A Twist of Fate
Rating: ****

A few years ago, a Malaysian friend mentioned to me his dread of the theatre scene in Singapore. "They're all experimental nowadays," he said, "playwrighting by consensus, workshopped to death! Why can't we have the old fashioned plays, where someone is murdered and the villain is the butler!" Well, my friend would be exhilarated with 'A Twist of Fate', a musical comedy currently playing at the Esplanade.

It's old-fashioned, properly English and comfortably conventional, exactly the type of plays that are easy on the eyes and ears and easier to like. It's like what Lee Ang said about Kung Fu Hustler when it won the Golden Horse award for Best Picture (!!) this year; "It's the kind of movie you enjoy and you won't remember a thing of it the minute it ends." So you sit in the theatre being entertained and hoping that it will rise above its, well, strait-laced conventions to be something that we can be proud of, since it is largely commissioned and conceived in Singapore, but nope, no such luck.

The music by Dick Lee is servicable, but he did not dare risk ending any number without pomp and flourish, milking us for our applause. Isn't this what they call "playing to the gallery"? Your eyes will roll when the matriach sings about an ungrateful daughter as if she was stealing the limelight in a big brassy jazzy-band nightclub, which in fact she was. But there are few hummable tunes and the songs do not propel you to buy the CD after hearing them. Dick Lee wrote this musical on commissioned from Jeannie Chua for Raffles Hotel's 110th anniversary in 1997. (Fancy that. In 2 years, Raffles Hotel will be 120 years old.) But it is more dialogue than music (there are only 12 original songs sung over 2 and half hours.) And where's the local flavour in the music, the one thing that you would not expect Dick Lee to come out short on. Where's the spicy rojak mad chinaman dondang sayang tandoori tunes? Remember My Fair Lady and how suddenly the Rain In Spain suddenly evokes Spain? Or the Oriental melodies in Miss Saigon?

Well, close your eyes in A Twist of Fate, and you'll have no idea at all the story is taking place in Singapore from the music played. The production is also manageably inexpensive and small. These are its minor handicaps. On the plus side, we were reasonably entertained in spite of them. Why? Good lyrics for one. And the terrific lead actress Laura Michelle Kelly for another. What a lady! The characters are also largely well-defined and believable (thank goodness for old-fashioned plays!) Catch it if you're in the mood for some familial and familiar theatre. Run ends on 4 Dec 2005.

Chup