Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Music of the Night
While lining up, there were many people asking to buy tickets and had to be turned away. Apparently tickets for today's show was sold out a month ago! Considering this was their first show for 2007. I had very good seats, I was 13 rows away from the stage and I paid around USD$70 for my tickets.
Yaps! That's me at my seat. The theatre reminded me of Capitol cinema (remember at Stanford Street?) Anyway, it's CLOSED. Hopefully they'll revive it and not transform it into some modernist building and losing its soul. Back to my Phantom ...... I must say that the theatre wasn't that big, maybe about 30 rows? But the glamour and the spectacular of the theatre adds to the mystery of the plot. Something Esplanade would not be able to create.
Phantom really left such a deep impression on me and I really wish Singapore would do more to have a more vibrant arts culture. I think such things cannot be created overnight just like that.
Firstly, you have to provide the hardware of the buildings. Buildings must have the soul and meaning to it which takes time to develop. STOP DEMOLISHING buildings and trying to recreate them somewhere else. Culture does not exist in vacuum of time!
Secondly, start to instill an appreciation of the arts in the young and in the people. Teach them about appreciation of the arts. It helps to mould and shape their character ..... To do this, make tickets more affordable. I remember back in Singapore, there were a few musicals which I went that was poorly attended. I think one factor that deters people is the high cost! My suggestion - follow Broadway's system of selling unsold tickets on theatre day at special discounts. During the last few days, I always see long queues at that ticketing booth.
Thirdly, produce more local musicals! Let's have more Dick Lees. Also not only having more musicals and talented, creative people, have a resident musical at a particular location. Just like Phantom at Broadway, or Les Miz at Broadway, or Lion King at Broadway. I think our more renowned musical would be Forbidden City. I watched that and I thought that was also really good! Why can't we have Forbidden City as Singapore's resident musical. We don't always have to have it at Esplanade and later having to hard sell tickets to prevent making a loss. Why not refurbish Capitol Building and stage it there permanently?
I think I should write in to the forum ...
¶ 1/02/2007 11:16:00 PM 
I used to say that my best musical experience was Oliver. That is nothing now compared to what I've experienced at Phantom on Broadway.
Phantom was suppose to start at 7pm. I arrived at 630pm to collect my tickets which I booked in Oct, gosh ... there was this long queue in front!
Phantom was suppose to start at 7pm. I arrived at 630pm to collect my tickets which I booked in Oct, gosh ... there was this long queue in front!
While lining up, there were many people asking to buy tickets and had to be turned away. Apparently tickets for today's show was sold out a month ago! Considering this was their first show for 2007. I had very good seats, I was 13 rows away from the stage and I paid around USD$70 for my tickets.
Yaps! That's me at my seat. The theatre reminded me of Capitol cinema (remember at Stanford Street?) Anyway, it's CLOSED. Hopefully they'll revive it and not transform it into some modernist building and losing its soul. Back to my Phantom ...... I must say that the theatre wasn't that big, maybe about 30 rows? But the glamour and the spectacular of the theatre adds to the mystery of the plot. Something Esplanade would not be able to create.Phantom really left such a deep impression on me and I really wish Singapore would do more to have a more vibrant arts culture. I think such things cannot be created overnight just like that.Firstly, you have to provide the hardware of the buildings. Buildings must have the soul and meaning to it which takes time to develop. STOP DEMOLISHING buildings and trying to recreate them somewhere else. Culture does not exist in vacuum of time!
Secondly, start to instill an appreciation of the arts in the young and in the people. Teach them about appreciation of the arts. It helps to mould and shape their character ..... To do this, make tickets more affordable. I remember back in Singapore, there were a few musicals which I went that was poorly attended. I think one factor that deters people is the high cost! My suggestion - follow Broadway's system of selling unsold tickets on theatre day at special discounts. During the last few days, I always see long queues at that ticketing booth.
Thirdly, produce more local musicals! Let's have more Dick Lees. Also not only having more musicals and talented, creative people, have a resident musical at a particular location. Just like Phantom at Broadway, or Les Miz at Broadway, or Lion King at Broadway. I think our more renowned musical would be Forbidden City. I watched that and I thought that was also really good! Why can't we have Forbidden City as Singapore's resident musical. We don't always have to have it at Esplanade and later having to hard sell tickets to prevent making a loss. Why not refurbish Capitol Building and stage it there permanently?
I think I should write in to the forum ...
¶ 1/02/2007 11:16:00 PM
