[The Flying Inkpot]Dragon Lady Diplomacy
倫敦? 百老匯? FC要往東又往西?
What our God in Heaven has in store? One Year More...
http://inkpot.com/theatre/06reviews/0916,forbiddecity,ny.html
Production: Forbidden City
Company: The Singapore Repertory Theatre
Reviewer: Ng Yi-Sheng
Date: 16/09/2006
Time: 3.00pm
Place: The Esplanade Theatre
Rating: ***1/2
Dragon Lady Diplomacy
I have a confession. I'm deeply distrustful of this show. It's Singapore's
most successful musical - first commissioned for the opening of the Esplanade,
now in its third run, greeted with interest by American investors who'd like
to adapt it for Broadway. Last week, it was presented with TheatreWorks's
Diaspora to IMF delegates as a representative of Singapore's theatre fare.
Forbidden City has become Singapore's cultural ambassador. And I hate that.
You see, I've got this anachronistic sense of patriotism, and in earlier
reviews I've explained how interested I am in theatre as an arena for
non-government voices to propose new definitions of national identity.
Composer Dick Lee has been an active participant in this process - his Beauty
World recaptured a lost moment of Singaporean history, while his more
international works like Fantasia and Nagaland projected us as a city in Asia
where different cultures could meet each other for dialogue.
Forbidden City, however, isn't concerned with Singapore. It's about the life
of Cixi, the famed Empress Dowager of China. It narrates her struggle for
survival behind the secret doors of the Forbidden City, maintaining her power
in the face of calumny from her own subjects as well as the English press.
All action takes place in China, and all characters are Chinese (or Manchu,
if you quibble) except for the British journalist George Morrison and the
American painter Kate Carl.
It's an exclusive celebration of the glory of imperial China. And that's
doubly troubling to me, because 1) it paints an exotic image of Asia that too
many Westerners associate with our country, and 2) it's a heritage embraced
by the many Singaporeans who embrace their Chinese ethnicity rather than
their non-Chinese citizenship.
As a big, commercial musical, however, I've got to concede it's rather good.
Forbidden City has pretty much everything your regular fan of musicals could
ask for. You want songs? The introductory number Dragon Lady is thoroughly
hummable even two weeks after the production, and I'm extremely satisfied
with Dick Lee's harmonies and arrangements, as well as with Stephen Clark's
consistently polished lyrics. You want drama? The vicissitudes of Cixi's rise
and fall are well paced, and the strategy of telling her story through the
eyes of a Western portraitist works remarkably well for an audience that's
not immediately familiar with the world of the 19th century Chinese court.
There's also comic relief from the Record Keepers played by the infallible
comedians Hossan Leong and Sebastian Tan, and some light (but not overpowering)
romance. The glitzy Broadway trimmings weren't quite of international standards
- costumes were pretty without being stylised, the set was versatile and
minimalist rather than a showcase of opulent spectacle, and the dancing was
merely decent - the wushu-inspired choreography of Now China Has a Son turned
out a wee bit nancy, in fact, due to the unconvincing pugilism. Nonetheless,
the performance was definitely comparable to the classics of the musical
comedy genre. I was especially impressed with the pacing - the pattern of
reprises and repetitions worked superbly through the three hours of play,
with the chaotic politics of the second act conveyed on a solid wave of
music and emotion, barely interrupted by unsung dialogue.
So on the whole, I can't help but recommend the show to traditional fans of
musical theatre. It's a crowd-pleaser on multiple levels, coming out much
stronger than previous commercial musicals in Singapore such as Chang and Eng
or The Admiral's Odyssey. One can't judge a musical using the same criteria
as an experimental play - after all no-one expects the piece to be
ideologically groundbreaking; it's just a feast of eye and ear candy for an
evening's pleasure.
What hurt this performance in the end, really, was the insufficient acting
skills of the leads. Kit Chan and Sheila Francisco played the young and the
old Empress respectively, and neither was able to portray the character's
critical moments of vulnerability, let alone convey her as a complex,
three-dimensional character. Leigh McDonald gave a more developed rendition
of Kate as an individual torn between loyalties, though the individual
idiosyncrasy of the character didn't shine through - plus, her American
accent was slightly inconsistent. The drama survived such weaknesses, though
- it became less heartwarming, but loftier and more epic, populated with
grand personalities rather than mere humans.
In spite of all these strengths, I'm still concerned at the prospect of
Forbidden City being treated as the iconic Singapore musical. Taken alone, it
misrepresents Singapore identity as an offshoot of Chinese heritage - I mean,
hell, the only song that hints at diasporic identity is a lament entitled
Land of Our Fathers. And what if this show becomes accepted as the template
for the model local musical? We could soon be knee-deep in Chinese and
Japanese period dramas in English - selling ourselves abroad on the basis of
our Asian features much more than a sense of our own history.
Yet against all expectation, I've realised I'm actually hoping Forbidden City
makes it to Broadway. It'd be a moment of private pride, like your JC prom
queen going to Miss Universe, and it could open doors for the whole of the
Singapore theatre community. Most Americans could do with a little more
education on Asian history, and with its backdrop of the Opium Wars, the show
brings up issues of colonialism and the mudslinging of foreign politicians
that remain relevant and sadly unacknowledged, even today.
Maybe it'd be best if the Singaporean provenance of the musical is only known
to the big players of the theatre industry - maybe with their help we can
export Fried Rice Paradise, lest the outsiders assume we're a monocultural,
insular province longing to be geographically reunited with the mainland. Or
possibly a future work from the creators of this musical could be put on
there - Dick Lee, Stephen Clark and SRT Artistic Director Gaurav Kripalani
aren't "Chinese chauvinists" by any means, and Dick hass recently announced
his intent to craft a musical based on the Ramayana.
Let's just not allow Forbidden City to be the definitive dramatic text for
Singapore. We've got much more to say about ourselves which can't be spoken
through the ventriloquism of "mother" cultures - the success of Alfian
Sa'at's The Optic Trilogy in Germany and Scandinavia is testament to the wide
range of options we have in creating internationally marketable theatre.
Let's not pour unjustified scorn on the musical, either - if we as citizens
don't trust our cultural ambassador, we don't assassinate it. We start
working on giving birth to a new one.
--
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