Over expectation: Beauty World

Like I said in my previous posting, I was sooo looking forward to watching this musical. In fact, I was already humming the songs when I drove myself to the Esplanade. Well, can't blame someone who has waited 20 years to see it again!

Well, all that anticipation has turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. That will teach me not to have such high expectations and anticipation in the future. I guess it is also because the original cast did such a good job that it has become a hard act to follow.

The cast was weak. They were not in-character for the good first half of the show. It was like, they were just going through the works. The supporting role, Lulu, was sluttier than the one I saw 20 years ago. The Lulu of 20 years ago, though was a cabaret girl, still had a bit of class. This one just reminded me of a 'Chao Ah Lian".

The show was given a much more localised flavour with tons of Singlish used. Not that dialect and Singlish were not used before, but the actors were much more articulate than this group. The very obvious character was that of Ah Hock. He had an accent that wreaks "Neighbourhood School" (I am sorry for generalising and being so opinionated, but SOMETIMES, they do have a certain way of pronouncing words that make one crinch). He really killed the song "Different World" by having bad pronunciations such as worries (pronounced it war-ries, instead of were-ries).

Sad to say too, the new scores that have been added for this 20Th Anniversary version did not go down well with me. I felt that it was out of syn ch (synchronisation) with the rest of the musical that it might as well have not been added in the first place.

At first, I thought it was written by another person, but it was not. It was written by Dick Lee, the maestro himself. The one who wrote the scores 20 years ago. The songs would have been good on its own, but not when it was strung together with the rest of the musical.

Due to the addition of new songs, they took out some original stuff. For example, the starting song "Beauty World" used to be repeated quite often (if I remember correctly). Starting, the end of first half, start of second half and at the end. This time around, it has been downplayed, diluting the whole musical, i.e. they took out the part before interval in order to add new songs. Well, it is after all, the heart and soul of the musical, describing and defining what kind of place Beauty World is. It is the 'thread' that holds everything together.I guess they felt that it was too repetitive and so decided to delete some.

That new songs were added meant that the duration of the whole musical was lengthen, and quite considerably too! We only walked out of the theatre at 11pm! As a result of that, I felt that the actors were rushing throughout the whole performance. Beats of songs were quickened by at least half and as a result, the song sung by Daisy, Lily and Rosie was half buried and swallowed for several reasons: 1. Poor articulation 2. Key too low (had to accommodate maybe) 3. Not using diaphragm enough 4. Rushing for time lor!

Without having the words articulated well, the meaning of the songs were lost. My friend, who was watching it for the first time said, "What the f*&k?" coz she could not really hear what they were singing.

Best singing would have to go to female lead Elena Wang . She had the strongest voice and my friend said, reminded her of Lea Salonga. I told her it reminded me of Emma Yong, maybe because from where I sat, she had Emma's frame and build.

Even then, I would discount her performance a little. As I feel that, in a musical, it is still a very teamwork thingy. By over-shining, one throws the whole performance off balance. A star does not try to make others look bad but is one that knows how to make others in the team seem to look as good as s/he is.

Anyway, I don't think that was her intention. She was also the most articulate but towards the end, her Aussie accent started to re-surface, albeit just a little.

Well, "Beauty world, cha cha cha! The ladies... . Beauty world, cha cha cha... .The music. Beauty World, the finest cabaret, Beauty world!"