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| Title : | Jewel of Tibet |
| Venue : | Panggung Sari Istana Budaya Jalan Tun Razak Kuala Lumpur Opening Hours : MonThu: 9am-7pm, Fri: 9am-12pm, 3pm-7pm, Alt. Sat: 9am-7pm, Sunday/Public Holidays: 2pm-7pm URL : http://www.istanabudaya.gov.my |
| Date & Time : | Sun 2 - Sat 15 Mar 2008 (Tue - Sat: 8.30pm; Sun: 3pm) |
| Tickets : | Tue - Thu (8.30pm): RM233/ RM163/ RM133/ RM103/ RM53; Fri - Sat (8.30pm) & Sun (3pm): RM253/ RM183/ RM153/ RM123/ RM73 |
| Ticket Contact : | Axcess hotline: 03-7711 5000. Available at all Axcess outlets. |
| URL : | http://www.axcess.com.my |
| Synopsis : | From the majestic Tang Dynasty to the vast mystical land of Tibet, "Jewel of Tibet" follows Princess Wen Chang, who went on an arduous three year journey to Tibet, in order to fulfil a marriage arrangement to its king, Songsten Gampo. Expect 150 minutes of original music, dance, spectacular scene changes, backdrops, props, and over 200 sets of newly designed colorful ethnic costumes from the traditional Tang Dynasty and Tibet. Presented by Musical On Stage Productions, who are the same creative team behind the internationally acclaimed "Siddhartha: The Musical" and "Above Full Moon The Musical". Directed by Ho Lin Huay, with Imee Ooi as composer and featuring a talented cast from the pop music, classical music and dance scene. |
Public Rating
(Ok but not great)
( 208 ) votes
User Comments
| posted by Regina, Thu 06.03.200810:58:46 AM Readers say:  (Everyone's entitled to their opinion)
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| Being the first time I'm watching anything from this group, I have to say that I was completely blown away. Everything right from the sets right up to the costumes and dancing - elaborate and absolutely stunning! Amazing vocals from the leading cast, and I was surprised to learn that most(if not all) of them are quite young. I could feel the emotions coming from the characters even if I couldn't really understand what they were saying/singing. Being a 'banana' and having to rely on subtitles most of the time, I was captivated by what was happening on stage that I almost completely forgot about the subtitles and still got the story. Now, THAT, says something. I highly recommend watching this musical, regardless of race or religion, this is a production not to be missed. Kudos to all involved in this production!!
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| posted by Art Supporter, Sun 09.03.200811:21:17 AM Readers say: (Everyone's entitled to their opinion)
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| The dance choreography was mesmerising, the traditional costumes & props were a feast for the senses. They took the effort to capture the sceneries (waterfalls, mountains etc) & managed to transport the audience to their reality. Recommend buying the souvenir programme (book) at RM10 only to read the storyline. 1-15 March at 8.30pm every night except Monday. The review by Mei Choo (The Sun) reveals that this musical was a fully local production that took 2 years to produce.
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| posted by fello thespian, Wed 12.03.200809:05:03 AM |
| Some of my friends ask me is it from Taiwan?Of cause not and I really proud to say that, this is 100% made in Malaysia. Last Sunday I was there and I really surprise that Datin Tiara Jacklin(PGL musical) and Datin Siti Nurhaliza family was there. Thanks for supporting local Chinese Musical. For those who love music,art and able to understand Mandarin should go and watch it, especially our local Chinese radiosation DJ and celebrity who always mation to support local artist.
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| posted by Fellow Thespian, Wed 12.03.200813:40:27 PM Readers say:  (Outstanding post!)
