well announce it then during a time where such things would chastise a person.

Bill & Bridget
The reunion was to celebrate the marriage of Bill and Bridget who is one year junior to everyone else. Bill and Bridget were high school sweethearts but upon leaving high school, Bill wrote to Bridget that he had fallen in love with a girl called Jill and had decided to marry the other girl. He has a daughter called Melissa. Bridget was crushed but eventually moved on and married another but the marriage did not last. She has a son called Matt. Bridget has cancer and is estimated to live, at most, 3 years.


To me, it is a story looking into the lives of each and every one of these close friends after 22 years, on how they became broken, corrupted and scary. At 17, everyone had pretty much a clean slate and though coming from the same class in high school, each revolved and progressed into different outcomes.



Some insights after reading this book:

It is surprising how a person is willing to compromise his previous ethics for love.

Nothing makes a person more selfish that being in love.

Did a woman who had been fully loved mind the lost of her youth less than a woman who has not?

If there is one thing a person learned about private lives, it was that anyone looking in from the outside could never know the reality.

Confessing a thing makes the thing more real.