The Odd Couple and The Frogs

April 28th, 2006 music, theatre

The Odd Couple
I wrote off this Neil Simon play after watching a production of it staged in the old Drama Center before it was torn down – not the one by Ramesh Panicker and Adrian Pang. I downloaded a stage recording of The Odd Couple with David Paymer as Felix Unger and Nathan Lane as Oscar Madison from Audible.com. This version made so much more sense to me than the one I saw but Odd Couple is not something I would fly across continents to watch.

The Frogs
Found a CD recording of The Frogs at the library with Davis Gaines, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Nathan Lane. Funny, a bit subtle, with lots of singing. Somehow it felt like the kind of thing Theatre Practice would put up. Link to Invocation and Instructions to the Audience

Butley (frm. The Definitive Simon Gray I)

April 28th, 2006 books

The play is a detailed study of a character called Butley. The background is that he teaches English at a university. This day that we observe him, he gets three pieces ofbad news. His wife, Anne, asks him for a divorce to marry the greatest bore in London; his lover, Joey, leaves him for another man (called Reg); and, his colleague, Edna, whom he thinks very little of, finally gets her book on Bryon published after going at it for 20 years and he’s still stuck with his T.S. Eliot work.

Butley is brillliant but bored of out his mind and for a bit of fun teases the people around him. Anna and Joey love him but can’t bear the teasing and they leave for less brilliant men: Anna, a bore and Joey, a philistine. They try to let him down easy but it wounds him terribly and he go to pieces. The play closes with him alone in the room, in the dark.

Fantastic drama. I would love to watch a good actor being Butley well, going to pieces on stage. Although it’s been said in reviews it’s ’screamingly funny’ I fail to find any comedy in the play.

Excerpts from A Year With The Produceers (or Career advice from theatre folks)

April 26th, 2006 theatre

The tacky headings are my own.

1. Keep it fresh
“Performing is about being alive and in the moment. It

‘Skew Me, You Rebel Meh?

April 25th, 2006 Uncategorized

I finished the collection of essays and I can’t figure out why he’s thought to be a rebel. Mr Ho wants Singaporeans to have more entertainment choices and be better mannered. I thought rebel means going against generally accepted conventions. I mean, anyone would rebel if the state tries to reduce entertainment choices and encourage impolite behaviour in civil society.

The Producers

April 21st, 2006 music, screen

I’ve metemorphasized into a nut case fan that would fly across continents to see the original cast of the Producers show at the theatre. I bought the book, the soundtrack, the cast recording documentary (which may turn out a complete waste of money because it’s coded Region 1). I’m waiting to buy the DVD of the musical when it finally appears for Region 3.

Online, I found The Producers 1968 script available here

Update: In New York Magazine, The History of The Producers: Part III and more articles at a Broderick fan site. Lane’s fansite has a great collection of his appearances, which occassionally may include his live singing.

In Liebkind’s words: O, Joy of Joys: Producers Original Broadcast Recording Videos

13th April 2006, Thursday: the fourth time now.

I figured the reason for the bad reviews and empty halls: film people like film and theatre folks like the theatre. There is a stage magic about that show that film people don’t often get and it’s the price tag that makes it amazing – $9.50 for a Broadway piece. The script, music and directing gives the musical its substance. Strip away the visual by putting in a soundtrack CD and you’ll find it’s the actors that makes it magical. Ferrall is mad and wonderful as the nutty Nazi. Bart is a gorgeous Carmen Ghia. Uma Thurman is competent in her song and dance but she didn’t shine: her brilliant lines felt campy. She has a sloppy Swedish accent which disappears into an American accent when she hits high notes. This I find annoying and unprofessional for multi million productions: in cheaper productions, I can still look away.) Broderick, Lane and Beach glitters on stage. Too bad Beach didn’t have the kind of chemistry with Bart that makes Broderick and Lane perfect together.

As Broderick and Lane sang at the end “There’s nothing like a show on Broadway, there’s nothing like a Broadway show”. The show is like a souvenior for the real thing on Broadway. Even so, the worst thing of this show is that it is a movie and you can’t give everyone a standing ovation.

*

9th April 2006, Saturday

Something funny happened when I was watching the Producers today. The cinema was about half full but most of the audiences caught the jokes before the jokes came on. A girl was singing in a whisper two rows behind me. Then I realised with irrepressible glee: they have all seen this once, twice or thrice!

Watch it at least twice. Once is not enough.

Film Fest Diary 2006: The Fisherman and His Wife

April 19th, 2006 screen

This folklore appears to have German origins. Link here. I’ve seen this folklore in good use in Gunter Grass’s The Flounder. But the subject in this film is not arresting and the use of the folklore not exciting and new. One gets the impression that the film maker – perhaps influenced by the folklore – accuses wives to be the originator of greed and dissatisfaction.

