High prices for a Super Budget Production

Watched the worst, budget musical today.
And yes. It cost me $80. Not very budget.
$80 can last me 16 workdays, if we work that on a $3 budget meal, with $2 for transport. Considering that we are working a 5-day week, 16 workdays works out to 3 weeks and a day.
And what did I do with that? Splurged that on watching some (not exactly handsome) man engaging in sexual acts with some (equally lousy) actresses without the sizzle.

Oops!

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Love, Love changes everything:

Hands and faces,

Earth and sky,

Love, Love changes everything:

How you live and

How you die...

Love will turn your world around,

And that world will last forever...

Aww…. Don’t you think those lyrics are utterly romantic?

Having had a busy and hectic workweek, I was kinda looking forward to the Aspects of Love musical this weekend. But lo and behold, I was slapped with disappointment after disappointments during the show.

How bad can it be? Let’s just say it’s REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD!

#1: Entering the theatre, we were slapped with an unusual silence. That’s weird, cos usually, you will have the orchestra doing their tuning prior to the show.

Needless to say, there was no orchestra. Only two dull pianos.

No doubt, the pianists were pretty good. However, having just two pianos simply fail to swell the atmosphere. The mood was just not right – and I mean through the entire show!

If that is not bad enough, we have #2 to (gasp!) #6.

#2: The lead man singing those lines above were quite obviously devoid of the emotions & passions those lines are suppose to convey. He was obviously unable to feel what the character ought to feel. He’s just….. not into the character! And it seemed to me that he was not the only one… (not that there are a lot of characters to begin with.)

#3: No backdrops. No costumes. Set in the 1940s, how can the cast dress like any o’ Filipinos you see on the street today? How can the furniture from Barang-Barang stands as prop to set the French scene at that time? (And mind you, they are sponsored) My gosh! What audacity they’ve got to come on stage with just that, and claim it a musical (and charge $80 for the cheapest tix)!

#4: Off pitch singing. What can be worse in a musical production, especially when it did not only happen only once or twice? Without an orchestra, the burden will be on the casts to sing even better. But… but... but the singing of the casts were like… not the least melodious or in tune - often missing beats and pitches!

#5: Lousy storyline. This is the first time I am watching Aspects of Love. Having heard and read the lyrics on “Love changes everything”, I’ve imagined it to be a really romantic one. Well, even the Sistic synopsis says it's "one of the most romantic and passionate shows in the world". More than being over-rated, it's sad to say, however, that the plot did not drum Aspects of Love at all. On the contrary, it seemed to me that “Aspects of Lust” appeared to be a more appropriate title.

#6: Sitting beside a couple (I guess) on a getting-to-know-you date, where the boy kept shouting “Bravo!” when I was dreading to get over and be done with with the extremely lousy show. Interestingly, the girl (quite pretty one, ok?) was still positively polite towards him. If I were her, I would probably have dug a hole and dived into it asap to avoid being caught dead with anyone who associate boo-boos with bravo!s…. I mean, that's probably okay, it's just that he was like speaking of all the high & might arty stuff prior to the show and during the intermittent, as if proud that he's some arty-farty... well, quite obviously he's not...

Okay… should stop my bitchiness…

Anyway…


Even Ivan Heng’s The Visit of theTai-tai, through it’s many glitches on the first night managed to bring on litters of comic relief amid the dark plot. Okay, even if Hong disagrees with that, they at least had a backdrop and better costumes! (And Ivan Heng was funny.) The Aspects of Love show was expensive in comparison, and totally without any saving grace… okay, except perhaps for the upgrade of seats from Circles 2 to Circles 1. And that’s because of the poor turnout.

Now I know why Aspects of Love, though being one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s early works, had remained so relatively unknown. Quite obviously, there’s a reason for everything…

Haiz… I should have put the money to better use.

Overall verdict for the show? No star. I will give negative stars, in fact, if there were such rates.

What have I paid for thus?

$10: The show +
$10: The 2 pianists
$60: Lead’s uninteresting sexual actions
= $80

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