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| I am not someone to tear any production down to bits, as I believe there is always another perspective or opinion when we speak of art. If you will kindly weigh my comments. I hope it can help your future productions. > The two leads have exceptional vocals, and frankly, it saved your production. > Unfortunately for me, that was the only positive thing. > The characters were extremely one dimensional with hardly any personality! All men act the same and all women act the same. Which makes it an extreme bore. Frankly, I almost couldnt tell one king from the other at one time. Dont tell me thats not possible. (if you Go see Portrait of an empress in singapore you'll realise how colourful the characters are, an its similar in genre) > And the King in the Lead, he sometimes overacts. It comes off abit silly sometimes. Again, you have a great voice though. > The story and characters was weak,energy was low, even from the ensemble. And it didnt help that the transitions were so slow and not well thought out enough. There were too many blackouts in transitions, the energy suddenly drops and the pull back into full energymode is a struggle. > There were many unpurposeful lines and unnecessary greetinglines that only made it draggy. > The music was just too much in low energy format , which didnt help the performers, esp even in the ensemble scenes. And frankly, too much use of STRINGS. Yah I know, its tibetan musical influence, but you just cannot hold the audience too long with that! My mom fell asleep! And yes, can I say I saw a few others doze off too?? The songs all sounded alike btw. Didnt go home remembering any of them. > I dont believe in just saying thngs like, the set was great and the costumes was beautiful thought they were not bad. Its too superficial for me. Nothing in it moved me at all. I did not find it inspiring the least. > RM163 was not worth it for me.(And that was only 2nd tier tickets) Too expensive. Frankly, I'm someone who is willing to pay to watch a good show, but this was very very dissapointing. In the west end for example, you are not allowed to charge prices like that if you do not have a live band or orchestra. Correct me if Im wrong, but i DID NOT SEE ONE. Where were they? How can you not give your audience their money's worth? In terms of local musical productions, PGL is still the best I've seen. You might like to take page from their book.
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| posted by Runaway Composer, Thu 13.03.200818:22:00 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| I have watched all 3 musicals you guys produced since siddhartha 10 years ago. I have to say there was no improvement at all musically. Let me know if i should voice out my professional opinion about music here, or send an email to your production house. I will carefully use my words and give contributive critics. I agree that the lead vocalist saved the whole show, and also the Wong Ye, Wen Cheng's father who did a great job. Music arrangement and the composition are really disappointed. The biggest sadness is the great satisfaction from the audience and public. Should we be happy for the great response or we should cry for this music scene in our country?
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| posted by Runaway Composer, Thu 13.03.200821:05:43 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| Since some friends encouraged me to voice out, so I am here now. I will only talk about the music. I will try to make my words simple and understandable, and am not attacking anyone in the production, but only criticizing the music. I went to the show on Tuesday, 2 days ago, was sitting at the $133 seat. 1. MIDI - The production was using very bad sample library for the music, I believe some cheap sound font library. Go check out East West Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra. You can even get the pirated copies in Malaysia! I can sponsor you the original copy from the States thou. Or, spend some money to buy Vienna Symphony Orchestra... If you don't have money to hire live musicians. If you did use good libraries, I am sorry, then it is very obvious the arranger purely didn't spend much time on arrangement. To make your MIDI instruments sound better, spend enough time to create different strength (velocity) and duration on each note, making the instrument sounds as similar to the real one as possible. You know what I am talking about. Don't record them from your keyboard directly. You've got many overlapped notes when you played the keyboard and those sounds were really annoying. I doubt you didn't do panning too. So all instruments crammed and came out from the audio system in the middle. I am pretty sure the pre-recorded arrangement wasn't mastered and was delivered to the sound man in IB in one file. If Alvin Koh really did live sound for Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and if he was the sound man of the Sheila Majid IJN Concert recently, I pitied him for being hired to play back a stereo track, with no control on the EQ. I sincerely apologize if I am wrong. 2. No space - Maybe it was terribly lack of time. But I believe you could save time if you wrote less, so that you could leave some rooms for the vocalist. Ms Chew is the best chinese vocalist (in the genre of broadway singing) in town, undoubtedly. I didn't see she had any chance to demonstrate her beautiful vocal tone colour, because your arrangement was just too busy. No space for her voice and my ears were very tired, especially the 1st half of the show. The whole 1st half was overcrowded with bad string arrangements. No space at all and the audience couldn't breath at all. How nice if you put a simple long notes softly and let the vocalist sang on top of it. How desperate I was to want to hear a huge drop in the arrangement so that I could hear the voice clearly, and feel her breathe, or some tiny sounds from her mouth movement or vocal projection. 3. The voicing of instruments - The arranger should know the vocal range well and try not to write something too close to that vocal line.The string passages were too busy when the vocalist sang. Some passages were even higher than the vocalist, this was disaster! As a result, the vocalists' voice couldn't come out, even if they shout! Also, the mixing of the pre-recording were too hot in the low frequency, or sometimes just too busy and too many notes in the lower register of the arrangement. 