#review: Sinbad the #musical

It probably doesn't make much of a difference whether I review this now or not, since there are only two more shows in this run - Saturday, 8.30pm and Sunday, 3.00pm. - and I heard that they're sold out. Then again, I suppose feedback is always good.

I enjoyed watching Sinbad, despite the kind of weak storyline as well as the kind of pathetic ending. I'm not sure what the actual Sinbad canon is supposed to be, except that he's this dashing sailor/pirate person, but for this musical, the storyline is a very basic (and slightly underdeveloped) 3-act hero's journey.

I suppose I should start with the plus points:

1) THE VIZIER IS AWESOME.
I honestly think Gene Sha Rudyn basically carried most of the show for me. He's the classic comic bad guy and I think he's a much stronger and well-rounded character than Sinbad was. Or maybe I just like the bad guy. Haha. (Ooo, he was a Malay rocker. Figures)

2) The group songs and choreography had great energy and were actually really entertaining
I particularly liked the group songs in the second act - "Orders is Orders" and "We're not that bad". I don't suppose they really added anything much to the story, but Huzzah and the guards were entertaining in this one (Huzzah kind of grows on you in this scene) and the choreography around the prisoners and their movable prison bars was interesting. From the first act, "We Work", "Sinbad the Sailor" and "Waiting for the day" were interesting enough to grab your attention as an opening scene, but I guess I don't remember anything catchy enough to make it memorable.

3) The singing is good
I mean, compared to the usual fare, these people can really sing. =) I'd rate them a couple notches up from Broken Bridges and super way better than Malaysian Girls. Can't really compare them to Marrying Me I guess due to the size of the productions.

4) Suliman
I don't know what to say about him. Um. But I found his solo impressive, and he had great stage presence.

The not-so-plus points:
1) The hero didn't really feel heroic.
I mean, he was mainly just a love-sick fool. And an enchanted one at that, although he didn't believe in magic. He was rather good-looking though :)

2) I wasn't really sure what the Ezra character was for, and why she was a principal cast and why she had a solo, which I unfortunately tuned out on because I couldn't really get what she was singing. Sorry.

3) The story line was overall rather weak, though it had its funny moments either through a witty line or through one or other of the cast and ensemble's quirks. I'd say that this musical was not so much plot-driven as it was character driven. And the problem it had was that it was focusing on too many characters. So whilst it was entertaining, it wasn't really... cohesive. Maybe another bugbear I have (which others might not really care about) was how much it seemed to depend on cliches. Or what I feel were cliches at any rate.
Maybe the other thing is that... it didn't really have an emotional arc. Things happened. But they didn't really draw you in to feel with the characters. So it's bam-bam-bam, this and that happens, bam-bam-bam, something else happens. Which goes back to why the Vizier and Suliman stood out for me was that I felt them.

I think that's the best I can figure for now.

---

So I noted a few familiar faces in the musical program book.

One of which was that Dominic Luk, whom I worked with in Yes Broadway Penang, was the vocal master. That was like.. woah, really. And also Riena Aisya, one of the really dedicated dancers from Yes Broadway Penang was in the ensemble! Yay for them!

Alvin Looi, of course, who had been actively promoting this musical on facebook for the past few months. (Nah, there's your picture. Don't jeles anymore).

Oh. And the most astounding thing happened. Okay, it didn't just "happen" but... well. I walked down the stairs and saw a college friend of mine, and she was talking to this guy, and she's like "don't you remember each other?" Frankly, I didn't. And then she was like... "he was in Drunk Before Dawn". And I'm like, oh, okay. Brain doesn't quite remember but he's starting to seem more familiar. and then OHHH. Ten years. TEN YEARS DID NOT JUST HAPPEN.

And now I'm thinking... WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?

2012: a year in review

I took a screenshot of my stats page today, looked up last year's review and had the shock of my life. Sometime in the frame of 366 days, my blog somehow garnered forty-one THOUSAND page views. How did that happen?
For all my readers, regular or sporadic, THANK YOU SO MUCH. You really made my year!

It really has been a crazy and fruitful year, and I'm not sure how I got through it all. All I can say is thank you, God. And thank you, all of you who have stood by me this year, to listen to my endless whingeings and whinings.

The major highlights of the year have been:

Israel Houghton Concert: I took a trip down to Singapore in February for Israel Houghton's concert, stayed with my cousin, and managed to meet up with quite a few friends, new and old.

A to Z challenge: The fest saw me writing 26 pieces of flashfiction in April, one of which remains my top read post of all time (as seen above).

YES Broadway Penang: Met many crazily talented dancers and singers through this programme in June, and had my one minute of fame as Mrs Lovett.

A Place To Call Home, the musical: My second full-length libretto, and my first try at actually directing. Conclusion remains that... I suck at directing, but it was a great experience. Oh. I also suck at costumes (no big surprise) and overall stage designery stuff.

Launch of annatsp.com: I finally launched my own website after thinking about it for a long time, and also launched my facebook page.

Stories from A Place To Call Home: Published a book of flash fiction based on the musical, and have 143 downloads to-date.
I'm pretty happy with this, seeing that I haven't really been doing much promotion for it.

Bali and Phuket: Two trips this year, with wonderful friends and CG members. I enjoyed the breaks even if they put me in frightening places!

GTLF2012: Attended my first Literary Festival! Also met a writer friend and attended the launch of her third novel. 

Nanowrimo 2012: Finished for the fourth time. And realised that I really need to get round to editing all these words that are lying around and do something with them. I suppose that will be 2013's goal.

