Love (For Musicals) Never Dies

So, as the title suggests, this post is mainly on Love Never Dies and musicals in general.

I have not seen a lot of musicals in my life and most of the musicals I've caught are on my travels. Sadly, there just isn't enough places in Singapore for the local arts community to thrive.

I've caught a few local productions before, but they are not like the big budget West End or Broadway. It's just different and so, should not be compared. Most of the other big productions usually stopover here for two to four weeks on tour before moving on to other cities.

Sure, we have made strides in recent years, such as bringing The Lion King here, being one of only two Asian cities (the other being Tokyo) to host this musical. I was lucky to catch it locally at one of the earlier shows with a fellow musical-lover, Claire.

But I'm not here to moan about the arts scene in Singapore, that will take an entire post altogether. So on to the main point. Musicals, specially, the magic of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I first caught The Phantom of the Opera when the international production came to Singapore in May 2007 and played at the Esplanade Theatre for two months. Prior to that, I've already heard the musical on CD countless times.

Fast forward 3 years, in the summer of 2010, I caught the original London production at Her Majesty's Theatre, not once but twice.

Her Majesty's Theatre, London.

The first show I caught was on 31st July 2010, and I got the cheapest tickets available because my travel mates were unwilling to shell out more, which is perfectly understandable since musicals isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Cheapest tickets already costs £25.

The £25 tickets is comparable with the prices for lowest-tiered tickets in the Singapore tour, which was about S$50, only that the view was better in the show I caught in Singapore.

On the super long climb to our seats, I knew the view will be pretty shitty.

It was.

We were on the very last row of the theatre and I could hardly see a darn thing. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the show and it was a sold-out show.

So I went back for another show. I watched it with Hwei Yun, who was in London on holiday. And we watched it on National Day, 9 August 2010. Which explains why we were both dressed in red, I even told her to bring along a mini Singapore flag but thankfully, she forgot, else we'll probably end up embarrassing ourselves!

Far from home and feeling patriotic! Sold out show again!

This time, we brought tickets to the best seats in the house.

It was £62.50, which is approximately S$130.

And the view was much, much better.

"Wah, so close till can see the faces of the performers leh!"

They allowed us to take photos of the stage prior to the show start. It was simply magical. I walked away much more satisfied than I was the last two times I caught the show.

And with quite a number of merchandise too.

~~

In fact, I loved it so much, I decided to catch Love Never Dies. Okay, I lied, I had intentions to watch LND even before I made the trip to London. Haha.

Again, I brought the highest-tiered ticket. Can't remember how much it cost though.

I caught the show on 4 August 2010, in between the two times I watched Phantom. At the time, it was the ONLY place in the world you can catch LND. I watched it alone because I did not manage to find anyone to go with me.

It was playing at the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand, around The West End (I think).

The Adelphi Theatre, London.

The Adelphi was originally not black in colour and there's a funny story behind how it was painted black. Illegally. And it reportedly got Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber fined £20,000 for painting the theatre black.

I was lucky enough to catch a show where both Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess played the lead roles of Phantom and Christine Daae. They were both simply amazing. Their voices, OMGee, heart melt!

Karimloo is currently still playing as the Phantom in the London production, while Boggess has moved on to another project. Prior to playing Christine Daae in LND, she was playing as Christine in Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular, which is basically a 90-minute condensed version of the original. Some might also remember her as the one who played Ariel in The Little Mermaid musical.

I couldn't take photos inside the theatre because the musical was still very young and under-going constant improvements. So copyright issues are still very tightly controlled.

Not that there was anything to take though. The stage curtain was simply a black screen with the mask of the phantom, much like the one set up in front of the theatre entrance. The stage was simple at best with no real elaborate design or set up, and relied heavily on CGI for certain parts of the show, which is a disappointment given the success of the extensive usage of props and stage design in the Phantom of the Opera.

Prior to the show, all I knew was that it was the sequel to Phantom and whatever I read of the synopsis. At that time, the show played out exactly the way it did on the original cast recording.

And I must say, I was a little confused at the beginning of the show. I did not figure out that the show started with a flashback with Madame Giry and Fleck until I went back and listen repeatedly to the cast recording CD.

But nevertheless, it was still a very good production given the talent and of Karimloo and Boggess, as well as the chemistry of the principal characters. It was bittersweet too because (spoiler!!) Christine died in the end :(

I especially like the parts which incorporated certain musical elements of the original Phantom into the new numbers of this show. So I loved it. So much so that...

I left with quite a lot of merchandise, again :D

But I must be one of the few who loved it because the show was panned by critics, and ticket shows have not been fantastic. So much show that the London production will close on 27 August this year, a run of only 18 months. And with plans for a Broadway and Asian touring production in limbo, I figured that I probably would not get a chance to see it anytime soon.