4. Arrangement and composition style - The arranger wasn't capable to compose in different moods. Happy, sad, lively, gloomy, angry.... they were all in the similar style of chord progressions and very little knowledge of arranging in different genre. There were obviously 2 different countries in the show, 2 different cultures. Yes, you did composed a folk tune for the solo dance, with slight different arrangement and melodic line (and of course, huge difference in the singing style) but sadly that was the best piece of the whole show. It was very weird to hear the same arrangement style from the Tang Dynasty in the part where Wen Cheng was in Tibet, again. How nice if you stayed with style you did for the solo dance, use the same kind of scale (You could easily do some researches on the Tibet kingdom, and copy their scales and use them in your composition) or just the same melody from solo dance but arrange them in different styles for different scenes in the Tibet story, with the use of folk instruments, and less strings. 5. Musical Character - It's important to use different instruments, OBVIOUS melodic passages to represent different people, different objects, sequence events... anything, to represent things in a show. Yes you did... but not obvious. So, by the end of the show I couldn't remember any theme of any character. Strings are all over the parts. What did the brass stand for? The arranger used brass representing the majesty of the Da Tang King (maybe), that was the only musical character I could remember, and yet, that part was badly composed. 6. Composition - Composer has very little knowledge about composition and harmony. Regardless the bad harmony writing, the cadences and chord progressions used in this musical were very limited. The composer couldn't demonstrate different compositional style to bring out the different moods in the show, and only relied on the voices to tell us the emotion of the scene. Too many perfect cadences introduced in the middle of a scene... created too much confusion. The use of bVI, bVII to tonic were overwhelmed in the whole show, in fact since the Musical Under the Full Moon. In terms of melodic writing, the composer showed no improvement since the 1st musical. The choice of the notes were badly used. Melody in many pieces were heading no where, and not written with a center element or idea. As a result, I couldn't remember any tune from the musical. I understand most of the time the passages were written for narrative lyrics and the composer tried to write close intervals so that the passages could be easily understood by the audience. But, the choice of the close intervals when writing narrative melody were deficient. In this case, I would say lyricist and composer should discuss more and find a better solution. Besides that, when arranging for busy vocal melody, I would advice you to write simple arrangement (longer notes, less movement) underneath the busy melody, so that the melody could be easily heard instead of the arrangement getting too much attention from the audience. You guys know how poor the awareness the public here is? I heard people crying behind me during the show, I heard people recommended me the show and said all instruments were recorded live and the music was well composed. Even one said there was an orchestra behind the stage... and I read the comment above saying audience were blown away. If audience here think this is how a musical should be... not expecting an internationally well-known production but just a locally produced good musical, tell me to shut up. I've been to 3 musicals in KL PAC. Even the worst one of those 3, Tunku is much better than this. Keep in mind that Tunku didn't have huge sponsor and was performed at under community organization. But too bad, not many people were interested to go there. This is the first time I voiced out my real thought about your show, publicly since the 1st musical 10 years. Simply because I am in this music industry too and I know it's important to respect other people works. But If after 10 years it's still a bad show people are going to, as bad as the 1st one 10 years ago, how far our local production can go? A big show like this certainly has the responsibility to raise public awareness of a serious production, and plays a important role in showing people outside our country what we Malaysian can do! If all the cover stories on papers are true about this production team getting great response internationally, I am sure there are people making up story! I am putting my foot down and asking you guys, don't pull the innocent public to even lower awareness! I knew there were many people criticized (musically) since the Sidhhartha. but I was wondering if those critics only reached the production's ears, but not their hearts. Audience are paying a lot to your show. and you guys should be grateful to get such big sponsors to put together great people and produce a big musical like this. Don't waste the chance! I am sincerely looking forward to going to your 4th musical, and expecting a great improvement ahead. I am responsible with my comment here, and will reply to any response to this message. If my words are harsh to any fan of this musical, I sincerely apologize. But if the production team don't take my comment seriously. I am so sorry for your guys. You are done! Sincerely, Runaway Composer Here is my email, Mezzofky@hotmail.com
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| posted by Musical Freak, Thu 13.03.200823:54:15 PM Readers say:  (Good post )
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If that is the standard you guys set, then you guys have a seriously long way to go. I cant believe there wasnt an orchestra!! Not to mention the music was bad. The acting was bad. The characterisation was bad. The set was bad. Actually, it looked cheap. The costumes were made some kind of grade. The story was flat. The pricing of the ticket was bad. Giving people the wrong impression of what a good musical should be is bad. Well at least some of the singing didnt come off too bad. Agree with last 3 postings.
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| posted by voice up loud!, Fri 14.03.200801:19:36 AM |
| when i read fellow thespian's comment, thanks to remind me the PGL, yes, PGL was enjoyable from the top to toe, including their costumes, dancing, probes, but the most important part for a musical- singing, sorry, frankly speaking, it was not up to the standard yet, were they singing musical or pop music??? i was not touched at all with the songs and music, only the main cast duet in the begining (perhaps), a bit impression... Musical singing is definitely not singing in a pop music concert, please. so, PGL, it is exciting, and enjoyable, but not touching.
