I have a
confession. I'm deeply distrustful of this show. It's Singapore's most
successful musical - first commissioned for the opening of the Esplanade,
now in its third run, greeted with interest by American investors who'd
like to adapt it for Broadway. Last week, it was presented with TheatreWorks's
Diaspora to IMF delegates as a representative of Singapore's
theatre fare.
Forbidden City has become Singapore's cultural ambassador.
And I hate that.
You see, I've got this anachronistic sense of patriotism, and in earlier
reviews I've explained how interested I am in theatre as an arena
for non-government voices to propose new definitions of national identity.
Composer Dick Lee has been an active participant in this process - his
Beauty World recaptured a lost moment of Singaporean history,
while his more international works like Fantasia and Nagaland
projected us as a city in Asia where different cultures could meet each
other for dialogue.
Forbidden City, however, isn't concerned with Singapore. It's
about the life of Cixi, the famed Empress Dowager of China. It narrates
her struggle for survival behind the secret doors of the Forbidden City,
maintaining her power in the face of calumny from her own subjects as
well as the English press. All action takes place in China, and all
characters are Chinese (or Manchu, if you quibble) except for the British
journalist George Morrison and the American painter Kate Carl.
It's an exclusive celebration of the glory of imperial China. And that's
doubly troubling to me, because 1) it paints an exotic image of Asia
that too many Westerners associate with our country, and 2) it's a heritage
embraced by the many Singaporeans who embrace their Chinese ethnicity
rather than their non-Chinese citizenship.
As a big, commercial musical, however, I've got to concede it's rather
good. Forbidden City has pretty much everything your regular
fan of musicals could ask for. You want songs? The introductory number
Dragon Lady is thoroughly hummable even two weeks after the
production, and I'm extremely satisfied with Dick Lee's harmonies and
arrangements, as well as with Stephen Clark's consistently polished
lyrics. You want drama? The vicissitudes of Cixi's rise and fall are
well paced, and the strategy of telling her story through the eyes of
a Western portraitist works remarkably well for an audience that's not
immediately familiar with the world of the 19th century Chinese court.
There's also comic relief from the Record Keepers played by the infallible
comedians Hossan Leong and Sebastian Tan, and some light (but not overpowering)
romance. The glitzy Broadway trimmings weren't quite of international
standards - costumes were pretty without being stylised, the set was
versatile and minimalist rather than a showcase of opulent spectacle,
and the dancing was merely decent - the wushu-inspired choreography
of Now China Has a Son turned out a wee bit nancy, in fact,
due to the unconvincing pugilism. Nonetheless, the performance was definitely
comparable to the classics of the musical comedy genre. I was especially
impressed with the pacing - the pattern of reprises and repetitions
worked superbly through the three hours of play, with the chaotic politics
of the second act conveyed on a solid wave of music and emotion, barely
interrupted by unsung dialogue.
So on the whole, I can't help but recommend the show to traditional
fans of musical theatre. It's a crowd-pleaser on multiple levels, coming
out much stronger than previous commercial musicals in Singapore such
as Chang
and Eng or The
Admiral's Odyssey. One can't judge a musical using the same
criteria as an experimental play - after all no-one expects the piece
to be ideologically groundbreaking; it's just a feast of eye and ear
candy for an evening's pleasure.
What hurt this performance in the end, really, was the insufficient
acting skills of the leads. Kit Chan and Sheila Francisco played the
young and the old Empress respectively, and neither was able to portray
the character's critical moments of vulnerability, let alone convey
her as a complex, three-dimensional character. Leigh McDonald gave a
more developed rendition of Kate as an individual torn between loyalties,
though the individual idiosyncrasy of the character didn't shine through
- plus, her American accent was slightly inconsistent. The drama survived
such weaknesses, though - it became less heartwarming, but loftier and
more epic, populated with grand personalities rather than mere humans.
In spite of all these strengths, I'm still concerned at the prospect
of Forbidden City being treated as the iconic Singapore musical.
Taken alone, it misrepresents Singapore identity as an offshoot of Chinese
heritage - I mean, hell, the only song that hints at diasporic identity
is a lament entitled Land of Our Fathers. And what if this
show becomes accepted as the template for the model local musical? We
could soon be knee-deep in Chinese and Japanese period dramas in English
- selling ourselves abroad on the basis of our Asian features much more
than a sense of our own history.
Yet against all expectation, I've realised I'm actually hoping Forbidden
City makes it to Broadway. It'd be a moment of private pride, like
your JC prom queen going to Miss Universe, and it could open doors for
the whole of the Singapore theatre community. Most Americans could do
with a little more education on Asian history, and with its backdrop
of the Opium Wars, the show brings up issues of colonialism and the
mudslinging of foreign politicians that remain relevant and sadly unacknowledged,
even today.
Maybe it'd be best if the Singaporean provenance of the musical is
only known to the big players of the theatre industry - maybe with their
help we can export Fried Rice Paradise, lest the outsiders
assume we're a monocultural, insular province longing to be geographically
reunited with the mainland. Or possibly a future work from the creators
of this musical could be put on there - Dick Lee, Stephen Clark and
SRT Artistic Director Gaurav Kripalani aren't "Chinese chauvinists"
by any means, and Dick hass recently announced his intent to craft a
musical based on the Ramayana.
Let's just not allow Forbidden City to be the definitive dramatic
text for Singapore. We've got much more to say about ourselves which
can't be spoken through the ventriloquism of "mother" cultures
- the success of Alfian Sa'at's The Optic Trilogy in Germany
and Scandinavia is testament to the wide range of options we have in
creating internationally marketable theatre. Let's not pour unjustified
scorn on the musical, either - if we as citizens don't trust our cultural
ambassador, we don't assassinate it. We start working on giving birth
to a new one. |
"It's a crowd-pleaser on multiple levels, coming out much stronger
than previous commercial musicals in Singapore"
Credits
Music: Dick Lee
Book: Stephen Clark and Dick Lee
Lyrics: Stephen Clark
Director: Steven Dexter
Music Director/Conductor: Sydney Tan
Music Arranger: Bang Wenfu
Choreographer: Nick Winston
Original Staging: George Chan
Set Designer: Francis O'Connor
Costume Designer: Yang Derong
Lighting Designer: Chris Ellis
Sound Designer: Mike Walker
Hair and Accessories Designer: Ashley Lim
Make-up Designer: Elaine Lee
Cast: Leigh McDonald, Cynthia Lee MacQuarrie, Hal Fowler,
Sheila Francisco, Richard Chia, Kit Chan, Oliver Pan, Hossan Leong,
Sebastian Tan, George Chan, R J Rosales, Presslee Chng, Jovan Lee, Joel
Ng, Kaylen Chan, Ng Kit Chong, Dilion Ong, Russell Marino Soh, Luke
Kwek, Dwayne Tan, Ceilne Rosa Tan, Gordon Choy, Joanna Dong, Dunstan
Ong, Farhan Hassan, Jacqueline Pereira, Edric Hsu, Candice de Rozario,
Seong Hui Xuan, Cedric Lim, Andrew Lua, Eleanor Tan, Juliet Pang
Musicians: Tony Ang Ting Leong, Tan Jia Bin, Stephen Yan, Joel Nah,
Vicknes Veerappan, Belinda Foo, Linus Lee and Damien Lim Yong Seng
|
