“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.

“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.