One of the world's most talked-about musical, Singin' in the Rain is now playing at the MasterCard Theatres to delight the Singapore audiences.
Read our review below!
Set in 1972, the musical tells the story, made famous by Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in the iconic 1952 movie. If you're wondering, yes, this production uses a lot of recycled water to create 'rain', and the most famous dance routine where Don Lockwood taps and sings in the rain.
Playing Lockwood is Duane Alexander, a triple threat performer who shares with InCinemas that playing Lockwood feels like a 'dream come true'.
"I've been a fan of the show ever since I was six or seven. As a little boy wanting to dance, and to know that in 2015, I get to go on stage every night and perform this musical, it's very surreal and it does feel like a dream come true."
He added: "The audiences love it when they get splashed! The first few rows are always the hottest seats in the theatre. The reaction each night is always different and it's great to watch them enjoy it."
Singin' in the Rain
Date: 9 - 26 Jul 2015
Venue: MasterCard Theatres, Marina Bay Sands
Ticket Pricing: $65 - $195
Review:
Just as the commercial realm of motion pictures faces a revolutionary time of change, an unknowing couple finds their lives fatefully intertwined and revived by a newfound love that took them (and the audience) by storm. A torrential storm that brings about over 12,000 litres of rainwater every time their story is performed, as the highly acclaimed West End production finds its way to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Mastercard Theatres this July and showers glamour, love, and even rainfall in great volumes upon all.
Set in Tinseltown during the late 1920s where the business and lifestyle of show biz is dazzling and beautiful, everybody loves a great movie with magnetic screen actors. Much like how people escape to a better world in cinema, it is a time when people seeks bright prospects, hopes and romance, at every door of opportunity.
Singin’ in the Rain is a lovely tale of Don Lockwood (Duane Alexander), a rising actor who faces not only a career dilemma but also one at heart, and aspiring actress Kathy Seldon (South African actress Bethany Dickson, who’s known for her musical performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber`s The Sound of Music).
An era when silent movies were the norm would soon experience an imminent tide of change when a rival studios commercially screened The Jazz Singer in October 1927 to raving reviews and demand. Talking pictures (or talkies) might have shown the world vast possibilities of cinema previously unknown to all, but it also posed nervous technical challenges to most studios.
Jonathan Church’s production cleverly devises some of the most hilarious scenes using the unfamiliarity of sound-on-film, particular the scene of the test screening of a new talkie The Dancing Cavalier starring Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont (superbly played by Taryn Lee-Hudson) when the crew’s lacklustre experience with sound recording and treatment quickly transforms the film into the biggest comedy in town.
Frustrations brew and beget further frustrations, but it doesn’t stop the studio bosses and actors from trying. Gradually, they accept what is meant to be the trend of future and embrace it with all their might. This is when it gives birth to delightful cinema genres like dancing musicals, which is visually (and extensively) depicted in a highly choreographed scene where Don’s best friend Cosmo Brown’s (Steven van Wyk) imagines his concept pitch to the studio boss.
Diction is all the rage where the actors specifically undergo training classes, which incidentally brings about some of the show’s most lively entertainment. Lina’s unique pitch-silly voice simply doesn’t ensure her continued success as a movie star in the new era of talkies.
We are also treated to one of the more tender moments in singing monologues, which provide a little more context and care into the perspectives of characters on stage. Such is seen in Lina’s interlude “What’s Wrong With Me?”, which interestingly sends many into tears of laughter (not knowing whether to laugh or cry).
In the same spirit of the film industry’s journey of change and progress, courage is needed for silent filmmakers to make the cross over to talkies and also for Don and Katie to indulge in love. Such courage sends Don into one of the most spectacular scenes in the show – “Singin’ in the Rain”, which brings on the massive mind-blowing water upon the stage. Tapping and dashing across puddles of rainwater (that sends some right upon the front row audience), Almirall transforms from a wooden silent film actor into a talkie star who’s fully capable of expressing his raw emotions.
Simply describing Singin’ in the Rain as a production blessed with great technical and visual production values is only an understatement as most of them are accentuated by the cast and orchestra. This is most appreciated as the show goes through dilemma, diction, drama and delight.
Without the cast, rainfalls are merely droplets and not the sprinkles of elation expressed by Don. The dazzling neonlights would only be signs of deliberate vice if not for the sharply executed dance moves to bring out the sensuality of the night.
Without the orchestra, musical numbers would be as shallow as a silent motion picture. Elaborate parties and celebrations would have been as dull as Lina’s harshly discordant voice if not for the influential music of mood.
This musical spectacle only gets better and better as the seconds go by throughout the nearly three-hour spectacle of fun and joy with astonishing music, dances, gags and heart-warming moments of love. If there is only time for one show this summer, it will only be wise to go Singin’ in the Rain.