~~

So little did I expect that in the summer of 2011 (well, it's winter in the southern hemisphere), that I will get an opportunity to catch the Melbourne production of Love Never Dies!

This time around, I had not planned to catch it as I did not know that the Melbourne production was up and running. My trip to Melbourne (which I will post in due time, I hope) was mainly to visit Merser.

So when I found out that the Melbourne production was up and running, I immediately skype Merser to get her to help me book the tickets! Thankfully, she agreed to catch the show with me (despite the fact that she had not caught the first show)!

We got the highest-tiered tickets, but at concessionary prices because we were, technically, still students. Haven't attended convocation mah. Meh.

I think it was A$105 for the ticket. About S$130+.

We caught the show on 3rd July 2011 at the Regent Theatre, which prior to hosting LND, it hosted Wicked (which by the way, is another fantastic, amazing musical).

The Regent Theatre, Melbourne.

Inside the theatre.

This time lighted in red, which is very much the colour I will associate LND with.

Not wearing red this time cos National Day still a month away!

I was very much looking forward to this show because I read so much about the rewrites and wanted to see how much the show has changed. I spent the days leading up to the show explaining to Merser what happened in Phantom so she won't get confused over what the show is about.

Once inside, I was already impressed by the stage set up.

I snapped this photo before they announced that we weren't allow to take photos. Oops.

And from the start, the show was already different from the show I caught in London (due to the rewrites).

They got rid of the original start of the Madame Giry flashback and dived straight to one of my favourite numbers in the entire musical - Till I Hear You Sing.

It was lovely. By the way, the two you see in the video above are Karimloo and Boggess :) Charismatic (isn't he?) and beautiful (isn't she?).

It was a far better way to get into the story as it leaves us with no doubt about the background of Love Never Dies, more in line with the synopsis. The lyrics is also very slightly different from the original cast recording, due to the rewrites.

The same can be said for the rest of the musical. The musical numbers remain largely the same as the original cast recording, with slight changes to the lyrics and the characters singing the numbers. The sequencing of certain numbers was also jumbled up.

For instance, "Only For Him/Only For You" was a number with Phantom, Madame Giry and Meg Giry in the original version, became a duet with Madame Giry and Meg Giry after the rewrites.

I also love it that more musical elements from the original Phantom of the Opera was incorporated into this new version of LND.

Halfway through the show, I was half hoping that the ending is changed (as was reported) such that Christine won't die. Well, the ending was indeed changed, but Christine still died in the end. The change was such that Raoul came back onstage again with Gustave, instead of Gustave returning alone. It was also a better change as I felt it tied in back to the original Phantom of the Opera better, reminding me of the principal characters of the first show.

The stage setup and design was far more elaborate than the London one a year ago. It uses far more props and no CGI screen! More like a musical.

Overall, I loved the Melbourne production way more than the London show I caught a year ago. The leads were also very good, though I still preferred Karimloo and Boggess.

Incidentally, Karimloo and Boggess will be reprising their roles as the Phantom and Christine Daae in the 3-show-only London's 25th Anniversary Concert of The Phantom of the Opera in October 2011. How I wish I can be there. Even if I am in London, tickets to the concert has been sold out months ago.

It was also recently reported that the Melbourne production will be made into DVD soon. If it is true, it will definitely be a great addition to my LND and Phantom merchandise!

Korea 2011 - Day 7: Seoul (서울) - Singapore (新加坡)

Well I've put off this post for quite some time, mostly because I am lazy. But I'm glad I finally decided to get down to it because it would mean I've successfully finish writing about one trip! That's quite an achievement for me!

So let's get down to it. Our last day in Korea is a pretty low key affair, par one or two minor incidents.

We slept in and checked out late because there wasn't much on the agenda today. That's mainly due to the fact that our flight back to Singapore is around 6.30PM (local time) ,which means we have to be at the airport around 4PM.

~~

Our first destination was, in our guide's words "the widest road in Seoul."

I quoted him because I can't remember what is the name of the road.

In the middle of the road was a monument dedicated to one for the legendary generals in Korean history. Again, I can't remember what his name was. (In my defense, this was an unplanned pit stop and I was sleeping on the coach prior to this pit stop.)

If you noticed, the general is holding his sword on his left-hand. This despite the fact that his right hand was his master arm. The reason for this is because he always appear in public with the sword on his left-hand to symbolise peace. At the same time, if Korea's enemies try to be funny with him, he'll hack their heads off!

There's not much to do around this area, shopping or otherwise. So...

Expecting something else?

Near the monument, there's an exhibition about the Korean war in the 1950-1953.

It reads: "The most countries to support an ally in war is 67 and was achieved by nations supporting the Republic of Korea during the Korean War of 1950-1953."

