There haven't
been many Mandarin musicals in Singapore - only a handful, like Lao
Jiu, The Musical, Snow Wolf Lake and Mr
Beng come to the mind of this reviewer (and the last one was
a trilingual shebang, so it can't completely count). By and large, our
homegrown musical theatre scene's been thoroughly Anglophone, drawing
on Broadway, West End and English pantomime traditions for our inspirations.
So when a new Mandarin musical comes in and sells out every single
seat of its 16-day run, those of us in the English-language musical
scene sit up and take notice. Wake up, guys: someone else is singing.
If There're Seasons is especially important because it's a
dramatic interpretation of the best songs of renowned Singapore songwriter
Liang Wern Fook, who almost single-handedly started the xinyao movement
back in the 80s. For those of you out of the loop, xinyao are popular
Singapore Mandarin "folk songs", identifiable by their clean acoustics
and composed and sung by Singaporeans, usually accompanied by solo guitar;
a movement in music on which the thriving Mandarin music scene in Singapore
is built today.
The very idea of commissioning such a musical stands as a recognition
of the significance of Liang Wern Fook and the genre and the composer
behind it, a testament to their impact on a Sinophone culture. Besides
the diehard theatre crowd, the 30- and 40-somethings who grew up with
xinyao are in the aisle, eagerly pulling along their parents and their
non-Chinese speaking friends. It's an affirmation of the culture of
their generation. Finally, someone else is singing.
Storywise, If There're Seasons isn't anything to crow about.
Playwright Raymond To's created an awkward but functional narrative
about A-Le, a young Singaporean who moves to New York to start a new
life: there, he starts work in a Singapore-owned Chinatown pizzeria,
tries to get in the music business with his fellow waiters and deliverymen
and falls in love with Rose, an aspiring experimental actress, all the
while dogged by his memory of his dead ex-girlfriend Xiao Jing.
It's a plot that's replete with melodrama and strange non
sequiturs - was it truly necessary to insert that gay love story
side-plot? - and his main characters are fearfully one-dimensional.
A-Le comes across as milquetoast and flavourless in the role of a romantically
confused but good-hearted paragon of masculine Chinese youth, while
Rose fails to seduce as she flips between playing crazy girl and good
girl, alternately bugging and boring me. With his background in screenwriting
in Hong Kong, To seems to be reproducing the stock tropes of Chinese
romantic comedy on stage. And while this strategy may work better in
a musical than in a straight play, to this critic, it nonetheless reeks
of cliché.
Luckily, To never allows his writing to obscure the music. And it's
the songs that are the heart of this musical, sweeping away my petty
quibbles with their sheer beauty and variety. Never a fan of Chinese
music myself, I'm suddenly stirred by the wistfulness of the title song
If There're Seasons/Tian Leng Jiu Hui Lai, doubled up laughing
at the cheeky lyrics of On the Eve of the History Exam/Li Shi Kao
Shi Qian Xi and stunned by the inventiveness of Someone Lived
in a Pretty How Town/Mou Mou Ren Zhu Zai Hen Na Ge De Xiao Zhen,
inspired by a poem by e. e. cummings. With deft lyrics and catchy tunes,
the songs run the gamut from pensive to folksy to love struck, transporting
the audience with their emotional power and intelligence.
Liang's music truly is a force to be reckoned with, but credit must
be shared with the arranger, Bang Wenfu, and the playwright, for finding
new ways to string these diverse songs together in a cohesive matrix.
More veteran fans of Liang's music tell me of the added depth that's
revealed in a song emerges when an old father-figure sings a song first
written for a young woman - a fresh take on a classic.
And really, another major force that drives this musical to success
is the depth of faith that the creative team has in Liang's work, displayed
in how much they've been willing to invest in this production. Directors
Kuo Jian Hong and Alvin Chiam Hwee Chin bond with choreographers Jalyn
Tan and Kuo Jing Hong to create some memorable stage play, such as a
rippling ring of pizza boxes in the toe-tapping One Step at a Time/Yi
Bu Yi Bu Lai. The ensemble features both relative newcomers as
well as big names of Mandarin theatre like Goh Guat Kian, Sebastian
Tan, Mindee Ong, Celine Rosa Tan and Johnny Ng, working together to
create a stronger chorus. The Theatre Practice even manages
to rope in a gaggle of children to enlarge the family sequences, plus
two non-Chinese actresses to do hip-hop dance. Everyone's driven to
be a part of this production by the power of belief - a celebration
of xinyao as a genuine Singapore art form to be appreciated on multiple
levels.
