When I bought the tickets to
Great World Cabaret, I was thinking.. WOW Mark, Judee, Sebastian and Hossan all
in one show .. CABARET STYLE … have to buy la. 4 blockbuster acts .. lots of
Hokkien laughs .. tickets will surely be flying. Quickly buy .. however, the
start of my disappointment came when I found out (on the day of the show) that they were separate .. one superstar
one week. I told myself .. its ok .. Mark Lee will be super funny too even if
it was for 1.5 hours. I was already contemplating buying tickets for the
Sebastian shows as well (super big fan of
Sebastian).
This was my first time to
the RWS theatre and I must say it is very nice. Very plush and grand. VERY UNLIKE THE MBS
MASTERCARD THEATRE which is grey and cold. I had super VIP seats
right in the middle of the theatre and plenty of legroom with even a little
table to put my drinks. ROCKSTAR SEATS. As it got nearer to 8pm, the
seats began to fill up. As the RWS theatre is very large, I was thinking would
it be possible for it to be full-house .. especially on the 3rd day
night of the Lunar New Year. Sadly, I was right .. it didn’t fill up.. it was
barely 40% filled.
The show then started.
(DISCLAIMER !!!
Before I continue, I must
stress that this is solely my opinion based on what I saw that night and
comparing to other plays and shows and theatre that I have seen previously. If
you do not agree, then go read something else. OK disclaimer done .. back to my
review.)
The show was a mess. It was
amateur and badly put together. The premise of the show was about this man who
is now elderly remembering the days when he was younger and working in a
carbaret show in Singapore in the 60s. The different 'segments' of the show
were like different 'acts' which used to be featured at a cabaret at that time.
The show opened with the big dance and song routine which though was very
bright and colourful just felt short of exciting. This was followed up by the ‘three
drunken sailors’ routine which was just unnecessary. There was no excitement to
it. Next came the singing /dancing act where 3 ladies came out to sing and
dance. The only one who stood out was the second lady singing ‘Bunga
Melur’ as Kartina Dahari. Rose Chan and Sakura Teng wwere just bad imitations. I
have seen Hui Xuan sing and dance before and this performance was muted and more
focus on ‘removing her clothes’ rather than on her singing and dancing (which I
know she is superb at). It did not help that the accompanying music drowned out
their voices (which was the common thing throughout the show).
The next ‘segment’ was the
Magic Show which was not too bad. One or two of the magic tricks were pretty
impressive but then the others were like again just so ‘ho-hum.’ The magician’s
assistant was applauding the magician more than the audience. This was followed
by the ‘Siglap brothers’ routine which I feel must be the worst thing I have
ever watched to date.
Mark Lee’s routine came next
and it was above average for the evening. To be honest, it really would not
have taken much to shine amongst all the other ‘segments’. He was funny in his
unique gangster-ah beng way and though
his jokes were very much cliché, his presentation and style made it all funny.
However, he was BARELY on stage for longer than 20 mins. The next act was the
Qing Dao Acrobatic troupe which was pretty good too. The stunts performed were
quite entertaining and suspenseful. This was followed by another song-and-dance
routine and rounded up with the entire cast (magician and acrobats included)
singing on stage.
Before I wrote this review,
I was read other reviews of this show. Generally the reviews from other
reviewers were more negative and positive. My view is that the show was hastily
put together and it showed. I was very surprised as it was directed by George
Chan and written by the highly dependable Alfian Sa’at. I guess the dancing was
well choreographed and there were not many lines in it anyway so it was not
fair to judge George and Alfian based on this show.
I was very disappointed with
the quality of the segments. It felt to me like lets get whoever wants to
perform, add a dash of star power in the form of Mark / Judee / Sebastian /
Hossan, add some nostalgic music and dancing and sell it to the public as a
SG50 show to teach the young about entertainment in the 60s. There narrative
which was meant to string the segments together was very flimsy, the quality of
the segments was really mediocre and it just all felt amateur. I doubt that a cabaret show in the 60s was in English and with an American accent too. It was
smart idea to push Mark Lee and Sebastian to lure the hokkien-speaking Aunty
crowd but just for 15 minutes?
I am very surprised that
Dream Academy came out with something of this low quality. I was very
surprised that 40% of the seats were filled (there were 30% discount coupons
being distributed in the Food court… and
IMHO .. it still wasn’t worth it). After watching ‘Great World Cabaret’ and ‘Dim
Sum Dollies : History of Singapore Part 2’ late last year, I am beginning to
wonder about the quality of productions by Dream Academy. I have nothing
personal against anyone in Dream Academy and Dream Academy itself. I have
always enjoyed their previous shows like Crazy Christmas and such but lately
the quality of their productions seem to be going down ... STEEPLY. Ticket
prices have increased and the
audience will surely want to watch something highly entertaining and fun. Studying the audiences reaction after the finale, I could tell that they were not
entertained at all. Very little laughter and applause throughout the show. When
the segments ended, it was more like .. “err are we supposed to clap now” kind
of reaction.
If anyone from Dream Academy
want to contact me about this review and what I think about the
show so that hopefully something can be improved, please feel free to. I will
be glad to share my experience with you so that we can improve the quality of
our local productions.
One thing’s for sure .. I
will not be buying tickets for the Sebastian variant of Great World Cabaret.
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