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| posted by musicalonstage fans, Fri 14.03.200810:00:18 AM Readers say: (Good post )
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| 我知道你们做得很认真.... 但是时候检讨检讨一下了。
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| posted by Fellow Thespian again...., Fri 14.03.200812:14:19 PM |
| Dear Voice Up Loud, Agreed, PGL does have some weaknesses. But I never said it was perfect. I just said that it was the best local musical production i have seen. They may not have chosen to get all the singing right,maybe because sadly,they wanted some star power here and there. But they got all the other elements quite right to produce a strong, entertaining and good show. Unfortunately, Jewel of Tibet, is a much much lower standard than that. Granted, the singing is better than PGL, but good singing means nothing if everything else is weak. Sorry to burst your bubble.
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| posted by someone, Fri 14.03.200816:34:26 PM |
| if not mistaken, PGL's music composer is not local...is DickLee, am i right?
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| posted by A.S.P, Fri 14.03.200816:57:46 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| yes, this musical is flat. be it the story presentation, the characters, the set design, even the so called video graphic design, and most importantly, the music itself. claimed as a million ringgit production, it didn't present as a 'million-worth' show. the set design was plain, despite looking as though it was 'breathtaking'. my sister said, it was the standard of secondary school set design. the story was badly presented. the music was so.....plain, i do not know how to describe. the best was the vocal of the princess, yet wasted for this kind of production. i thought because i was in a bad mood that day, hence i dozed off a few times during the first half. now i know, it's not my fault...haha. how can such production claimed to be a million dollar production? with such standards? where there's nothing to be remembered after the show ended? and how can some audiences be impressed with such production?? sigh....
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| posted by Moulin Rouge, Sat 15.03.200802:56:21 AM Readers say: (Good post )
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| Dear Voice out loud, Musical singing can be a rock,gospel,semi classical etc... have you watch "Rent"? "color purple"? "Jesus Christ superstar"?i can say PGL'singing not good,but their acting good,it's a musical,not just singing,even the acting gotta be strong.Acting,Singing,Dancing will be the main thing,but definitely not singing in a very classical way.
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| posted by F1GARO, Sat 15.03.200811:44:39 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| I watched the show on the 9th March. I agree to most of the comments above. I am going to just talk about the music. 1. All of the musical numbers presented doesn't have any clear sense of end or climax! I just don't understand why are all the perfect cadences are always not at the right place and not at the end of any of the musical number? 2. Music theory aside, if the end of all the pieces always end with a sort of "fading off" effect, when do you want the audience to applaud? Even in the fast chorus numbers, the vocals never have a clear cut end. The only "landing point" that I can feel or find in the entire musical is just the end scene. 3. Without a live orchestra is already a minus for the music. Plus the poor sound sampler, it really turn out badly. 4. The same mood are carried through out the show. There's not enough color changes. To me, the only good thing in the show is just the vocals. Many good singing here. Well done, to the cast.
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| posted by Jewel Lover, Sun 16.03.200803:08:22 AM |
| excuse me ah, mr runaway and mr f1garo ah... i am just a general public very stupid one, i dun know anything about music loh. when u use so many technical terms like "perfect cadence" ah, i really don know wat u r saying loh. can explain a bit ah? the music sounded good to me wor...
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| posted by Runaway Composer, Sun 16.03.200803:10:20 AM |
| Do you guys realize only this page you can find the real critics? No where else!!! Wondering what response we will have if other people see our comments. F1GARO - Totally agree. Too many perfect cadences. Making me wanted to leave so much before th intermission. I agree everything you said! A.S.P you were right. That was why I stayed, to support the vocalist who generally did good job, especially the Princess singing with the right musical voice. the princess dad is obviously a stunning classical vocalist, and did a good job too. voice up loud and Fellow Thespian... No one gives a damn to PGL. Jewel of tibet, this is the musical we just watched. Musical Freak : a production of 1.5 million uh? someone: Dick Lee is a good composer. The biggesr failure is the composition and arrangement. The composer apparently never studied composition at all... and doesn't know how to compose. I believe the composer studied music before and played many good piano pieces. Don't tell me the composer doesn't know how to diffrentiate good music and noise. However, the saddest thing is when you read the articles below. I almost cried. It seems like... even the people on top in this production saw these comments, they would just ignore them. Will they continue getting HUGE sponsors? and keep making lousy work and tell the public here how "great" a musical can be? We can just stop criticizing. Coz.... check out these articles below. The media, papers, 95% of the public are thinking this is a masterpiece, a good musical. If majority thinks this is good... maybe we should just shut up. http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=11,4338,0,0,1,0 http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Features/20080304172148/Article/index_html http://kakiseni.net/articles/previews/MTI4OA.html#top http://star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/4/soundnstage/20518677&sec=soundnstage http://star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2008/2/25/soundnstage/20403720&sec=soundnstage http://www.mybuddhist.net/cms/shishidongtai/bendihuodong/KL/2008-02-18/2737.html http://www.sinchew-i.com/node/12313?tid=19 http://ent.sinchew-i.com/node/5102
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| posted by Runaway Composer, Sun 16.03.200803:13:08 AM |
| Thanks jewel... for your interest. Perfect cadence is generally the FINAL chord you hear when a song is ending. .... Happy birthday to you. "TO YOU" is in perfect cadence. Imagine TO YOU those 2 chords and note is all over the parts. Other examples: The last lines of "A Whole New World" Whole-New-World is in perfect Cadence. I will explain all things you don't understand here.