Coursera: Got my first cert from Coursera.org for the Greek & Roman Mythology course! I struggled through some of the stuff... but it was fun all the same.

Giveaways: Ran my first giveaway on a whim. Experimented with Rafflecopter. I might do this again. On another whim, depending. 

Big Bad Wolf: Finally visited the Big Bad Wolf sale and came home very happy. I've already read 5 of the 19. All the unread books, which now fill 3 book shelves, are going into my read goals for 2013. I really need to clear those shelves out. 

Hasn't it been a really busy year? I felt quite tired going through all the things that have been happening. Looking over it now, I really don't know how I did it. 

2012 has been a good year overall, even if I didn't think it was while I struggled through it.
I wonder what 2013 will be like?

On channeling Michael Parks Masterson

I was not made to be a director. I suck at it. I mean. I hate telling people what to do. Really. Like really, really really really.

And also, I'm bad at teaching people what to do. Because like, if I know it you should know it too, right? It's like in my head. And I can do it. But I can't tell you how to do it. Or exactly what you should do. (This is also why I should never become a teacher).

I mean, I don't know. How into specifics does a director get? I'm trying to describe what it should look like, but I can't give it to you in specific details about every single thing.

If I were to actually try to tell you like how I think it should be done, I would just have to act it for you. In which case, I should be the actor, and you should be... um. And then it wouldn't work anyway, because the way I do stuff probably isn't going to look or sound natural to you and then you would be awkward, and then I would be even more -

Let's just leave it at that. 

So I've been taking a biiiig breath and recalling Broadway Penang, and attempting to channel Mike. Except it's not working. Instead of sounding in command and like I know what I'm doing, I come out sounding like deranged-PMSing-fire-breathing-dragon-ogress-hulk.

Which is sad.

=(

Well yeah anyway. I have awesome co-directors who channel Mike much better, even if they don't know who he is. DO COME WATCH OKAY. 

P/S: Yes, this is the musical/script I've been talking about since last year, if you've been following this page for that long.

PP/S: I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. Life happened. The musical is happening. WORK IS KILLING ME, mainly because when I get home I'm too lazy to do anything else. 

PPP/S: Which reminds me, why is it that when people find out what I do, they ask me when I'm leaving and/or how I stayed for so long? I really don't know. 

PPPP/S: Facebook is a place for misinformation. In case you were wondering about the PP/S and PPP/S above. 

Two more days, feet, and you can rest

It's two days to show day.

TWO DAYS.

I have Sweeney Todd and Lion King stuck in my head. Right now, Green Finch and Linnet Bird is doing a major loop loop loop in my head and it's not even like MY song. Yeesh.

And I also have a new onset of profound respect for dancers. Like really. Respect.

I don't know. Singing is easy. But singing and dancing at the same time... is a REAL stretch. For me, anyway. I can't compartmentalise my brain enough to make either really good. So, it's either slightly crappy dance steps and good singing, or pretty okay dance steps and slightly breathless singing.

MEH.

It's time for classes, this being the gazillionth time I have said this since... um... three or four years ago. Or more. 

Days two and three: YES Broadway Penang

Okay, so I've been a little lazy, and tired. :)
Friday morning I re-twisted my ankle a little during dance, which was meh, so I sat out the morning dance. Went home at lunch to dig out my ankle guard, and was okay enough to do bits of the dance in the afternoon but skipped all the jumping bits.
Saturday was mostly music, yay, and we've practically done all the Lion King songs except chow down and most of the Sweeney Todd ensemble songs.
We're starting at two today so I'm lazing around for a bit... :)

YES Broadway Penang - the first day of workshops!

Because I am still primarily a writer/blogger, a quick update on today's Yes Broadway Academy workshops:

A number of the people from Short + Sweet Workshops were also in the programme, so I wasn't completely lost and clueless when I arrived. (Yay!) Surprise, surprise, Michelle Tan, my ex-school mate is also in the programme, along with a bunch of her friends from KL.

S/N: being in with a bunch of intensely focused, creative, dancerly people (as in actually in the industry), makes me feel... well, a little out of place. Haha.

Anyways, we started off with dance, which is a bit of a boo :( because I am not really a dancer. I mean, I try. But it's not quite there. And being surrounded by these really intense dance people (see above) makes me feel nervous.

After lunch, we got round to singing, which is a YAY! because I got a solo part, doing The Worst Pies in London.

Yeah, we're doing a Sweeney Todd medley. =D

We've also covered most of The Lion King medley, song-wise, with choreography to come (God, help me survive!)

AND we've done most of the dance for The Nicest Kids in Town (which was uber tiring, BUT I CAN DO IT!, uh, with a bit of fudging still, heh) and a little bit of Dancing Queen.

That actually sounds a lot for one day. 

Look, ma, I'm on Broadway! Sort of

So after haunting my e-mail for the whole of Tuesday and then waiting on tenterhooks until Friday, I received a very exciting call in the morning. This was followed by a few excited calls and SMSes and some rather confuzzled, bemused tweets... and then this arrived in my inbox, making it even more real/unreal/surreal and all that jazz.

I am so uberly duberly excited that I tend towards incoherency.
The best way to describe my emotional state now is this:

WWWWWHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=D=D=D=D=D=D=D=D=D=D
*squeal*

I am. Flabbergasted.
Especially since I spent most of Tuesday being a little emo at why no call why no call why no call. Haha.