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:

Playwrights' Boot Camp

This is an initiative by The Theatre Practice to groom more Chinese playwrights for Singapore theatre.  This year, Huang Shhuai, Su Chun Ying and Wang Liansheng were put under the spotlight.  They were given tight deadline to come up with a script, and the actors were given 6 hours to rehearse. 

The evening that I saw the "final" product, I found the work to be of good standards, and deserved to be developed further.

Hopefully more Chinese language playwrights could be discovered through this programme.

Review: Family Duets, Spell # 7

It is rare to see a family acting together on stage.  Spell #7's Paul and Kaylene Tan got their 2 girls and Kaylene's mother to appear on the Esplanade Theatre Studio stage for their latest production Family Duets.

The play was to "understand how life's big questions are present in the seemingly small and ordinary world of the family".  In certain respects, it worked - the interaction between Paul and the girls, Eleanor Song's account of her life. 

I did not really understand the lhe last segment, World Condo.  Probably I was getting a bit restless during the second half, where the direction of the production was a bit muddled.

A good attempt, maybe some tightening of the play would help.

Sundown 2013

The Sundown run has been around for a few years and this was the first time I participated in it.  The idea of running at midnight was something new.

 From the moment that I stepped onto the train, I saw more and more people (with their running gear) heading towards the Promenade MRT Station and towards the F1 Pit Building.

Not a fit runner, I entered the 10 km race.

The route started from the pit building, past the Nicol Highway, turned towards the former People's Association Building and back to the starting point.

The route was generally ok, except at a few areas where there was a human traffic jam.  This was partly due to construction work along the way.

I managed to complete it within 1 hour 29 minutes.  Hopefully I could lower it to 1 hr 15 minutes next time round.

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.