forbidden city weekend
since i missed the previous performance few years back, i didn't hesitate when lion suggested watching this together, even when it means having to pay for the most expensive seats. i suppose because this repeat performance has been planned to coincide with the IMF meetings, the tickets were sold out really fast, and we really didn't have many days to play around with. this was also our (referring to the bf and me) first musical at the esplanade, the previous one was another local production, chestnuts, at jubilee hall last year. anyway, this musical about empress cixi was like a history lesson, especially since none of us have studied china history - all we knew was puyi was china's last emperor, and we were clueless about who tong zhi was (cixi's only son), and probably only vaguely heard of guang xu (her nephew who eventually took over and started the hundred days reforms). well, we know cixi has always been portrayed as a ruthless ruler, and it's interesting to note that the musical seems to indicate otherwise... and the story about cixi engaging an american artist to paint her portrait was actually true, and not pure fiction! (i always thought dick lee made up this part, haha.) and kate carl actually published a book about her experience... i wonder if we can still get a copy of this book?
although it still pales in comparison to broadway musicals (but hopefully catching up), the performance was still overall good. the three female leads - kit chan, and the two other actresses playing the older empress and kate carl - they all have very rich powerful vocals and sang very well, with a lot of emotions. other local faces include hossan leong and sebastian tan who acted as record keepers, added some humour to the serious plot and yup, we also spotted cynthia lee (she played ah girl on mediacorp tv series). i wasn't too impressed with the lyrics though, too repetitive, and a couple of times the actor's voice was not being projected to the audience.
i haven't dine at esplanade for the longest time... after the show, the weather looked slightly gloomy and being lazy to explore further, the two couples ended up at the garlic restaurant. the food was reasonable, although i think the standard has dipped slightly, and the colours of bay no longer allow cross-ordering! when they first implemented this concept, i thought it was really ingenious, what a waste. check out the thick fries, it's even thicker than the mos burger ones. if you know me well enough, you'll know that the salmon linguine was mine. :P too salty and too saucy though.
okay, i must rant about this before i forget! because of all the silly road blocks for IMF, we had to detour to get our car from shaw towers, and my heels eventually gave me blisters! and i must add that the assorted clusters of red, white and yellow chrysanthemums really made the place resemble a grave site (what the hell are the npark people thinking), the sunflowers nearer to the convention centre area were much prettier though.
scribbled at 8:42 pm
.::.
since i missed the previous performance few years back, i didn't hesitate when lion suggested watching this together, even when it means having to pay for the most expensive seats. i suppose because this repeat performance has been planned to coincide with the IMF meetings, the tickets were sold out really fast, and we really didn't have many days to play around with. this was also our (referring to the bf and me) first musical at the esplanade, the previous one was another local production, chestnuts, at jubilee hall last year. anyway, this musical about empress cixi was like a history lesson, especially since none of us have studied china history - all we knew was puyi was china's last emperor, and we were clueless about who tong zhi was (cixi's only son), and probably only vaguely heard of guang xu (her nephew who eventually took over and started the hundred days reforms). well, we know cixi has always been portrayed as a ruthless ruler, and it's interesting to note that the musical seems to indicate otherwise... and the story about cixi engaging an american artist to paint her portrait was actually true, and not pure fiction! (i always thought dick lee made up this part, haha.) and kate carl actually published a book about her experience... i wonder if we can still get a copy of this book?
although it still pales in comparison to broadway musicals (but hopefully catching up), the performance was still overall good. the three female leads - kit chan, and the two other actresses playing the older empress and kate carl - they all have very rich powerful vocals and sang very well, with a lot of emotions. other local faces include hossan leong and sebastian tan who acted as record keepers, added some humour to the serious plot and yup, we also spotted cynthia lee (she played ah girl on mediacorp tv series). i wasn't too impressed with the lyrics though, too repetitive, and a couple of times the actor's voice was not being projected to the audience.
i haven't dine at esplanade for the longest time... after the show, the weather looked slightly gloomy and being lazy to explore further, the two couples ended up at the garlic restaurant. the food was reasonable, although i think the standard has dipped slightly, and the colours of bay no longer allow cross-ordering! when they first implemented this concept, i thought it was really ingenious, what a waste. check out the thick fries, it's even thicker than the mos burger ones. if you know me well enough, you'll know that the salmon linguine was mine. :P too salty and too saucy though.
okay, i must rant about this before i forget! because of all the silly road blocks for IMF, we had to detour to get our car from shaw towers, and my heels eventually gave me blisters! and i must add that the assorted clusters of red, white and yellow chrysanthemums really made the place resemble a grave site (what the hell are the npark people thinking), the sunflowers nearer to the convention centre area were much prettier though.