Dan siapakah dia, yang telah berjaya menghuni di hati kita semua?
I got back about about two hours ago from the Istana Budaya to watch P. Ramlee The Musical, the musical biography of Tan Sri P. Ramlee, one of Malaysia and Singapore's most highly-acclaimed entertainment icon. As I had anticipated, it was amazing.
There's still a week left of showing and it's already completely sold out. My family and I were lucky enough to even get tickets. We got the most front/frontest/most frontest row. The musicians/orchestra were literally beneath our feet. Literally. I didn't take off my shoes like I normally would because I was afraid they'd fall and hit the lead violinist. No, really. It was highly, highly possible.
However, we found out that - unlike watching a movie - watching a theatre from the most front row is not a bad thing at all. Seeing everything up close (even the musicians) was actually pretty cool. I still used binoculars, though, when I wanted to see the actors' expressions or just how much make up the men had on. :D
A few days before the show, I copied Sean Ghazi (he plays P. Ramlee)'s CD into my iPod and listened to it, just to get into "the mood". All this while I've sort of disfavoured the man, thinking of him as a Michael Bublé wannabe with his deep, crooning voice and his singing of old songs. But after listening to the CD and watching the musical, I find out he's actually quite talented, haha! Plus, I thought the CD was his debut in the entertainment industry, but he's actually been involved in London's West End long before it. Pretty impressive, I'd say.
Anyway, back to the musical. Everything was wonderfully executed. The sets/props were gorgeous; the acting, the singing, the dancing, the music, the writing, everything was just so beautiful, even breathtaking at times. As my mum had said, it was "very entertaining". It had similar elements as to Adlin Aman Ramlie's previous musical (that one did really, really well) Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical, which probably made this one all the better. I think one of my favourite similarities are the "introduction" songs in the beginning.
"Kami, very very happy,
And feeling so lucky,
Penang warna-warni,
Seperti pelangi!"
Both musicals had a song about the place the story occurs/begins in and it's usually very elaborate/colourful/fun - the best way to draw you right in. :D
Seriously, it's things like these that keep me from losing faith in the Malaysian entertainment industry. I've already lost all faith in the local mainstream music universe, the local mainstream film universe and all of the local TV universe, but if we're capable of musicals like these, there could still be a chance of redemption, no? :P
I really enjoyed the show. ♥
My granny cried from the nostalgia.
I've seen Sunset Blvd., Cats and The Sound Of Music on theatre, but I would plainly and proudly say that I prefer P. Ramlee and Puteri Gunung Ledang over any of those. *cue patriotic background music*
Now, my entertainment-related goal is to watch something by The Actors' Studio sometime in the near future. I've seen this one show, My Ballet Shoes, as part of this "reward" from my previous college for doing well in English. But frankly, it sucked, so it doesn't count. :P