Guinness Books of Records leh. Don't play play. It is a war, that technically, has not ended, and led to the division of the country and the establishment of the Demilitarized Zone.

The flags of all the 67 nations were flown in the exhibition.

There was quite a heavy police presence around the exhibition and I was told this was due to the fact that a protest took place around the area a few days ago. Not quite sure what the protest was about though.

Near the exhibition was a river, again I can't remember what the name of the river is.

This river used to be really dirty and clogged (sounds like our very own Singapore River), but the government ordered an extensive clean up operation (again, like Singapore River) to bring it to the way it is now.

Very clean, as you can see.

It's summer and also the school holidays, so there're kids playing by the river banks.

Not to worries though, the river is only slightly deeper than ankle-deep.

We spent only about 40 minutes around this area before heading out to our next destination, a major shopping area.

~~

It was around the Sinchon Train Station.

Sinchon Station. It's damn freaking big.

This shopping district is well know also because one of the country's best university is located. More on that later.

This was where we parted ways with the Thong family (with the adorable Chloe and Russell) and the grad-trippers Yi Hui, Peck and Audry.

Not before we took a group photo with the two Mr. Kims!

Yi Hui and I also took a photo with Stitch :)

Yes, yes. Cue the scandalous rumors (-.-)'''

Apart from myself, I think she has the most photos of Stitch in her camera among the grad-trippers!

We then parted ways and went on with our shopping, etc.

The streets are very much like Bugis Street, nothing out of the ordinary. So I decided to visit the well-known Ewha Woman's University. Around the university are shops selling anything but textbooks! Sounds like our very own Singapore Management University (SMU), located in the heart of our city.

It is widely regarded as the top women's university in S. Korea, and the largest women's university in the world. It is one of a number of women universities in S. Korea, what I heard is that these universities are set up exclusively for women because the founders (obviously women) wanted every women in the society to be well-respected.

The University's main entrance.

Like our universities, they also have an open campus so members of the public can walk in and out freely. With nothing to shop for, I decided to take a walk around the campus.

Country to the popular belief, and as the name of the university, suggests, it is not exclusively for the ladies only. This policy is only true for the locals. There are male students around, though its only 1%-2% of those I saw.

These male students are foreign exchange students. How do I know this? That's because Ewha Woman's University is a partner university for NTU's exchange programme. And we were told that guys can apply for exchange spots there too.

The university's infrastructure really puts NTU's green campus to shame.

I can't speak for NUS and SMU, but having been to both campus, I can safely say that Ewha's campus is a whole lot larger than all our three local universities.

Their buildings have a rather Victorian design, yet, the facilities are certainly very new and well-kept.

We spent about 1 hour half in this area and prepared to set off to the airport. We made a quick uneventful pit stop at one of the wholeseller for folks to do some last minute shopping for snacks and gifts. Uneventful, so no photos.

~~

We reached the airport around 4PM local time.

While our Singaporean guide, Sally checked in for us, we were busy taking photos with our local guides.

Me with Mr. Kim I

Me with Mr. Kim II aka Superman

After checking-in our luggage and saying our goodbyes, we entered the customs and grabbed a quick meal before boarding our flight.

It was quite a walk from the gate to the plane! At least a good 2-3 minutes walk!

Got escalator some more!

Bye bye, S. Korea :(

~~

Epilogue

Roughly two weeks after our return, I met up with the grad-trippers and the Thong family for dinner. It was a Friday and we met after work. I came from town too because I went for a pre-employment medical check-up that afternoon.

Dinner at Swensens, J8.

I used this as an opportunity to pass them my photos but I forgot to bring the CD for Russell and Chloe! I haven't gotten around to posting the CD to them, I'd better get it done before I start my career >.<

We also updated each other what happened after we parted ways that day. Mainly, it was me hearing about what they did for the three extended days. The ladies told us about their trip to the DMZ while the Thongs told us about their dining experience in a local restaurant (no unlimited refills like we had with the tour. Haha.)

But what touched us grad-trippers the most is that the two lovable kids made cards for us!

Damn cute right!

Thanks Chloe & Russell! Jie-jies and Kor-kor are very touched! :))

When we're not talking to the kids, we chatted about our careers and Mr. Thong was sharing his experience working in the banking/finance sector, something that some of us will find familiar.

We dined at Swensens (Thanks for treating us, Mr. & Mrs Thong!) and had Yogurt and Coffee Bean after, before parting ways close to 11PM.

Made a lot of good friends on this trip that I'll treasure loads!

~~

Sneak preview of my next post!

The Adelphi Theatre, London

Love Never Dies! The sequel to one of the longest running musicals of all time, The Phantom of the Opera.

