If There Are Seasons (天冷就回来): Three Seasons of Good Music

Third staging by The Theatre Practice, and third time viewing.  The main attraction of this production would be the songs of Liang Wern Fook, a popular figure of the Xinyao movement (Singapore-penned Mandarin songs) in the 1980s / 90s.  The story was framed around the songs written by Hong Kong playwright Raymond Toh.   After the death of his girlfriend Xiao Jing, Ah Leleft for the Big Apple to pursue his love of music.  While in New York, he became friends with fellow countrymen residing there, including aspiring actress Rose.

In its third staging, The Theatre Practice did not do major changes to the script, which I found was the weak link of this production.  The struggles of the main characters were not dealt in depth, in particular Ah Le. It thus made his return to Singapore more like a loser rather than a person who had put in effort. At times, the storyline was created more to fit in the songs rather than necessity, in particular the scenes featuring the children.


Fortunately, the main cast delivered.  George Chan as Ah Le was the highlight in all 3 stagings. Joanna Dong fit the role of the ambitious Rose well, though she could have benefited from better music arrangement for some of her songs.  Celine Rosa Tan and Ric Liu both acted and sang well in their respective roles of Xiao Jing and A-Qiang. At the end of the day, it is the music that the audience came for.  And they were not disappointed with many of Liang Wern Fook's hits being featured in the musical.  Thus most did go home happy. It was reported that this musical would not be staged for at least the next 10 years.  Despite some flaws in this musical, If There Are Seasons did show that there is a market for Mandarin musicals in Singapore - Lao Jiu The Musical is another example.   This musical has accomplished its mission, let's wait for The Theatre Practice to come up with another blockbuster.