THE LKY MUSICAL by Metropolitan Productions

“The LKY Musical”

Reviewer: Jemima Yong
Performance: 2 August 2015

Metropolitan Productions spins the compelling story of Singapore’s founding prime minister’s political coming-of-age into a disinfected piece of kinetic museum diorama. Verily, the LKY Musical will probably receive top marks as a piece of national education but it falls short as a piece of art. Sorely lacking in heart, the production is safe, efficient, well-funded and technically competent, perpetuating the dated “all hardware, no software” myth frequently projected onto Singapore itself.

In the midst of the crowded platform of contemporary tributes and collective nostalgia guided by the SG50 campaign, the mediocrity that is the LKY Musical begs us to consider the quality of legacy we want to receive and construct. It is slightly more measured a historical narrative than a 90’s primary school social studies textbook – Lim Chin Siong is mentioned for starters and not entirely vilified – the question still remains: why retell the national narrative via a musical based on Lee Kuan Yew’s life? Why not a Lim Chin Siong musical? Or a Kwa Geok Choo musical?

Certainly, there is no lack of public record or documentation of Mr Lee’s life. He was passionate, uncompromising, determined and ambitious. He was emotional; the love he shared with his wife was clear; he cried on live television for his country. And yet his biopic-musical is strangely unmoving and emotionally un-engaging. The business-like treatment of pace, broad stroked depictions of events and thinly written characters make for bad storytelling. Takis’ set is beautiful but used with little imagination.

The fundamental problem lies not with the actors. They do all right considering what they are given. Pang executes an impressive impersonation of LKY but Sharon Au struggles as Kwa Geok Choo. Dick Lee’s score, congested with musical tropes, adds little other than commercial appeal to a larger audience. I suspect the monolingual depiction of a multilingual society was a decision made with similar intent – apart from the odd opening line, the entire production is performed in English. One of the more compelling characters Koh Teong Koo (the trishaw man) played by Sebastian Tan, is a popular highlight not only because of his comedic timing, but also because he manages to capture a colloquialism in his dialect that is so identifiably Singaporean. Perhaps expanding that colloquial quality throughout the piece may have elicited more direct access and add richness to the work.

What this production fails to realise is that regurgitating the happy-clappy party line is not the way to create fondness, affection and unity. There is more to the Singapore spirit than clean walls and slick transitions. Dim Sum Dollies and their History of Singapore series as well as Sonny Liew’s graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye both show that it is possible to conceive thought-provoking and nuanced work that celebrates a spirit of Singapore founded in its community, its rhythm and its humour – warts and all.

Theatre can be empowering without being expositional, it can be moving without being sentimental, it can be urgent without being pedantic. We can celebrate this country as what it is just as well as we celebrate what it should be. The LKY Musical was a missed opportunity; a luxury we cannot afford.