when tuah turns romantic and sultan mahmud goes ‘yeah’

Posted at February 10, 2006

… it can only be Puteri Gunung Ledang – The Musical. This post is a tad long with 13 photos, relevant and irrelevant stuff and zero structure.

Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical

The Story

To understand the musical, it is important to understand the story, or at least know it a little. If you studied in a national school, you’d have heard of Hang Tuah, the Sultan of Malacca’s loyal aid. If not, you’d have heard of him from the ‘discussions’ that he was not a Malay but a Chinese/Indian/Mamak/Chindian. Who cares.

And because Wikipedia is your new friend, you may click on these two links to read about the original legend of Puteri Gunung Ledang and the legend rewritten for the big screen and musical.

I am offering you this background information (at least links to them) because if you are planning to go watch this musical and you;

i) have not seen the movie
ii) do not understand Malay
iii) like me, developed a slight hearing loss problem
iv) all of the above

… oh man, you’re so gonna need help.

Getting There

… was a nightmare. Mostly because I am the all-rounder noob when it comes to the intricate Kuala Lumpur city planning (and a lost lost here and a lost lost there) but luckily we reached Istana Budaya on time and all body parts intact.

The whole place was quite grand, but they forgot to provide us with chainsaws to shorten our legs for a more comfortable seating experience. “Designed by Tony Fernandez,” TV Smith quipped.

If you have seriously long legs, haha good luck to you.

The Musical

I seriously didn’t know what to expect from the musical as:

1) it’s a Malaysian musical (don’t beat me up please)
2) I’m n00b when it comes to real, live musicals

The stage setting was certainly impressive. I thought the way they maximised certain background/location prop was most clever and creative. The rustic elegance of Majapahit, chaotic buzz of the the Melaka harbour, regal prestige of the Melaka palace and solitary doom of Gunung Ledang… I couldn’t help but to ooh-ahh when each new setting was revealed.

Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical, Scene 2
Half naked men, yay!

The use of light and colours was something I’d never seen before; in fact the entire production’s excellent lighting implementation left me quite dazzled… you can see that I am running out of things to say because I’m not like, pro when it comes to this sort of things, but I know a good light when I see one, so there.

Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical inspired by wayang kulit
Like ‘wayang kulit’ liddat

The score and selection of songs enthralled me throughout the night, the most memorable song for me was the strong performance of ‘Tujuh Syarat Agung’ (The Seven Preconditions) by the ‘nenek kebayan’ ensemble. I found out later that Dick Lee and Roslan Aziz both had something to do with this… erm area, and tone-deaf as I am, I was able to differentiate and hugely appreciate the different scores for both Majapahit and Melaka (the grandeur of both kingdoms and all that).

marilah mari Tiara Jacqueline
A strong South East Asian feel in sounds

There is a bit of a grip though. At times there was imbalance in sound due to some technical glitches (though Sukania Venugopal as ‘Bayan’ was quick on the take when Tiara’s mic refused to work). And I felt that there was a certain chaos especially during the performance of an ensemble, translated “I can’t understand what they are singing”. As I mentioned earlier, I have a bit of a problem with my left ear, though my problem has more to do with distance rather than comprehensibility. Sometimes I’d have to take a peek at the English translation available on a small electronic board above the stage but it’s not much help as I can’t view it properly from where I was sitting, and the timing of the translations were occasionally inaccurate.

The Cast

It was easy to see who stole the show — AC Mizal as ‘Gusti Adipati Handaya Ningrat’ aka the tyrant aka the baddie aka the one of the halangan antara cinta sejati gave a performance like no other and left us quaking in fear of pissing off the Majapahit ruler.

Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical, Adipati
I scare king like Adipati

They really cast Adipati well, even in the movie when Alex Komang was king.

Tiara Jacqueline leh… ok lah… it’s her show what… I am already used to her being the puteri of Gunung Ledang, even though she can’t really hold her notes but I can’t say that I’m any better. Not bad not bad, buey pai buey pai, though Adipati pwnz everyone.

The only way Suanie's gonna be in a musical
The only way Suanie is going to be in a musical, evar

Stephan Rahman-Hughes is cute, has beautiful eyes, nifty dance moves and a ridiculously powerful singing voice but he is not Hang Tuah. And that is like, really really bad and sad ‘cos this is a story between Gusti Puteri and Hang Tuah. He looked so out of place and most of the time I was left thinking, WHERE IS M. NASIR WHEN YOU NEED HIM?!? His dialogue and pronunciation weren’t all too natural and the audience knew it. I mean, you don’t necessarily have to cast a pure Malay as Hang Tuah; any good actor could like, ACT but somehow I didn’t feel the presence of the brave Hang Tuah at all. Seriously overshadowed until he hit the high notes. THAT was impressive, but that’s it.

Not to say that M. Nasir had a whole lot of chemistry with Tiara in the movie, but in spite of the mushy mushy elaborate love scenes, he made us think that HE was Hang Tuah so screw you lot. And he certainly could bersilat so screw you lot a second time.

Speaking of chemistry, it was quite lacking between Stephan and Tiara. But Stephan is definitely cute and would fit right in any broadway shows (I found out that he played Chino in West Side Story) and maybe in my warm embrace also. It’s so unfair that Tiara gets to touch him all the time… she is a Datin Seri okay, what more does she want? Seriously, some people are just so greedy…

jealous Suanie
Tiara touching my man… AGAIN

The only other recast from the movie to the musical was Adlin Aman Ramlie (aka the LRT guy), reprising his role as ‘Sultan Mahmud Shah’. I really disliked him in the movie but I really liked him in the musical, so I guess it’s safe to say that he’s better live. There is a hillarious scene when he was dancing ala Boogie Nights and singing ‘yeah’; it was a bit wtf ‘cos he’s the SULTAN wei!!! But definitely entertaining… BEST!

Other notable characters were ‘Bayan’ played by Sukania Venugopal, a sturdy quiet strength for Gusti Puteri. A bit of a shaky voice but the emotions were delivered there and then. Mohammed Afif Halim as the young ‘Raja Ahmad’ (the crown prince) caught everyone’s heart.

Also the rest of the ensemble especially those hyperly dancing all night long deserves a standing ovation.

Cast of Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical
Stand up and clap and cheer; don’t be a lazy audience

So should you go watch this musical? OF COURSE LAH! Go feel the group effort so unfounded in Malaysia these days, go enjoy the ups and downs which you could only experience by actually being there (it’s bound to get much better with time), go hear the beautiful sounds, see the beautiful stage and costumes, GO ENJOY YOURSELF ‘cos in one word, it’s FUN!

Puteri Gunung Ledang – The Musical runs throughout February at the Istana Budaya. Information on time and ticket prices here.

Thanks to Daniel Tang for the tickets and TV Smith for the invites.

After the musical

We went to Studio 5 @ Ampang Jaya to yum char.

Min, TV Smith, Lu Sean,Regina
Min, TV Smith, Lu Sean and Regina

Fireangel and Suanie with Patrick Teoh
With Patrick Teoh, w00t!

Now go read what other people have to say:

Midnite ‘Happy Birthday’ Lily
Jeff ‘Godfather’ Ooi
Naz cucuk langit
Young Female Min
Patrick ‘niamah’ Teoh
Sharizal ’si cacat’
Sultan Muzaffar tak berdaulat
Fireangelism FU

Suanie Reviews
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