What you may not know about.... Dirty Dancing the Musical.

The musical Dirty Dancing is currently playing at the Mastercard Theatres at the Marina Bay Sands.  This is adapted from the successful movie from the 1980s.

While we are enjoying the performance, there are some fun facts to note:

In the course of over 2 hours, "Baby" the protagonist has  216 costumes changes a week.  Apparently, Bryony Whitefield, who plays Frances "Baby" Houseman, has only 15 seconds for costume changes.

Review: Dirty Dancing the Musical @ Marina Bay Sands

It was 80s nostalgia for the audience on Wednesday evening, where most of them, in their late 20s and 30s, came to relive the "Classic Story on Stage".   Most of us were familiar with the movie starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, which was about a 17 year old Frances "Baby" Houseman coming of age at a resort in the 1960s.  At the resort, Baby discovered the "alternative" dance moves by the resort staff and she was thrown in suddenly to be the dance partner of Johnny Castle, the resort dance instructor.

Dirty Dancing the musical was first performed in Australia in 2004 and it has since sold over a million tickets.  The musical in Singapore was presented by Base Entertainment and Lunchbox Theatrical Productions.

Aerosmith rocked Singapore

Arriving at Garden by the Bay, support act Euphoria Audio had already started its performance segment. 







Euphoria Audio is a good rock band and the band members could rally the audience.  Given time, they may have the potential to be well known.

It was past 9:30 pm when Aerosmith took the stage.  Even though the group members are all above 60 years, they still rocked like youngsters, starting with the song "Love in the Elevator".

Steven Tyler was flamboyant, even down to his mike stand.

With an extended stage, we got to see Steven Tyler and Joe Perry upfront....

Leaving the other band members on the main stage.  The band performed songs such as Cryin', Living' on the Edge, the Beatles' Come Together and of course I Don't wanna Miss a Thing.

Joe Perry did vocal duty on one blues track.

On Walk this Way, beatboxer Hikakin provided the beat to the song.

The Boston band later did their hit Dream On for the encoure.

It was a good concert to end the Singapore Social Concert, and also the Social Awards.  Will it return to Singapore next year?

Carly Rae Jepsen, Psy and Cee Lo Green held centrestage at Singapore Social Concert, 24 May

When I arived at Garden By the Bay, Blush had already performed its set and Carly Rae Jepsen just came on stage.  I caught Carly the previous evening at the Social Star Awards held at Marina Bay Sands, and was hopping to see her performing other materials.

Social Star Awards @ Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)

There was a big crowd gathering at the Mastercard Theatre lobby at Marina Bay Sands, sipping a complementary glass of champaign.  There was a slight delay in the proceedings and we were let in at around 9 pm.

Jeremy Piven and Jessica Alba were the host of the evenings.  They were affable as individuals, but both took a while to gel as hosts, and at times being let down by the multi-media screen.  Nevertheless, it was good to see Jessica Alba live in person.

Social Star Awards Media Conference, 22 May 2013

A media conference was held to share on the first ever social media awards happenig in Singapore.  The Social Star Awards are based on data from company Starcount which aggregates and charts social media’s most popular stars and celebrities through the measurement of the media users, estimated at 1.7billion people.   The organisers hoped that this event will become the Oscars of the social media space. 



From L To R: Karen Mosley, Executive Director Of Entertainment, Marina Bay Sands; Paul Morrison, Co-Ceo, Starcount; Drew Thomson, Co-Ceo, Starcount; Bing Chen, Global Creator Development And Management Program Manager Of Youtube

Carly Rae Jepsen was still a modest and down to earth singer at the press conference.  She advised the young to continue to pursue their dreams, and the need to have an "alligator" skin when dealing with critics.  One of the challenges when she was young, was playing the role of Sandy in the musical Grease.  As the daughter of a school principal, she had no difficulty acting the goody two shoes side of Samdy in the first part of the musical.  She however had to find ways to relate to the more wild side of Sandy in the closing scene.   Carly never expected her song Call Me Maybe to be such a huge hit, as she only wanted to crack the Canadian Top 10 when she released her song on Youtube.

Theatre review: Glass Anatomy The Musical 搭错车

The good thing first.  Della Ding Dang sang and performed well.  So did most of the cast: Julius Foo as the mute father, Jeffrey Low as the owner of record company, Judee Tan as the protagonist's neighbour.  What was disappointing however

The LaBeque Sisters with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, 4 May 13

It was a rare treat to see a concerto for 2 pianos. Katia and Marielle Labeque performed Poulenc's Concerto for 2 Pianos in D Minor with the SSO.  They played in sync and great to watch on stage. And to the delight of the crowd, they played 3 encores.  The SSO also played excerpts of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, and Schmitt's La tragedie de Salome.