Sistic

These two Sistic tabs have been opened in my browser for a while. The urge to watch them both is so so strong!

 Got pretty excited when I saw a MOE staff offer for the Sinatra one – but that required 4 tickets of B reserve in order to be upgraded to the A reserve. Think I’d take my chances with the A reserve discounts.

I’ve been a fan of Sinatra’s music since too long ago, and to have a good cover singer come along and croon his melodies – the excitement is as palpable as when I watched Queen this June at MBS! Jersey Boys is one of those musicals whose music made it into the mainstream pop music culture.

This is all so bloody tempting – anyone keen? Bats eyelids.

If not I’d consider dragging the boy with me, but I’m not sure if he’s all that keen on Sinatra and Jersey Boys. Sigh.

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Theatre & Movies galore!

Had the luxury of watching the following in the last 10 days.

1. Wild Rice’s Romeo & Juliet

This was not on the radar originally – thought I’d give Wild Rice productions the occasional miss. Who knew, a colleague read the reviews and thought perhaps a few of us should go catch it before the curtains closed. So with our partners in tow, we managed to get tickets (and sat in Circle 2 of Drama Centre gulps) and caught it on 28 April. It was really good – except for the really far view, so our partners did doze off a little, and we were a little irked by the school girls seated in our same circle. It’s not as suggestive as the poster would suggest, but it’s a modern rendition of how Romeo & Juliet would be, with Old English, of course.

2. The Avengers

As of course, we watched it with the entire Singapore on 1st May – where I felt really suffocated in Vivocity for once. I’ve been waiting for this release since forever. All those teasing from sneaks and trailers after each and every Marvel movie – the wait was tortuous. Of course it was fun and witty – as expected. Loved the entire team put together, after watching them individually since forever. Everybody loves Ironman – who doesn’t love Robert Downey Jnr? Chris Evans was all hunky cute (didn’t help that I just watched What’s your number? over this weekend) and I thought Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) was pretty cute too! The boy thought Renner was a little 木頭 but I still thought he was cute. There was geek love in the theatre and everybody was just waiting for the end credits scene where they would tease, yet again, the next upcoming movie.

Iron Man 3 comes out next year, same time – May 3rd 2013, if I’m not mistaken. Marvel shows a new film to spell the start of the summer blockbusters without fail. We got lucky in 2011 – we had Thor, X-Men: First Class & Captain America. Now we’ve got to wait, all over again. Plus they are pushing back the filming to the sequel of X-Men: First Class to avoid a clash in filming schedules for Jennifer Lawrence, who needs to finish Catching Fire before going back as Mystique in the sequel of X-Men: First Class.

Blame the overloading of information from the combination of Wikipedia & Entertainment Weekly. I really should get down to reading of those comics that the boy passed me huh.

3. SRT’s Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night

 And as usual, they were good, really good. Roo – your friend was really awesome as Olivia!

For the last few years that we’ve been dating, we’ve always made it a point to go for Shakespeare in the Park without fail. It was Much Ado About Nothing in 2009, Macbeth in 2011 (they skipped 2010) and of course, Twelfth Night in 2012.

It was light hearted and funny. Adrian Pang totally stole the limelight. We got really lucky too – there was a very slight drizzle while we waited for the gates to open. The drizzle stopped when we had our picnic (we’ve gotten more efficient and smarter with our picnic buys every year) but it came back again as they started the first half. The drizzle came back again during the intermission, but eventually it went away in the second half.

Nothing too heavy for people to take out their umbrellas, but it made for a nice chilly evening.

To be able to watch Shakespeare under the stars with a perfect chilly evening and a perfect bag of chips (we’re addicted to Tyrrells English Crisps) – who could’ve asked for a better evening?

More movies & productions coming our/my way in May (for now):

• Movies: Dark Shadows, 21 Jump Street (very excited about this one!) & MIB 3
• Productions & Concerts: A Chorus Line (with Roo) & We Sing Our Songs (with the boy)

Can’t wait can’t wait!

Justin Bieber’s Baby

I’ve been humming this song for the last few days. Not the Bieber’s version, but this version:

Sigh. I miss that very night, where I watched the Bubs perform in The Arts House. And how I got up the courage and requested that they sing Sweet Caroline. Heart pumping moment, I must say.

Swoons.

Running out

of theatre-goers to watch productions with. Frustrated. Contemplates going alone.

For the later half of the year, we have the following:

1. We Sing Our Songs – 2 July, 6pm [tickets purchased]

2. Lion King – (Until 31 July)
I can’t believe I still haven’t watched them yet?! 

3. An Ode to Penguin – an exhibition housed at the Arts House, featuring some 1065 individual unique Penguin book covers as well as other Penguin memorabilia. (8 – 16 July – skipped)

4. Pluck – 17 July, 3pm [tickets purchased]

We saw them once during Esplanade’s Flipside and they were hilarious. Now they’re coming back and I am going to watch them again!

5. Dick Lee’s Beauty Kings (6 – 17 July)

 

6. Into the Woods (29 July – 7 August) [tickets purchased!]

 

7. Man Singapore Theater Festival – Cooling Off Day (10 – 14 August)

8. Man Singapore Theatre Festival – Family Outing (17 – 21 August)

I’ll figure something out. I will.

The Scottish Play

It was splendid! The cast was fabulous, it was riveting, engaging, exciting and I winced every time a gunshot sounded. Couple that with relatively humid weather with lightning flashing in the clouds (nature-added effects from the East where it was probably raining) – the impending doom of Macbeth felt real.

Before our show tonight, I actually read this and wondered if anything ominous had happened. Nonetheless, the show started and basically kept us on our toes (butts, since we were seated on the floors of Fort Canning Park) through the night, under the stars.