All a girl needs a tan

April 19th, 2006 Uncategorized

Two hundred for the plane ticket
My mother made a racket
My resolve was steel
Krabi was a steal
So it went on my credit card bill

My luck damn terok.
God play me for a joke.
Snorkling

Film Fest Diary 2006 : Adam’s Apples

April 16th, 2006 screen

Christians are more excited about their faith art-wise unlike other religions and their passion is an interesting watch. Adam is a neo nazi skin head out on from prison to a half way house where there are three other oddballs: 2 ex-prisoners (one is a top tennis player but in prison because of compulsive pickpocket and raping, the other robs Statoil stations as a statement against capitalism) and a priest called Ivan. Ivan asks him to specify a project he wishes to embark on and to get Ivan off his back, Adam says he will back an apple cake. There is an apple tree in the church garden which Adam will use and he will guard it until his use. There is trouble. First, the tree is visited by crows. Then, the fruit infected by worms. At last, it is struck by lightning. Adam can’t bake his cake. Ivan tells him devil is testing Adam, preventing him from making the cake. Ivan is an oddball. He thinks there is no evil. Adam knows no good, only evil. So when he reads the Book of Job and tells Ivan is Job and God is on Ivan’s case and that explains for all the birds, worms, lightning and other tragedies in his life. (Here,the first drop of tear slides down faces. I thought to myself, this Adam is the devil.)

Is it the Satan or God at work? Both, says the film. The apple tree is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam opened Ivan’s eyes to evil and this realisation makes him bleed from his ears. Adam brings him to the local doctor who informs Adam that Ivan has cancer and would die in a few days. Ivan falls apart dramatically and without his support, the others in the church fall apart. Adam attempts to pull everyone together and realises there is good. Matters escalate and in a gun fight, Ivan is shot through his eyes into his brains. He is brought to the hospital. The audience see brains on the ground. Ivan is sure to die.

That night Adam prepares to leave. There is knock on the door. The pickpocket pops his head in and reveals one last apple that he had stolen. Adam goes into the kitchen and makes the cake. He brings it to the hospital, he finds Ivan’s bed is empty. (Here, people to my left and right are wiping faces.)

He goes to the doctor.

“Adam, this makes no sense at all. I am a man of science, I believe in numbers and charts. Goddamnit, I wanna go some place, where people die when they are sick, and don’t sit in the yard eating cowboy toast when they have been shot through the head.”

(More weeping here.)

Outside the theatre, my friend and I had an amusing conversation. She thought the film terribly depressing except for the ending and I thought it was fantastic, wonderful and hopeful because of the ending. We are not much changed by the film.

2006 Reith Lecture : In The Begining There Was Sound

April 11th, 2006 radio

The 2006 Reith Lecture.

Yay.

General Elections

April 8th, 2006 Uncategorized

P.P wants new blood to be able to get the buy in of the younger generation but these candidates should not really be representation of the younger generation or else the white circle will be disrupted. None of the new candidates want to break the social fabric of their grassroots connections and therefore no one will raise issues I’m concerned about.

It is true that the society is conservative and we are all concerned about bread and butter, about the economic engine. In that sense, P.P has not stopped representing the issues the majority is keen on. To me, however, the P.P established their position as merely a bread and butter machine. They haven’t performed wonderfully on that score thus far . I’m sore being the generation that that faced recession and weak growth year on year, that didn’t get the goodies in the property boom, that had to get a pay cut to get a job – any job when the economy was bad.

In fact, with their stand on bread and butter, they seem to have stopped being a voice for the people. In fact, a few times in this GE they have blundered and agitated the masses. For instance, the tactic of delaying/denying upgrading of the opposition wards to Singaporeans, requirement to register blogs that will be commenting on politics.

They must start to worry soon, they who have no other strengths. The weave on the social fabric has changed and no one has any idea what to do about it without tearing the fabric. Notice these new candidates:

-Palmer hopes to raise awareness of sports in the community and encourage early learning among toddlers and babies. He also wants to help the post-independence generation and those caught in the middle class squeeze.

-Hri Kumar stressed education…(etc)

-Ellen Lee’s focus will be the difficulties many heartlanders face with the cost of living and to make sure their children receive as high a level of education as possible.
(From CNA)

They make me feel as though I should be content because I have no other important things to want.

They are lovely people, I’m sure, who have a great desire to contribute back to Singapore. What no one has thought about is this: what is the society they want to create: what is that difference? I am most definitely not a customer waiting to be served and the new candidates are not service persons saying “Good Morning, I’m so-and-so. How may I assist you?”

They just want to help. They didn’t realise that being educators, lawyers, doctors and good business persons, volunteers they have already helped.

But I do have something I want very much. I want to be sold a beautiful dream. Then I want to hold the winning party to the task of achieving that dream.