You should watch Nanyang the musical, loosely based on the lives of artists Liu Kang and Georgette Chen.

 

Watch it to learn how not to write a musical. Nearly everything that you should not do is done here.

 

Character Development

To write a good musical you need to develop the main characters. Nanyang the musical has three pairs: male art student Chen Kang who falls in love with female artist Miss Li Ting; art student Mr Ren Hao who falls in love with fellow student Miss Yue Ping; and male art instructor Zhang Wen who is married to Balinese dancer Nini. Unfortunately, the bookwriter seems unable to handle this large number of protagonists, and would have done better to have cut the number down. There is no antagonist, so there is little tension generated between these main characters.

 

Plot

The plot is confusing. Chen Kang has just enrolled in the Xinhua Art Academy in Shanghai during the second world war just before the Japanese occupation of China. There seems to be some demonstration outside the academy. He is immediately attracted to fellow artist, Miss Li Ting. When she accidentally drops her purse at the end of the lesson, Chen Kang finds it, and upon returning it to Li Ting, quickly becomes infatuated by her. He spends the rest of the musical trying to chase after her. Then quite abruptly all these protagonists suddenly decide to go to Paris which is under Nazi occupation. Art instructor Zhang Wen successfully auctions one of his paintings, which apparently is controversial. But as we never see the painting, we cannot gauge how controversial it really is. In Paris, Ren Hao and Yue Ping announce their plans to marry, and to have their honeymoon in Bali, where Zhang Wen and Chen Kang have already decided to travel. In the meantime, Li Ting announces that she is going to America. In Bali, we discover that Zhang Wen is already married to Balinese dancer Nini and they have a young son. Then Zhang Wen receives a letter from Li Ting announcing that she is gone to Singapore. So they all travel to Singapore to meet Li Ting. Unfortunately on arrival, the Japanese who have occupied Singapore learn that the painter of the controversial painting, Zhang Wen is in that group, and want to arrest him. Initially Chen Kang claims that he is Zhang Wen, but realizing that the Japanese intend to shoot the painter, Zhang Wen gives himself up. (Spoiler alert). He is shot dead.

 

It is not made clear why the artists went to Nazi-occupied Paris, why the auctioned painting was so controversial as to warrant execution, and why it fell to the Japanese in Singapore to carry out the execution. In short, the plot is a mess.

 

Show, Don’t Tell

There are large tracts where back story is narrated. For example, Zhang Wen spends a considerable amount of time relating his past history which ideally should have been acted out. The opening scene asserts that the visual arts are an important component of life, and can act as a catalyst for revolution. But we do not see any of the art pieces, so we are unconvinced by this claim.

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Imbalance

The Bali segment seems irrelevant. Far too much time is spent dancing. As there is no dancing in the other scenes, the forced injection of dance here, which does not advance the plot, makes the entire scene somewhat extraneous.

 

Songs

A musical must justify its use of songs. It can develop character, set the mood, advance the plot, create conflict, and intensify love scenes. Unfortunately the songs seem to be inserted erratically. This is not to say that the songs are bad individually. In fact, music is one of the saving graces of the musical.

 

Verdict

Nanyang the musical sadly fails in many areas. The characters are poorly developed, the plot is confusing, there is little emotional pull, and the abrupt ending is most unsatisfying. It is one of the worst commercial musicals staged in Singapore. This is a pity as it is the opening show for the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2015.

 

Nanyang pales in comparison with Ng Yi-Sheng’s musical Georgette, which covers the same artists. http://www.kenlyen.com/gpage62.html

 

1 out of 5 stars

Kenneth Lyen

25 May 2015

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Director and Writer: Alex Tok

Lyricist: Xiaohan

Composer: Eric Ng

Music Director: Goh Kheng Long

Choreographer: Andy Benjamin Cai

Set Designer: Izmir Ickbal

Costume Designer: Yvette Ng