I know that I'm extremely backlogged, with my Europe Summer '10 Escape, 3 Hong Kong, 1 Taiwan and the recent Melbourne trips not done. But I just came back from Melbourne a few days ago, and caught the Melbourne production of Love Never Dies and it was simply amazing I can't wait to share with y'all about it!

Having caught the original London production and the new, re-written version in Melbourne. I shall merge both experiences into one post!

Will try to get this post out by the end of the week, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading! <3

Korea 2011 - Day 6: Seoul (서울)

After the rushing and (at times, literally) running over the last few days, the coming days slowed down considerably.

Day 6 started late, and come to think of it, I can't even remember what we had for breakfast. Namely because I did not take any photos of it.

Shopping was high on the agenda today.

After breakfast, we visited the Ginseng outlet.

They claim that Korea is the only place where Ginseng can be found. It was also here that the grad-trippers are really segregated (wallet & budget wise) from the rest of the tour group.

The cheapest item on sale? Around SGD 300 for a pack of 12 low-grade, honey coated ginseng roots. There are items that goes up to the thousands and there were families that left the place in BOXES of ginseng products. BOXES! Gosh! I don't even want to disclose how much I heard was spent.

We also visited this water crystal outlet, which did not remotely interest me.

Finally, we visited one of the thousands of facial product shops.

It was here I purchased some of the Face Shop products for Mery and Connie. Wah lau, I haven't even brought anything for myself.

No photos were allowed at any of the above places for proprietary reasons, so I didn't take any. Not that there's anything interesting to see anyway.

We had lunch thereafter, at the same restaurant we had lunch the day earlier.

More steamboat for lunch, what else do you expect?

As we were early in our shopping ventures earlier, Mr. Kim decided that we had the time to make an unscheduled trip to the Seoul World Cup Stadium!

I'm visibly excited since I loved the Old Trafford tour and watching a live England match at the Wembley Stadium last summer. Though I did not get my expectations too high because nothing will top Old Trafford for me. Hee.

It's huge!

We were first led to the theatre to watch a short documentary on S. Korea's journey to 3rd place in Japan/Korea 2002.

It. was. bullshit.

And here I thought only North Korea engages in propaganda video clips.

The documentary is one of the most one-sided film I've ever seen. And it's no understatement. It overstated S. Korea's successes and made ZERO references and mentions to the failures and controversies the the S. Korea team was embroiled in, from the refereeing blunders and facades to the 'robbing' of the Italy team. NONE of those were mentioned. So, bullshit.

We were then given time to walk around the public areas of the stadium. No access to the dressing room like Old Trafford though. I think it's because we made an unannounced stop and there were no staff to tend to our tour group.

It's huge!

By the pitch side.

At the stands.

Tunnel entrance.

Excited, we embarked on a jump-shot frenzy.

Jump shot fail cos Chuwen always seems to jump and land earlier.

Let the guys show her how its done!

Me!

Chuwen!

Leo!

Yi Hui, Peck and Audry! Okay, they weren't exactly jumping.

Chloe!

Russell!

They are the two cutest kids ever!

Every grad-tripper just wants a piece of Russell, haha.

Chuwen wants a photo.

Leo wants a photo.

Yi Hui, Peck and Audry also want a photo.

Heck, even I wanted a photo. Lol.

One more try before we leave the stadium:

Failed. Again.

~~

It was around 3PM when we left the stadium.

The next thing on our itinerary was the NANTA (乱打) show. I can't remember if we had dinner before or after the show, but apparently by now, I've stopped taking photos of our meals as they are getting repetitive.

We had some free time before the show starts, which means shopping time.

Saw a few interesting things though I didn't buy anything or did much shopping.

Their parking summon auntie. Okay, uncle here.

Hello Kitty Cafe, heard it was quite pricy.

Many many illegal Angry Birds merchandise.

Finally, it was showtime!

Outside the theatre.

At the entrance.

Inside the theatre, before show starts.

Curtain call, end of show.

No photos allowed to be taken during the show so I didn't take any.

~~

Last item of the day? More shopping. This time at the 24-hour shopping belt, Dongdaemun Market.

There were a lot of shopping malls and wholesale markets around the area.

Wholesalers.

The only things I got from here came from this street...

where the Face Shop is located.

This outlet is recommended by our local Singapore tour liaison, Sally. She's awesome in seeking out a bargain. She brought a box of Face Shop items from here too, most are for friends and past tour customers. Damn nice of her, ain't it?

Roadside stalls, just like the Korean TV shows. Or so I'm told, cos I don't watch K-drama!

I also saw this cutest kid ever!

Playing with bubbles while her father looks on.

So adorable!

So today was pretty much a shopping day. After Dongdaemun market, we went back to our hotel to spend our last night in S. Korea.