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| posted by Jewel Lover, Sun 16.03.200804:11:47 AM |
| oh.... like that lah... no lah, because sometimes u guy who know music always use those saintifik terms that i dun understand lor, i really konfius sometime. but after u explain i understand liao. but i dun remember hearing it. aih.... no chance to learn music when young... envy u loh.
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| posted by tsk-tsk-tsk, Sun 16.03.200804:25:56 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| haha! my friends just passed me this thing to read. really interesting. i can't give any comments about Jewel of Tibet because i didn't go and see it. but the reason i didn't go and see it, IS the thing to discuss. why didn't i? because i saw Siddharta and Above Full Moon. Siddharta was OK OK lah, at least the first song can be called a song. but when i watched Above Full Moon ah, i almost vomit blood on the floor. the music was really like crap loh, i can't stress more: LIKE CRAP. i don't care how good the people behind the scenes feel lah, it's their effort, and they should feel good about their hardwork. but as an audience, i said to myself that i won't go back and watch their stuff anymore. No way. from what i read from the comments, i guess the scene backdrop changes are still as bad as before. i feel sorry for them. it's ok to feel good over your hardwork, but in the same time, NEVER forget to improve and to take people's comments seriously. i know more people praised that piece of crap than those who say bad things about it, but if u only select to listen to those praises, sorry lah, u will always give us crap in the future. wake up a bit lah! using 1.5 million ringgit to make this piece of crap is like throw a whole galaxy into a black hole. i'd rather use those money to help the poor. at least it does good to people's lives, wasting that money in making bad shows like this can only bring u closer to hell because u damaged people's ears.
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| posted by Runaway, Sun 16.03.200804:30:21 AM |
| Thank You. Very harsh, but sincere. tsk tsk tsk
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| posted by An audience, Sun 16.03.200811:09:28 AM |
| First of all, I would like to thank J.O.T. for the wonderful show you guys put up. I went last night and to be honest I was touched by the energy and effort I saw from the cast and crew especially during the curtain's call. I am not a music student nor I was trained in musical theater. However, I am proud to say that as an ordinary audience I enjoyed the show and I am sure more than 80% of the audience who went to watch did too. I know this production might not be 100% thumbs up as there are many factors contributing to it. One of which can be the lack of time rehearsing on stage or well, I can't think of others :) However, I appreciate the fact that this is a 100% Malaysian production! If I am not wrong PGL imported Dick Lee, a Singaporean right!?? Well, those of you who commented here should take some time to ponder if you have made any contribution to the arts scene in Malaysia. No matter how good your musical theory or skills are, if you never work in such production before, I think it's time you guys at least try to get into a production, then you might understand how it is like to compose songs that please the ears of every SINGLE audience. Having said that, I still think the production team should take into account all the contructive feedback from all levels and you mustn't be contented of what you achieved, be it the music, set, acting, singing, dancing, etc.. No doubt, the music composed for J.O.T. might be irritating at times, but the singing was very good.Thanks to the leads. I would say it was much better than what I heard from PGL, PRamlee, Tunku, BrokenBridges, AboveFullMoon, Rose2ILoveU. The set was rich at times but too plain sometimes. The costume design was great! We could clearly differentiate the differences between the Tang Dynasty and Tibet community. The acting was not too bad, but needed some polishing here and there. The choreography was well thought, at least many of us enjoyed watching the dancers because they managed to enjoy what they were doing. Tickets, yes, it was a bit too expensive! In a nutshell, I think this was a production worth watching because if we Malaysians don't, who would? The Singaporeans? Well, I am not trying to be an asshole here but I urge all the arts lovers to support local productions. I am sure if you are not impressed by a movie directed by a particular director, that wouldn't stop you from going to watch another movie directed by the same director right? :) Last but not least, I enjoyed what I watched last night and I wish the GOVERNMENT should give MORE support to local productions. Support local artists before you lose them!!!
