Lao Jiu The Musical

To use the term mentioned in the Spiderman movie, this "reboot" version of Lao Jiu The Musical, first staged in 2005, would definitely rank high on this year's (Chinese) theatre scene.  Lao Liu The Musical was one of the shows staged under the Kuo Pao Kun Festival 2012.

Compared to the 2005 version, the biggest improvement would be the choreography.  The strike-a pose after every group number in the 2005 production was gone and this production was slick.  Production and lighting disigns were well done.

The enhanced script also brought out the well-written and beautiful lyrics by Xiao Han and music of Eric Ng.  Some of the songs were good enough for the charts.  This time round, the actors could really sing, showing how much the Chinese musical theatre scene has progressed since 2005.

Script-wise, I felt that there was not enough interaction between Lao Jiu and the puppet master, and on the art of puppetry.  The audience thus may not appreciate why Lao Jiu loved the art form that much,and  decided not to take the scholarship exams.  The 2012 script also introduced a love interest (or maybe not?) for Lao Jiu.  Unfortunately, this thread was not well developed.

Having said that, this production is of a high quality and let's hope it would be restaged in the near future.


For more events under or relating to the Kuo Pao Kun Festival, please visit
http://clumsycompass.blogspot.sg/2012/10/the-spirits-play.html