From the start, the idea of setting the life of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first Prime Minister, as a musical was puzzling. After all this was a man known for his no-nonsense approach, whose focus was on economic development with little interest in the arts. So imagining him singing on stage was always going to be a bit of a stretch.Three years in the making, the opening of The LKY Musical was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the small island’s independence. But with the passing of the political giant in March, a new dimension was added.The script by American playwright Tony Petito is overly ambitious covering more than 24 years, bouncing quickly from Lee’s student days at Raffles College where he met Kwa Geok Choo, whom he would later marry, to his life during the Japanese occupation, their formative years at Cambridge University, and his work as a lawyer including help given to unions, before focusing on his political struggles first to persuade the Malayan leaders to take in Singapore to break away from British colonial rule and then later full independence.Unfortunately, too much time is spent on a story that has been told often and is therefore already very well known, while providing no fresh insight, the musical turns out to be a fond remembrance, checking off the main events of his early life, with very little emotional or entertainment value.Beside Lee (ably portrayed by Adrian Pang), most of the other characters are underdeveloped. Lee’s relationship with the charismatic trade union leader Lim Chin Siong (well played by newcomer Benjamin Chow), is given room to develop but the tensions are telegraphed. Meanwhile all the other important characters in Lee’s life at the time are quickly glossed over, with comrades in arms, such as S Rajaratnam, Goh Keng Swee, and Toh Chin Chye footnotes in the story arc, and Malaya’s Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman’s role is so over simplified he is essentially portrayed as being only interested in playing poker — any suggestion that his success in politics was related to ruling with a poker face missed the mark —while Lee’s beloved wife is little more than a stern, rather impassionate woman.The three-story set by designer takis allows for quick and easy changes of scene and proves an effective canvas for the multimedia projections. The musical score by composer Dick Lee is largely unremarkable and suffers from long chunks of dialogue in between each musical interlude so one is left wanting either more or none at all - the latter option would have helped actress Sharon Au who lacked range and power in her singing.The LKY Musical runs until Aug 16, 7.30pm, at the MasterCard Theatres, Marina Bay Sands.
↧