Les Miserables – A Singapore musical

 

The latest talk in town is about the two musicals commissioned to write about the life of LKY in time for the 50 year celebration next year. This has created a buzz unseen and unheard of in the arts scene for a long time. Even the winning of several awards by Anthony Chen with his Ilo Ilo movie pales in comparison. I just feel like dabbling and smoking about this new fuzz, oops, I mean buzz, and Sunday morning is about the best moment for such an intellectual or artistic pursuit or whatever you call it.

No, I don’t think I am up to it to write a musical. It is Greek to me and you need to be very talented individuals to do such a piece of work. Maybe Anthony or Jack Neo can have a go at it. Wait a minute, Jack Neo is Channel 8, so will be out of contention for sure unless the musical is to cater for the Chinese educated audience. That would put Ivan Heng a top contender for such a luminous project for his Channel 5 viewers.

The plots for the two musicals may have already been scripted by now. There must be plenty of plots and sub plots in the life of LKY to interest the audience. His life is the history of modern Singapore. Let’s hope the producers are not going to write about the founding of Singapore like they have done in every National Day or about the multi racial society. Have something new and novel. They are after all a musical and some fictions and dramatisation would be acceptable.

I think a musical in the likes of Les Miserables, Singapore version, on how LKY fought to liberate the people from poverty would be a nice one. We can see him taking to the streets fighting alongside the Hock Lee bus drivers or the port workers and with a finale showing how the lives of the workers have improved and become millionaires. And we can have Fish humming his favourite tune, ‘Do you hear the people sing’, with gusto in the background.

Did I hear ‘No’, I can feel so many people shaking their heads and giving me a dirty look. Why is that so? Ok, ok, let me try another title, ‘Showdown at the Cul de sac’. How about this, LKY taking his opponents one by one and coming out triumphant every time. We can bring in Donnie Yen or Sammo Hung to choreograph the fight scenes. The pinoy pacman would be in awe to see how the opponents were taken down and KO for good, while some simply fled the scene.

What? No good?  Too much violence? I thought violence sells. You people are hard to please. Or you prefer more mushy stuff like how he courted his wife and the never ending romance?

Ok, let me attempt another title, Fist fights in Parliament? This one would have historical values and history students would have a chance to see all the parliamentarians battling out in Parliament House. We can add some pepper and salt by introducing some fictional scenes of brawls and chairs throwing ala Taiwan style. Our celebrity MPs and ministers could also chip in, like Zorro with his whip or sword. Won’t that be dramatic and with a little comical distractions and reliefs?

Oh, the objections for this one is not so violent. Looks like I am getting somewhere. I hope the musicals would not make LKY look too wussy or less macho. Talking about this, I am sure the crying scene would be a must have. How to weave this into the plots? Should be no problem if the time frame goes back to the days of Malaysia. Can even include the singing of Negara Ku since musicals must have a lot of songs.

The possibilities and the amount of material available are so immense that two musicals would not do justice to this great leader. This reminds me of another possible title, ‘Dear Leader’. Ouch! Don’t you people have any sense of humour? Musicals can have many themes, sad, joyous, comedy, satirical, romance, corruption, injustice, oppression, historical or simply a musical with a lot of good music and theme songs. As long as the moral of the musical is good and a good ending. Better still if it can draw out the emotions of the people, with some having their hankies wet from tears, laughing or crying.

I can still hear Fish singing, ‘Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men. It is the music of a people, who would not be slaves again…’ How nice if LKY and Fish could sing this song together in the musical before the curtain falls and sing again for the encore.

Kopi level - Yellow