Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress

Watched my third Dick Lee musical of the year on 7 Sep 2006. This is the third staging of the musical but the first I'm seeing it. Seeing it was a pleasure. Hearing it a little less so. This is more to do with the music than the singers. Kit Chan was flawless; neither overly dramatic nor weak. It's hard for anyone not to love her straight away, in one of the most nondescript entrance a leading lady could make, where she was one of many concubines singing in ensemble. Then the spotlight falls on her and her voice raises above all else. That is one hell of a way to introduce a character, and it was appropriate to the story! Loved that.

Some reviewers in the papers thought the plot was too ambitious, and it tried to cover too much. There was certainly all the commercially exotic set-pieces-- the martial arts move, the acrobats, flesh parade at the bordello, calligraphy lessons, chinese opera interlude, mass protest-- but ambition is the life-blood of musicals. Think of the ground Les Miserables had to cover, or Camelot. Nor is the length of a musical the problem. Most musicals are about 3 hours long if you include the 20 mins intermission. The problem is the music. And even here, it was not the scoring, which was suitably oriental in parts, but its dreadful lack of memorable melody. There is nothing to hum to after the show, and no one bought the CDs either. So it was a mixed evening for me, a nice diversion and a sigh for an opportunity missed. But Kit Chan was magical.

Chup