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| posted by The show must go on, Sun 16.03.200811:22:36 AM |
| Overall - 7/10 Singing from leads - 9/10 Singing from supporting roles - 8.5/10 Acting - 8/10 Choreography - 8/10 Dancing - 7/10 Set design - 7.5/10 Music composition - 7/10 Music arrangement - 6.5/10 Directing - 7/10 Costumes - 9/10 Characterisation - 7/10 Lighting - 6/10 Sound - 7.5/10 Multimedia - 8/10 Entertaining value - 8/10
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| posted by Anak Inti, Sun 16.03.200811:27:52 AM |
| I wonder which Secondary School has the set you watched in Jewel of Tibet The Musical? Let me know at least I can go and watch hehehe.....
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| posted by Runaway, Sun 16.03.200812:32:33 PM |
| An audience: Very moderate comments. Agreed some of your points, most of your points i suppose. I personally support local works a lot. Indie films, local productions. and I am proud of our achievement in certain areas. An significant one is the sponsors of 1.5 million. It is big, so do it seriously and smartly. You can't hire a highschool theater director to handle an 1.5 million project. Same here, you can't get an 1.5 million project and don't produce a good work. In here, I've just been talking about the music. Music is the biggest element of a musical. Don't you think so? I went to Tunku. In terms of music, that was really bad too, but still, better than JOL. I listened to PGL soundtrack, music wasn't bad, the singing during the PGL performance is another story. the JOL music never won the critical acclaim the composer sought. Sorry if anyone feel this is personal attack. The problems are 10 years 3 big musicals, and NO improvement. I stay closely with local production. This is something very bad for the people here in terms of telling what good music should be. The show must go on - Sorry that my comments didnt praise the good things about the musical. Costume Excellent, Backdrop and probs up to the standard it should be, choreography and dances are great, singing in general fabulous especially the princess, Multimedia is thoughtful thou, lighting - not that I paid lots of attention. If singing from the princess is 9/10 this is my rating, and i think it is fair rate. Overall - 6.5/10 Singing from princess and her dad - 9/10 Singing from other leads - 7.5/10 Singing from supporting roles - 6.5/10 Acting - 7/10 Choreography - 8/10 Dancing - 8/10 Set design - 8/10 Music composition - 5/10 Music arrangement - 4/10 Directing - 7/10 Costumes - 9/10 Characterisation - 7/10 Lighting - 8/10 Sound - 6/10 Multimedia - 8/10 Entertaining value - 7/10 The directing has big problems too, but i am not the best person to do the critics. The composer, take the comments seriously, go study harmony and improve your computer sequencing skills, listen to a lot of music especially music for theaters and films, get ready for your next projects. If you prepare yourself seriously then you will deserve a chance the audience going to your show again. do your next musical only if you are ready to write different style and not relying singers to bring out the emotion. Again, to remind you, the vocalists especially the princess saved your music. Without her, the whole musical is nothing. I'm proud that local musicals have gone this far and such a big recognition from the public. I never thought that you guys should stay away from the industry. You guys should be the one still doing production. You all have 10 years of experience. Sometimes hard work is not the ONLY thing you should have in your mind. Capability, the knowledge, or simply... are you ready to do something good for people? Or, you do because you get the chance? You may not need to make response here, but you have to answer to yourself. If you are not ready, go get yourself improved! OK I am done talking here, wasting so much time and I am not sure if the production people give a damn. Any further talk, email here mezzofky@hotmail.com People from the production. If i said anything wrong and you feel i am attacking you guys i am sincerely sorry. But i am responsible with all my comments here. Else, i will only reply when I visit here again.
