Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical

Assalamuaikum.. I HAVE TO UPDATE MY BLOG!!! hiks.. Went to watch PGLM this evening and WAS I MESMERISED with the production! Congratulations to Enfinity Productions and Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelline and all those who are involved in the production of PGLM. I went to Istana Budaya after a meeting, where most of the Theatre Dept Students came in 3 bus loads from Puncak Perdana to watch History in the Making.

Aesthetically, it is a breathtaking experience with good lighting and good sound. The people behind the scene like Dick Lee (Composer) Adlin Aman Ramlie (C0-Director/Lyricist/ Sultan Melaka) Sow Teong Hin (Bookwriter) Zahim Albakri (Co-Director/ Book Writer) Roslan Aziz (Musical Director) Pat Ibrahim (Co-Creator/ Choreographer) and Tiara Jacqueline herself as Gusti Puteri Retno Dumillah and the Executive Producer for PGLM.

This is their second show from the three week run. Personally, I was really satisfied with the Visual Feast PGLM offered the audience, but I did not FEEL anything at all. Stephen Rahman Hughes who played Hang Tuah was TOO CAREFULL with his pronouncation and thus making him sound awkward at some point, and sometimes as if he is reading. That is when he could not deliver the FEEL or giving the audience (especially me) the PUNCH it needed. But when he started SINGING, OH MY, I had to pinch myself to make sure that I AM IN MALAYSIA, sitting in Panggung Sari. For one moment I thought that I was in the West End. Anyways, I hope Stephen would just brush up his Malay so that he would put in more soul into his character and deliver all that he could and make me cry. Casting him for his voice IS A GOOD CHOICE.

I guess, Tiara has set the ball rolling for the future of Malaysian Musicals.

Enjoy the photos I snapped this evening... oh yeah, it was exhilirating to learn that your friends, ex students and people you know are part of this Malay Musical which in future would revolusionise the Malaysian Theatrical Arts Scene. Insya ALLAH.

pic 1. Intermission pic2. me pic3. Grand Finale, note the standing Ovation pic4. Me, Ismarizal and ZT AuditionII, once my students pic5. Tiara and Sthephen pic6. Me and Hang Tuah pic7. Tiara Signing my RM15 programme book pic8. Me and my ASK friends, Fee and Fini. and lastly Me and Azrizal, a fellow chatter on YM.

photo credits to Berita Harian and www.pglthemusical.com.my