P.Ramlee : The Musical (Season 2)
It was with great excitement that we settled down into our seats at the Esplanade Theatre on Saturday. Being a lifelong P.Ramlee and a musical fan, I can hardly kept still. So here it is finally ~ the story of P Ramlee as a musical. It's like having all my Hari Rayas together.
Armed with goggled reviews of Season 1, I roughly knew what to expect. They made a few changes to cast members (most notably the lead) and I believe, had tighten up the script somewhat. PRTM had won a clutch of awards including a Best Supporting Actress for Melissa Saila and Best Set Design for Raja Maliq so yes, I will be looking out for those.
So how was it? Well, I am notoriously hard to please but yes, I enjoyed myself. It is a seamless production, bar some hiccups with audio and an errant backdrop which may be attributed to first night jitters. While there are some scenes and songs which are forgettable, there are some which had me utterly charmed.
The opening scene of Penang old town to Dick Lee's Penang Swing is just so Dick Lee. It could be any other Dick Lee's production really and for a moment, I was disorientated. It was not until P Ramlee sang Azizah that we begin to anchor ourselves and the rest just got better and better.
The linear development of P.Ramlee's life are told by his relationship with his love(s) of his life - from the mysterious Azizah, potrayed here as the unattainable daughter of a well-to-do family, to Junaidah, the first wife he was 'tricked' into marrying, to Norizan, the glamourous second wife whom he neglected to Saloma, the one who complemented him as an artiste. By weaving in various P Ramlee songs into each episode of his loves, I get to appreciate each song or movie in context to what P Ramlee was going through personally.
Casting Musly Ramlee as P.Ramlee is definitely spot on. I am sure Sean Ghazi was brilliant in Season 1 but there is more to the undertaking than having a wonderful voice. So entrenched is P.Ramlee in our pysche that his mannerisms, voice inflections, not to mention his various jokes are all too familiar to us. In that sense, Musly Ramlee, impersonator extraodinaire, was magical as the great man. Not only was he able to replicate the sharp, high voice of the earlier years, he was able to do the guttural, husky voice of the later years. Now if only we could do something to that horrible wavy wig he was wearing...
Liza Hanim as Saloma sang all of her Saloma numbers faultlessly. In the narration, Saloma was portrayed as having deep-seated love for P Ramlee very early on. However, the lacklustre original songs used to convey her initial unrequited love are just so forgettable. She is hardly Eponine, pining for Marius. Her line "Dah lama saya bersedia, Cik Ramlee" was more effective and succinct.
Both roles of Azizah and Junaidah are sung perfect technically but somehow lacks any emotive outpouring. One could discern the emotion but do not empathise with the characters. Azizah's number did not exactly felt like a young girl giving up her first love nor does Junaidah's come across as the wife and mother, so frustrated, had had enough and now leaving her husband. The rawness of emotions was just not brought across.
My highest praise goes to Melissa Saila, as the glamourous Norizan. True, it is over-the-top and histrionic one-dimensional portrayal but with only a few short scenes and a song, perhaps that is what needed to push the narrative along. She played Norizan with panache and the scene where she sashayed on-stage, back from clubbing, beautiful in a black ensemble with jewels in her hair is definitely a show-stopper. Much had been said of her vocals (which pales against the rest) but her acting definite stole the show.
Much must have been thought out in terms of set design and production. Having dabbled in stage design before, I know how much hard work and planning goes in making set changes as seamless as possible. For the sheer poetry in which they did it, is worth that Best Set Design award alone.
The great wow-factor was, of course, the train scene where an almost-life size locomotive with carriages chugged onto the stage and passengers piled on. The carriages are then opened up so we could see more sing and dance routines telling of P Ramlee's journey on to Singapore, with
a tunnel projected on the background and finally, stopping at Tanjong Pagar station.
Also done brilliantly is the Lido cinema scene for the showing of Penarik Beca. It moves seamlessly from cinema goers going into the theatre, a real beca with Saloma coming into the scene before morphing to a view of inside the theatre, complete with people standing. There are great scenes that gave us a glimpse of movie-making in that era including scaffolding for lighting in absence of rigs.
What I find disconcerting is the music. I could not put a finger to it until Liza Hanim sang Senandung Kasih . It struck me that the score is rather modern, which jars with the period feel. True, this is not a tribute concert to P Ramlee hence we should not expect all P Ramlee's songs. I do understand that it is to appeal to a younger generation but to (perhaps) my jaded ears, the modern score with its love ballads are just typical lagu cinta Melayu you hear on the radio.
The ending is a little insipid, I thought. It came back to the opening scene, circa 1973 where P. Ramlee was in decline. I can't say it is touching or sad - it is just an ending. I would have preferred a more rousing ending like the Buddy Holly's musical. It ended with a tragic radio broadcast of Buddy's plane crashing and then segued to a medley of Buddy Holly's hits with casts dancing and singing, certainly celebrating his music.
I just wished that the ending of PRTM was not of an old couple cuddling in their jammies but of a big, rousing medley of P Ramlee's hits which definitely would have the makcik and pakcik dancing in the aisles and humming his music all the way home. The definite way to remember him.
