Random Musings

(Poster courtesy of Desmond Moey)

Because I was rather busy the last few days, I hadn’t been able to find the time to sit down and pen my thoughts on “Lost in Transit”, the musical presented by Musical Theatre Limited which is written by Stella Kon and Gavin Low, with lyrics by Stella and music by Desmond Moey.

It was staged at The Hall @ The Arts House, and from what I understand Musical Theatre Limited is the theatre-in-residence at The Hall @ The Arts House.

The Hall is a quaint little venue with a rather small stage that poses inherent size and design limitations to the production, but to the team’s credit they managed to work round these limitations very well.

Ok, now on to the review proper.

Now I am by no means an expert on the subject matter of musical theatre, so what I say would have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

My intention here is solely to pen down my honest thoughts and reflections upon viewing “Lost in Transit” as a fan of musical theatre, and I doubt that it would do anybody any good if I should say things which I do not necessarily stand by.

I shall just tell it like it is.

Perhaps, by listing out what I liked and what I didn’t like about the musical, it might help the producers of “Lost in Transit” improve the production in whatever way they can.

So here’s my two cents…for whatever it’s worth.

…

Programme Booklet

I liked that there was a programme booklet to mull over before the show started.

It always indicates to me that the producers of the musical actually care about their audiences when they take the time and effort to put together a nice elegant booklet, with song lyrics to boot!

The booklet looked great, it was printed in colour, and the paper used was beautiful.

However, the great pity was that the font size was miniscule.

I had great difficulty reading the rich content contained in the booklet under bright lighting…much less in the dim surroundings of The Hall.

If only the fonts were larger.

Another way in which the programme booklet could have been improved is if they could have included the full list of songs numbers, in chronological order, so that I can better remember which songs I heard that I liked.

This full song list is usually included in the booklet to most other musicals.

…

Music & Songs

Being an avid music-lover myself, I always tend to look out most for the songs in a musical.

And I’d have to say that the songs in “Lost in Transit” were brilliant.

Desmond Moey is a songwriter of great talent and ability, and I was particularly impressed with songs like “The River” and “Letters”.

There may have been a few other songs, but they escape my memory at the moment.

I found myself being moved by a number of the songs, which to me is always the mark of well-written songs.

There were songs of varying moods, styles and tempi, and I thought overall the music and songs in “Lost in Transit” provided a very solid basis for the musical.

A musical with too much fluff but weak songs would ultimately not stand up to the test…but in my opinion “Lost in Transit” has nothing to worry about in the songs department.

…

Performance

Well, with regards to the performances, I have nothing much to add really.

I felt that the actors all generally did very well, and the leads such as Bernice Tjong (“Mia”) and Eugene Ebio (“Sam”) delivered their lines well and sung beautifully.

Given a limited stage and set of props to work with, I thought they did admirably well.

…

Concluding Thoughts

Well, if there was one issue I had with the musical, it was that the story was a tad too predictable.

(I shall refrain from using the word “cliche”, as I think it’s not appropriate in this instance.)

I discussed it with my friend whom I caught the musical with.

We both came to the conclusion that it was almost as if you could predict exactly what was going to happen next, and what was going to be said next as well.

The lines were functional at best, though a little too predictable…and I felt that perhaps there could have been a bit more use of humour at opportune moments. (There were scant few humourous lines of note.)

Don’t get me wrong, “Lost in Transit” is a musical which is fundamentally very sound.

And essentially, I think that’s what I remember “Lost in Transit” as – A classic textbook-musical which is fundamentally very sound, is written by people who obviously know what musical theatre is all about, employs a good range of creative elements of musical theatre, and basically follows the tenets of musical theatre right to a tee.

Which is all well and good.

But audiences who are weaned on modern-day musicals with complex, convoluted plot-lines should take note that “Lost in Transit” does not belong to one of these.

In some ways you could say it is more “Oklahoma!” than “Avenue Q”, more “South Pacific” than “Wicked”.

Which isn’t always a bad thing.

One main question which I always ask myself is this: Did the musical move me at any point?

And my answer is, thankfully, “yes”.

Predictable as the storyline might have been, I was truly moved at the end when Mia and Sam expressed their undying love for each other.

And I think that’s the whole point of musicals – to move the audience. (I can’t say that I was sufficiently moved when watching “Wicked” or “Avenue Q”, to be honest.)

All in all, it is highly encouraging to see Musical Theatre Limited putting so much effort into “Lost in Transit”.

It’s great to see that promising musicals are being made and developed here in Singapore.

I wish them all the best and look forward to the day when “Lost in Transit” finally hits the big time.