《再见爱》The Musical : Feb-10

Hong's mandarin musical debut on the weekend before Chinese New Year, and they had nine runs in all with the final performance on Chinese New Year cum Valentine's Day!

Nine family and close friends bought tickets to support him on his second-night performance. Of course Victor and I were among the nine.. and there was Papa, Mummy, QQ, Jiun, Florence, Kai-ma, & mummy's next-door neighbour Aunty! That Saturday show was a full-house and we were sitting on the second last row of the cozy theatre.. It's really cozy considering its 70-ish seat capacity and the second last row was really the third row! The venue was a novelty, the lack of backdrop was a novelty, and the entire presentation was a novelty too. I have never attended any play or musical whose producer and director emerge after the finale to ask the audience for feedback and at the same time offer any background or explanation to the production! I would have imagined the exchange would have been the most interactive part and one of the highlights of the evening, but alas, Singaporeans must be among the most reserved crowd in the world!

The mandarin musical was very well executed. Although the 7-pax cast boasted of almost all fresh faces, no one, well.. almost no one, forgot his or her lines; every actor or actress who came on stage knew his or her part very well, and sang very well too. Hong was very impressive - how could he memorize his lengthy script so well?? My only remorse was not being able to bring Qiqi and Xuanxuan along for their QQ's first leading musical..

Nevertheless, the opportunity to bring Qiqi and Xuanxuan to watch《再见爱》came when I won 2 free tickets in the 100.3 radio contest after they interviewed 玖健 and Hong!! I was very excited and even bought a bouquet for our male lead that night - something I had kicked myself over when nine of us turned up empty-handed with nothing to encourage our budding artiste..

Qiqi and Xuanxuan were the first to enter the theatre that evening and we sat right in the centre of the very first row, where we caught every subtle expression of each actor and actress on stage! And I really get to appreciate the devotion and the exquisite acting skills of all these fresh faces, Hong inclusive. I was very to be able to watch the show for a second time.. to support Hong and to catch up on the details I have missed on my first show.. :)