The Terrible Infants, Esplanade Theaters (2010)
This was babyboy's and my very first musical together. Found out about this while browsing for Things to do in Singapore. Its title instantly caught my attention, and I had been a huge fan of Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and other stories, so terrible infants sounds like some sad stories of kids who have issues and are ousted by society.
I nailed it head-on! After watching a youtube video on them, it was exactly as I had assumed, children who often do not listen to their parents, and something bad happens to them, or children who are too proud, too full of themselves, get into trouble. The typical musical that would scare any child into being the perfect angel at home, basically.
I bought the tickets right after viewing the video, and begun searching for the various musical numbers. It was difficult to find as they were a moving theater. I only managed to find 2-3 videos of them. Still, they were fantastic even though I didn't know most of their songs.
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| Excited! |
It was free seating, and the audiences were mostly expats/foreigners. I only saw a handful of locals but lots of kids. How do kids watch this and not get scared? I am fascinated by these type of dark fairytales, but I never expected there to be an actual market for it. Well there has to be, just perhaps not in Singapore. The kids were mostly white, and they were all jittery and excited, couldn't stay in their seats when finally the music came on, and this odd man crawled out of a box, dressed all mime-like. This definitely shushed the kids and they were all wide-eyed and captivated.. and so was I!
It was a compilation of different songs and stories, often with extremely catchy tunes! I only wish they had offered the soundtrack for sale after the show, but they didn't. :( Babyboy went with me, not knowing what to expect of this, but after the show, he was all excited about it, telling me how it was so so good. I agreed fervently.
This musical I would rate 8/10, because it is small-scale and really targeted more for kids! But I loved it! (it was way better than James and the Giant Peach, I rate it 5/10) The music, the acting, the cast-audience interaction, fantastic! Even though it was a small production, they fully made use of the space given to them, all the props had multiple uses and it was all so fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in this one, and should I ever have the chance to come across them again, I would definitely go for a round two!
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| After the show. |
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| I remember wanting to wear orange to match their poster theme, hence the out-of-place orange skirt. |
The music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, MBS. (2011)
I bought tickets for this to the one person whom I grew up listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber with; my dad. There was no one else whom I know who enjoys his music as much. But this wasn't our first time watching a piece by ALW, our first was in London way back in 2004, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, when we were there for daddy's graduation.
In retrospect, my love for musicals began at a young age because daddy enjoyed musicals so much. He has nearly all the DVDs for the various musicals, and would always introduce me to them, his favorite being Jesus Christ, Superstar, which he claims, and I quote, 'If one day Jesus Christ, Superstar ever comes to Singapore, I'll pay for the ticket no matter how expensive it costs, because it will be so worth it!"
My very first musical with daddy was this play called Chang and Eng, about conjoined brothers. I loved it and was so enthralled by it, even though it had such a sad ending and I remember hating the ending because it was sooo sad!
So, when ALW came to MBS, I knew we had to go! Even though there wasn't anyone famous, because it was a compilation of all his best hits, the tickets still costs S$60, which I felt was too overpriced.
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| Dad & I |
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| The backdrops were all generic with the cast just standing in front of them, singing. |
Of all the songs, we only recognized 2/3 of them. Especially for his newer compositions, which we were unfamiliar with. It was enjoyable because you know how sometimes, you only like this particular one or two songs in a musical, and this was basically a combination of all the top hits from ALW. My two favorites were cats and phantom. He had plenty of others which I can't really recall but I would rate this a 7/10, simply because the cast was mostly standing there singing, hardly any elaborate stages or props used, mostly just dressed in really nice evening wear and belting out on the stage.
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| ALW, we love your music! |
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