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.