If you’re a fan of Shakespeare, you need to catch this. If you’ve studied Macbeth as a literature text before in your school days, you should also catch this. The three witches were really good too, captivating us with their outlandish outfits and actions. We had ourselves a nice picnic (Saybons, Bradswurst Shop and sushi!) and we were surrounded by mostly expats who enjoyed the night with largely wine, bread and cheese.

I can’t wait for May and June to come – so many shows coming along! Collected all tickets today at Centrepoint after using our Haagen Dazs voucher. Now, I just need to arrange for a time to watch The Lion King at MBS – plenty good reviews from many different sources. (: 

Sistic Reminders

Need to book the following:

1. HERSTORY她的故事 28 OR 29 May (3pm / 8pm)
2. SINGAPORE 3 June (8pm) OR 4 June (3 / 8pm) OR 5 June (8pm)
3. The Expat Wife 6 – 21 May (BOOKED! – 13 May, 8pm)
4. Macbeth 28 Apr – 22 May (BOOKED! – 30 April, 8pm)
5. Buddy Vs The Killer 5 – 8 May (Decided to give this a miss – too much for the wallet)
6. Sara Bareilles 11 May (BOOKED! – currently chilling to Sara Bareilles Radio on Last.fm yay! )
7. I love you, You’re Perfect, Now Change 9 – 19 June

I feel like I’m making up for a barren February. I watched I love A-Ai in March, and 881 in April. I need to plan my dates for May and June very wisely.

Plus, I should really buy Sara Bareilles really soon. Cat 4 running out of seats. Roo – Cat 5, 68sgd?

The Adjustment Bureau

It was a really fun movie. It had the elements of various genres, one part romance, one part depth, one part thriller, one part comedy and one part science fiction. It attempts to make you think, in a more subtle way than Inception. Inception throws the idea of “planting an idea in one’s mind” at you. The Adjustment Bureau, however, makes you wonder in passing moments, about free will, fate and chance.

I went in expecting nothing more than a mere thriller, having the briefest of an idea what the movie was about. I came out really excited about it.

<Spoiler – Highlight to read the spoiler if you’re interested! >

Totally loved the part when Thompson said “We stood back and humanity gave us the Dark Ages. We stepped in and gave you culture, Renaissance .. the Science Revolution. We left again in 1910, and within 50 years you gave the world World War I, followed by the Great Depression, the Holocaust, World War II and the Cuban missile crisis.”

<End of spoiler>

It’s a much recommended watch if you have the time! It made my Saturday a very good one, what with finding my perfect pretty digital watch (to replace the old), shopping to find school-appropriate sports attire, and having a good hearty dinner at the Esplanade.

Loving #livinglife, and my new blog theme!

Resolution: Once a month Production.

For the year of 2011:

1. January: Rocky Horror (OH SO GOOOOOD!)
2. February:
3. March: I Love A-Ai, 18 March 8pm, Drama Centre
4. April: 881 the Musical, 17 April, 3pm, Esplanade
5. May:
6. June:
7. July:
8. August:
9. September:
10. October:
11. November
12. December:

I swear I will fill this list up, slowly through the entire year. I will look back on 2011 and find that I have had a wonderful experience enjoying the arts this year. Am absolutely determined not to miss out on anything good! (:

Am still thinking of the following: Closer by Pangdemonium, Lion King at MBS, Mosaic Festival at Esplanade.

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A song that I heard when I watched Joanna Dong at the Esplanade a few days back. Loved the twist to it!

to all, a wonderful festive season ahead and a Happy Boxing Day!

I’ll be back with more later today. I think. You hope.

Getting ready to head out for a movie in the afternoon, and hopefully some shopping after that. Have been spending way too much, and eating wayy too much.

Totally enjoying this festive season! :)

For the first time…

Esplanade had a major technical glitch and it affect tonight’s Cinderel-LAH. The backdrop wouldn’t lift, and as a result we had to use our imagination for the first half of the show. Ivan Heng was pretty embarrassed by the entire situation and could not stop apologising profusely.

Cinderel-LAH!

For once (am not sure if it is the first time), drinks were on the house during intermission and the bar was mobbed on the first level. Managed to make my way to the bar counter, only to find everybody trying to catch the attention of the servers and the servers were crazily overwhelmed. Bottles were being popped non-stop and my request for 4 glasses of bubbly was satisfied by using one full bottle – all because they ran out of champagne flutes and had to use wine glasses instead.

Dear oh dear.

Apparently the technical team continued to try to fix the situation during the first half and it started working again in the second half after the intermission! Woots! Imagine the cheers that went up when the backdrops were being lifted for changes. Hurhur.

Cinderel-LAH was funny, the in-your-face kind. Quite cringe-worthy, because it was really pretty slapstick. I think I prefer Wild Rice with a little bit more grounding and less in-your-face humour. We figured they are trying to reach as many Singaporeans as possible, hence the crazy exaggeration and humour bits. For a night of fluffy laughter, it worked – but I’m not sure if I want future Wild Rice productions to be like this.

Hmmms.

Am thinking of Emily of Emerald Hill next March though, and Rocky Horror next January. Any takers?

Some famous songs from Rocky Horror, a rock n roll musical:

Damnit Janet

Sweet Transvestite

And of course,  Glee recently did its own take on it:

Time Warp

Really quite keen on Rocky Horror but prices can be a little steep. For the full story on Rocky Horror – click here. The strongest selling point of Rocky Horror for me, is simply the music – it’s Rock n Roll baby! Makes me think of my all time favourite musical – Rent.

I should get to bed. Leaving everybody with my favourite track from Rent:

Seasons of Love