Broadway Beng Returns!

While waiting for 3 copies of my 93-page-thesis to be printed, I figured I might as well use this time to blog about Broadway Beng Returns, the latest re-run by Dream Academy at the Drama Centre which just opened last night.

Before I get to the play/musical, may I add that I took my last written paper in my 4 years in NUS and cleared my FYP presentation all in a day’s work. Unofficially speaking, I’ve graduated and am now jobless. Okay, let’s say, “in search of employment”. I guess the happiness and glee has been masked by the arduous fact that I need to fine-tune my thesis before sending it for hard binding later this morning.

Okay, back to Broadway Beng Returns proper.

So it was a blessing in disguise my colleague called me prior to my 4pm presentation, seeking an urgent replacement for the duty on preview night. With no obligations (in other words no dates) for the evening (not that I didn’t try), I couldn’t find a better way to unwind and celebrate the end of my exams than to get paid to watch the show!

While at Door 8, I bumped into Sophia, who came with a gang of 11 peeps, most of whom were first-time patrons of theatre. In my “atas” opinion, theatre and theatre-going is in a class of its own, much unlike movies, but that’s another issue altogether.

Warning: Spoilers ahead, not recommended if you intend to laugh yourselves silly during the show.

The show kicked off without much bang, with Broadway Beng (played by Sebastien Tan), his singing trio affectionately called The “Chio Bus” (whom he calls his CBs) and the 4-piece live “Getai Band” singing, dancing, and playing to the first song respectively. Key amongst the themes re-enacted out included a beauty pageant, Titoudao (hokkien after all, plus the fact that Sebastien was in Titoudao too, so no surprises there), Phantom of the [Chinese] Opera, and many more.

In one scene, he talked about how a different intonation in the hokkien dialect would mean a totally different thing, for example, in asking the well-being of one’s mother, “lin lau bu”. Emphasised differently, it would just sound offensive.

In another scene, he wanted to test if his CBs had stuff “up there”, knowing they already had a lot “down there”. So in asking an intellectual question about fruits which started with the letter “L”, the first said, “lychee!” followed by the second, “longan!”. The third CB, played by Leigh McDonald (a Caucasian) hesitated before replying, “liu-lian!”. There was another question along this line, but I shall save it so as not to take the kick out of watching the show. Ask me about it in person the next time you see me and I’ll gladly tell you.

I particularly liked the equation he came up with about Chinese people being inseparable with food, drink and money, represented in the following equation respectively with the first letters of each necessity: C = (F+D)M^3. If you understand the mathematics behind the equation, you’ll see that you can live without food or drink, but not without money. With money however, everything becomes exponentially Chinese.

Song-wise, I dare admit I didn’t catch more than half of the words, despite laughing altogether (maybe that’s what a good full-house crowd does). But by and large, this show really rocks, and you better catch it before the season ends on the 12th.