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| posted by TRUE MUSIC, Sun 16.03.200815:48:02 PM Readers say: (Everyone's entitled to their opinion)
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| I am a great fan of JOT and their previous musicals, I am also a musician but you don't need to know who I am and works that I have done.I am not bothered by other elements in JOT but the reason I went to all their musicals simply because I think the music is really great,inspiring, capturing the mood of every scenes, character and unique in itself, something I can't find in Dick Lee and whoever writing with Perferct cadences at the right palce or not. Siddhartha had won high acclaims even in Southn Africa, I heard they played 15 shows and many people went to watch and they were so touch by the music they wrote very positive comments.Please don't think these people are music idiots as well.If you cannot enjoy the music,don't disect it using technical terms and your musical theory.What we studied in music theory will only limit us and make all our music sounds the same,Like Dick Lee's and almost all of the pop songs and arragements you can hear from the radio,you can't tell which is which and you can cross over to the another chorus just like that! I watced Phantom, Les Mes and PGL and etc and ect...I fell asleeep in many too,so,how now?People sholud believe me or you? Will it all depends on whether you are more famous or I am more famous, then our comments will carry more weight?I think the music in Above Full Moon is the composer's master piece!!!May be you should write one version for the same script and see what turns out.It's always easy to say a lot from the outside, but we better see if we can do it or not ourself.Anyway, I always think Kakiseni has something personal against some other groups.Its time for some other group to surface in our Malaysian musical scene.Thumbs up to JOT!!
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Sun 16.03.200816:27:37 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| You see, if we keep on "good" "wonderful" "fantastic" on whatever LOCAL people do ah, there won't be any improvements. When people give u comments, don't always take it badly like he killed your whole family. You have to think deeper and ponder those comments repeatedly, only then our arts and culture can improve. If u just disguise as someone else and come up to deny everything, u won't go anywhere too far, even if you brought your show to the moon, professional eyes and ears will tell what quality you have right away. And don't say that pro musicians' views are trash because if you don't get criticesed by pros, how can you keep kicking yourself behind and tell yourself to keep upgrading? OK OK, if you're still taking things personally, let's see it this way: 1) General public's praise is an encouragement of your hard work, 2) professional criticisms are constructive voices that wants you to be better.
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| posted by F1GARO, Sun 16.03.200817:34:21 PM |
| To TRUE MUSIC, Hey pal. Look, I am just here to give my opinion/comment. And my intention is to help and to support. I do appreciate all the efforts for putting up a huge production like this. And I understand how challenging it is to put up a big show like this. That's why I hope my comments can, in way or another, help to improve. If you just going to take this as a personal attack, well, what else can I say? Too bad that you fall a sleep in some of the great broadway musicals. I didn't feel bored in JOT anyway. And, by the way, I am not from kakiseni.
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| posted by Runaway, Sun 16.03.200818:21:14 PM |
| True music. if you are really a musician. You are really deaf. I doubt you are not, SERIOUS! Coz if you are a musician, you will have no problem telling people what is wrong with the harmony and the wrong placement of perfect cadences. OK, listen, True music, The comments are to make Ms HO's production better! As simple as that! So that they don't make bad music to the audience here, with emphasis of 1.5 million. People here have very low music awareness like they are a piece of white paper, what you draw on them is always right. Yes, F1Garo is right... HOW CAN you fall a sleep in some of the great broadway musicals. If you are musical lover, those are the musical in her DVD rack. Please continue in followING your own dream. You can just ignore our comments. sorry for your time. Tell me if i am wrong - Ms HO's targeted audience are those who just watch your musicals, people who don't know much about music, people who tells JOL used real orchestra behind the stage. I strongly believe the group who has high music awareness, the group who listens to good music is getting bigger and bigger in our society. So, we'll see. I am not kakiseni staff too, and I was very surprised WHY kakiseni would promote JOL. Time will tell who is right. MEZZOFKY@HOTMAIL.COM
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| posted by anak seni, Sun 16.03.200819:39:17 PM |
| to runaway composer and the show must go on. you guys are over-rating this show mannnnnnnn. i would give everything below 5. singing - 7 effort - 9 you guys are very nice people obviously
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| posted by Pirate King, Mon 17.03.200800:48:26 AM |
| anak seni: dude, read carefully lah, runaway composer hates the show, while the-show-must-go-on loves the show. oi, quite different nie...
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| posted by The show must go on, Mon 17.03.200802:08:55 AM |
| Pirate King, Runaway didn't really hate the show but he only commented on the music la.. whereas for me, I don't really love the show but I appreciate the effort! Our ratings are very similar in some ways...
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| posted by Pirate King, Mon 17.03.200808:34:44 AM |
| the show must go on: hehe, maybe you're right. but from what i read from his writing, i don't think he will be as generous as you if he gives a rating to all the categories. oh well... maybe you're more encouraging, and runaway is like a strict teacher who cares. it's ok, both are constructive.
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| posted by MUSIC, Mon 17.03.200809:01:17 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| SIGH..i totally agreed with Kenneth Chua,people gives comment to make things improved,why can't we -The Malaysians makes better music instead of shit?! Why can't we just stay calm and listen of what people comments and make our things better in a smart way? I always support Malaysian production,I can see some Malaysians production does the efford..BUT!! without good knowledge.