In fact, what disturbs me most about To's script is how it seems to
demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of Singapore culture. As
a Hong Konger writing for a Singapore company, he's decided to situate
his story in the apparently neutral geographical space of New York,
characterising his Singapore émigrés as prototypically
frustrated Asian Americans: living in a tight-knit community in Chinatown,
nostalgic over their loss of Mandarin culture, invested with repressed
dreams of careers in the arts but never quite allowed succeed in a white-dominated
entertainment industry. Having lived in New York before, this just doesn't
ring true to me - our community was sophisticated and mobile within
the city, having already been primed for urban multiculturalism back
home. Absorption into a more generalised Chinese diaspora seemed like
a diminishment of our identity. Then again, we'd hardly do as To's characters
do and move our entire families back home on whim, chorusing with a
jawbreakingly patriotic song like Singapore Pie/Xin Jia Po Pai.
We really are smarter than that.
Ideally, a Singapore playwright should have been commissioned to write
this piece. But how many established Mandarin playwrights do we have
who could be trusted to do a mainstream piece? (For those of you who
think The Theatre Practice should have staged an experimental musical,
they've done a great essay in the programme defending the need for a
solid mainstream Mandarin theatre scene in the country.) A healthy scene
requires some balance between commercial and avant-garde, and right
now, we're definitely experiencing a famine of authorship.
Of course, it's possible that The Theatre Practice chose Raymond
To specifically because of his renown as a Hong Kong screenwriter, which
inevitably adds a little international buzz to the publicity. Where's
the injustice in that? Xinyao are enjoyed throughout the Chinese-speaking
world, after all, and To may have added that fresher take on the songs
that a local writer couldn't have envisioned.
When someone else is singing, there's always a danger they'll ruin
the song. But it's essential to have some company if you want the song
to grow in volume and harmonic complexity. And If There're Seasons
is by no means ruined - it stands out with a charm, freshness and dedication
to high production values that distinctly shows off the conviction of
its creators.
As an unmistakable financial success, there's every chance that this
musical will eventually be reprised, hopefully inspiring another generation
to appreciate the genius of Liang Wern Fook. Someone else is singing.
And that is a good thing. |
"It's the songs that are the heart of this musical, sweeping away
my petty quibbles with their sheer beauty and variety"
Credits
Directors: Kuo Jian Hong and Alvin Chiam Hwee Chin
Playwright: Raymond To
Composer/Lyricist: Liang Wern Fook
Producers: Felina Khong, Ian Fong
Arranger: Bang Wenfu
Music Director and Vocal Coach: Lim Shieh Yih
Choreographers: Jalyn Han, Kuo Jing Hong
Set Designer: Kuo Jing Hong, Li Haomin Nicholas, Li
Ka Yi, Lin Shxian, Tiw Pek Hong, Thomas Wong Peng Zhou and Yang Han
Costume Designer: Frederick Lee
Lighting Designer: Lee Bee Bee
Sound Designer: Shah Tahir
Hair Designer: Ashley Lim
Make-up Designer: Candy Tang for M.A.C. Cosmetics
Cast: George Chan, Joanna Dong, Sebastian Tan, Magdalene
See, Tay Tien Loon, Lim Shieh Yih, Ric Liu, Liong Tze Hui, Goh Guat
Kian, Johnny Ng, Tamsin Helen Cornes, Mariel katrina Ledesma Reyes,
Andrew Lua, Peer Metze, Ted Utoft, JacquelineChow, Hang Qian Chou, Liu
Xiaoyi, Audrey Luo Baoling, Mindee Ong, Celine Rosa Tan, Katherine Tang,
Catherine Wong, Tammy Chan Li Yi, Zoea Tania Chen Jinyan, Lee Jun Er,
Lee Qian Yu, Bryant Ng Kee Chun and Teo En Siang
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