So many potshots
have been taken at the expense of Singapore's smash hit getai movie
881 that any spoof is bound to feel like overkill. Fortunately,
overkill is what Jonathan Lim's brainchild Chestnuts does best.
As the uncontested titan of the parody genre, its latest edition, Chesty
Nutty Bang Bang: Hairspray of The Phoenix, romps into town with
a bigger, star-studded cast and scintillating new spoofs.
Before we delve into the play proper, I must credit the geniuses behind
the Chestnuts program. In an age of glossy, overpriced booklets chockfull
of monotonous biographies and overlong histories, The (complimentary,
might I add) Chestnuts Ultimate Guide to phacebook is pitched
perfectly to an audience in the mood for some uninhibited, raucous fun.
With its bawdy take on the facebook interface, and a kitschy "handy-cut-out
guide to superphoking" that invites you to "throw a bigoted
NUS Law professor" at your fellow facebook-er, this Ultimate
Guide is loaded with awesome detail that is a sheer delight to
thumb through not just once, but many times.
Chesty Nutty Bang Bang has fingers in everything, from the
377A controversy to the tepid revival of Beauty World. Instead
of milking cheap laughs from every noteworthy highlight of last year,
producer Adrian Tan and actor-director Jonathan Lim have created extended,
and consequently more refined and nuanced parodies of its most compelling
events. The result is throwaway theatre at its finest. 88251,
arguably the show's winning spoof, anchors its snarky pop culture and
political references in a hilarious mash-up of Royston Tan's 881
and Ng Yi-Sheng's controversial play about former pornstar Annabel Chong,
251. The juxtaposition of sex siren Chong and clueless wide-eyed
Big Papaya (one of the original getai sisters in the movie) is priceless
comedy; so is the sisters' Hokkien rendition of Rihanna's dance anthem
Umbrella.
What is particularly striking about Chesty Nutty is that it's
not all witty farce: when it's not trying to make you laugh, it will
charm your socks off. Another mash-up, this time of book-turned-movie
Harry Potter and musical-turned-movie Hairspray, is
more fascinating in its exploration of the cast's other talents than
its mockery of these box office hits. Celina Rosa Tan is a revelation
here, juggling the high notes and deliberately garbled lyrics of Hairspray
impressively. Jonathan Lim's interpretation of Hairspray's
larger-than-life housewife Edna Turnbald is a remarkably nuanced performance
that finds the heart beneath the fat suit. It doesn't hurt that he matches
Tan's soaring vocals with a sophisticated baritone too.
Spliced between these longer sequences are Chestnuts' multimedia
fillers, notorious for their lazy execution and sheer unfunny-ness.
However, I am pleased to report that this year, despite several mishaps,
these fillers deliver a massive truckload of funny. In fact, spoofs
like the droll symphonic soundbites of Nokia's reedy ringtones and the
Heroes' premonition of exorbitant cab fares are flashes of
comic brilliance that even upstage some of this year's main parodies.
Ultimately, Chestnuts' success hinges on the comic timing
and precision of its cast. Throughout the years, Tan and Lim have experimented
with different combinations of actors with varying degrees of success.
This year's casting is a fast, frothy exercise in legerdemain: losing
Idol finalist Joakim Gomez plays various Idol personas
while Yeo Yann Yann, one of the Papaya sisters in 881, plays an aspiring
getai singer in 88251. Gleefully abandoning all restraint,
taste and politeness, this edition's sextet never loses its energy or
verve throughout the sprawling two-hour production, skipping from one
parody to the next with consummate ease. They also deliver excellent
individual performances: Gomez's turn as a Malaysian go-go boy working
in a Thai cabaret is as outrageously campy as Yeo's performance of Annabel
Chong; while Tan bears an uncanny resemblance to Hairspray's boundary-breaking
Tracy in the same way Lim does to big mama Edna.
Ironically, the nuance that Chesty Nutty displays hitherto
is also the show's biggest downfall. Tan and Lim gamble that their audience
will be familiar enough with the subject matter to appreciate their
extended spoofs. At times, it doesn't pay off. Parts of the Beauty
World parody alienate viewers unable to identify dramatic motifs
like the jade pendant, more specific details of the musical's plot,
and songs other than its signature cha-cha-cha number. In achieving
specificity at the expense of their general appeal, several Chesty
Nutty gags are lost on the audience, and the atmosphere in the
theatre flags considerably.
Nevertheless, I crown this side-splitting achievement with five stars,
a rating not so much cast on theatrical merit as it is in the spirit
of Chesty Nutty's infectious irreverence. And who is to say
that this production does not deserve it, when there is an argument
of faultlessness for its every fault: several spoofs are so bad they
work, while those that don't still induce a smile, a giggle or an exclamatory
"What!?" caught between laughter and incredulity. Chestnuts'
mission is to take nothing, including and especially itself, seriously;
the brilliant irony is that it undertakes this task with perfect seriousness.
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"Throwaway theatre at its finest"
Credits
Producer: Adrian Tan
Assistant Producer: Fiona Lim
Director/Writer: Jonathan Lim
Music Arranger and Musical Director: Bang Wenfu
Costume Designer: Vivianne Koh
Props Master: Ryan Lim
Lighting Designer: Teo Kuang Han
Sound Designer: Michael Koh
Graphic Designers: Elvin Ching and Ghazali Muzakir
Projection Designer: Joanne Tay
Sound Engineer: Sandra Tay
Cast: Jonathan Lim, Rodney Oliveiro, Judy Ngo
Guest stars: Joakim Gomez, Celina Rosa Tan and Yeo Yann Yann
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From: The Editor (matthewlyon@myway.com / Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 19:39:48)
Got anything to say about the review or the production? Click the button above to let us know.
From: aug (auglum@gmail.com / Monday, January 28, 2008 at 03:45:34)
i think you guys missed out a very important person: Bang Wenfu, the music arranger!
From: The Editor (theatre@inkpot.com / Monday, January 28, 2008 at 20:51:06)
Thanks for drawing our attention to the oversight. He has now been included in the list of credits.
From: Ng Yi-Sheng (ng.yisheng@gmail.com / Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 00:46:06)
The director really milked the "cute" potential of Joakim Gomez to the max - and my, he has talent! And gusto! And legs!
Chestnuts' usual problem of pacing seems to have been remedied, some people say, by the much heavier use of song this time round.
One minor peeve - possibly because of the realisation that the hardcore theatre audience is a terribly small portion of those in attendance - is that the "Singapore Theatre in 10" section seemed to pack less punch than normal. No jibes at "Cogito" or "120", for example, and those are plenty mockable.
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