THE LKY MUSICAL by Metropolitan Productions

“A Missed Opportunity”

Reviewer: Andre Theng
Performance: 25 July 2015

The LKY Musical is a competent production but is ultimately unremarkable and unmemorable.

[Some spoilers ahead]

It is not everyday that we produce an original Singapore musical, let alone one on the scale of The LKY Musical. Of course there is the inevitable presence of “foreign talent” in the production, for example the director, Steven Dexter, but this is as Singaporean as it gets.

This is a story set in Singapore, about a Singaporean by a largely Singaporean cast and with music written by one of Singapore’s best known composers, Dick Lee. The ambitious maiden production by Metropolitan Productions is staged at the Marina Bay Sands’ Sands Theatre. All this squares nicely with the recent passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and the SG50 celebrations – the musical runs right through National Day.

I expect a spectacular, epic musical, in the vein of historical musicals such as Les Miserables and Evita. I expect, in the words of The Straits Times’ Corrie Tan’s review of another musical, that this one will “bring out the universal in the very specific”.

Instead, the result is a history lesson that went through 24 years of history chronologically, covering the major events of Lee Kuan Yew’s early life. I imagine that Singaporeans will be familiar with the racial riots, the communist problem and merger and separation of Malaysia and Singapore. Somehow, I doubt that someone new to Singapore will be able to keep up with these events (or for that matter, that interested).

Here’s the thing. The LKY Musical is a perfectly competent, professional and pleasant production. It has a good cast, an interesting score and spiffy staging. Adrian Pang, who plays Lee, does a commendable job of playing the well-known personality. His singing is on-point and as one would expect, delivers in his role as Lee. The rest of the cast (all-male, save for Sharon Au, who played Lee’s wife) are also professional and perform well as a tight ensemble.

Yet, I cannot but conclude that this is a musical with many caveats, as a result of the minor quibbles I had which unfortunately all add up. Au cannot match Pang in acting and singing, and struggles with some of the singing parts (she speaks with an inconsistent and rather bizarre accent at times). In order to make up for the gaps in story-telling, the musical is drenched with multi-media clips, making the musical feel documentary-like. Dick Lee’s score is good, and has hints of the standard Broadway musicals, but alas, none of the songs are memorable or ‘hummable’ after the show. The three-storey set is large but hardly impressive, and does nothing to bring to stage life in the 1950s and 1960s.

Most of all, I bemoan the rather poor story-telling. While the musical has a central character, it lacks a central plot. Yes, it is good spin on our history, but really not much else. The fabled love story between Mr and Mrs Lee is barely explored, and the role of Mrs Lee in Mr Lee’s life seems to have been grossly understated. The musical is content on getting from point A to point B in an almost linear fashion. I am unsure if I am watching a biopic, a historical drama, or a documentary.

To be fair, The LKY Musical does pick up towards the end, and ends rather poignantly. Throughout the musical, the different National Anthems used in Singapore at different points of our history are integrated into the music, and it ends with the cast singing the National Anthem of Singapore.

Ultimately, I am disappointed that the whole thing feels like a missed opportunity; an opportunity to bring out the most compelling elements of Mr Lee’s life and to create something truly soaring and awe-inspiring. Instead, it stays far too close on the safe side and is best described as good, but unremarkable.

And so, the last caveat is as such – go ahead and watch it, but make sure you bring along some patriotic pride and sufficient affection for Mr Lee himself when you enter the theatre.