Songs for a New World

Songs for a New World was the first musical written by Jason Robert Brown.  Basically a song cycle, it concerns characters looking for new directions in their lives.

For this staging by local theatre group Theatre Lab Productions, Director Gavin Low introduced the role of a writer who typed out the stories of the characters.

Without a coherent storyline, the focus would be on the songs.  They turned out to be good tunes, and were beautifully arranged by Joanne Ho.  The 4 actors:
Seong Hui Xuan, Mina Ellen Kaye, Jonathan Lum and Mayo Ong put up credible performances, in particular Mina who was the strongest amongst the four.


The staging was ideal for the intimate space at the Goodman Arts Centre blackbox, with the right amount of multi-media projections.  The pacing of the performance was good, which allowed each song number to flow from one to another.

Within a span of few months, we have the opportunities to see a few small scale musical theatre productions here, such as Edges The Musical at the Drama Centre Blackbox.  Hopefully, more offerings would be served in the near future.