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| posted by someone, Mon 17.03.200809:26:43 AM Readers say: (Good post )
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| kakiseni did not promote the show, they just support performing arts and help create awareness to mass public, hopefully more people will go to theatre often also learn how to appreciate performing arts, thats the future fellow
I can see this show is successful, because lots of you commented no matter good or bad. I think we should give them some times, 10 yrs, not enough for a student to complete its studies yet, right? To me, Yes, I agree, to some point the music is not touching enough maybe because of noisy(some of you said it) and I can see that the composer is totally diff from what we normally hear, she is not the commercial type, and I think thats why her music is not as good as someone or up to someones expectation. Maybe Im not qualified to comment here .and also, Im not from Kakiseni.
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| posted by Kenneth, Mon 17.03.200810:55:43 AM |
| anyone dare to ask siti norhaliza's comment? my client knows her. should i do that?
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| posted by someone, Mon 17.03.200811:31:57 AM |
| go ahead!
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Mon 17.03.200813:47:10 PM |
| OK, just to differentiate: I'm Kenneth Chua, I'm not the Kenneth above. Haha! To avoid future confusion. someone: non-commercial music doesn't mean bad music. a good composer could be a commercial composer, or he might be an avant-garde composer. but when you hear it, you will sense what is good and what is bad.
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| posted by OC_NY, Mon 17.03.200814:37:59 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| Was going to comment earlier, but was too busy with my schedule. I studied in NYU and I can say I have some experience with musicals. So here is my opinion and I am NOT a staff or of any way affiliated with kakiseni.com. I agree with most of these posts, it did not appear to be a 1.5M ringgit production. The script was too bland, the music was too flat, the stage design was average at best, the performance was mixed and overall it was just an average musical. There were moments that JoT looked like it could be a top notch musical production, but then there were moments that I almost fell asleep. The story of Wen Chengs journey that was supposed to take 3 years, look as if only a few months have passed. Some of the time, the performers were either just walking around, or just standing there looking like a piece of log. The music was probably the worst of all. There were parts of the music that somewhat reminds me of a previous musical, Above Full Moon. Most of the time, the songs were just boring and too loud. Some of the performers appear to be performing in their own music pop concert while others are just plain out yelling. I guess that is what happens when most of them are pop singers? It just wasnt pleasant to hear, but luckily there were a few that actually performed it in a way a Musical was supposed to be performed. Wen Cheng was probably the most in character of all the performers, but then there were times that seems like she was just standing there doing nothing. Was it her or is that what the director wanted? A cast of the general (do not know how to say his name) protecting Wen Cheng has a very nice vocal, but his acting was very weak, no facial emotions, seems like he was just standing there most of the time singing in a concert or something. I actually saw JoT two times (got a free ticket from a friend), and on the second show, I notice that the general was performed by another person. The B cast did not have the vocal as of James, but was not bad, and performed his character with grace and power, the way a true general is suppose to be. While singing is very important in a musical, acting is just as important. What is a musical? Well, I can tell you that it is not a pop or classical singing concert. And it is also not a movie or a play. For the performers, it is the combination of both, great singing and great acting. For example, the General was performed by two cast A cast has a great voice, but his acting was just not there. B casts singing was not bad, but had much better acting than cast A. Since I saw both cast in action, I prefer the B over A. Simply because the B cast was more in tune with his character (oh, and the fight scene was much more exciting to watch). The King of Tibet has a very powerful voice, but sometimes it seems like he was just yelling and his acting was a little too exaggerated. His other princess had the voice of a little kid, her singing was so high pitch it made me feel very uncomfortable. I can go on with each performers, but I think you all will get sick of it. =) The stage design was alright, was not too bad, but wasnt great either. Scene transition was too slow, too much down time with the black out. Kind of stopped the mood when you need to wait for the lights to come up. This being a 1.5mil production, they could of done better than that. Well, at least all the costume looks very nice. Props to the designer that made them. Highlights of this musical was the costume, and the great voice of a few performers, specially Wen Cheng. She sang those songs with so much emotion that it made my eyes watery a few times. Have she not done that, I would of fell asleep listening to those songs. Well, thats all I have to say for now. Some of you may or may not agree with me, but again this is only my opinion. Thank you.
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| posted by OC_NY, Mon 17.03.200814:56:41 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| To True Music, First off, are you a member of the JoT production? That's what it sounds like to me, correct me if I am wrong. You fell asleep watching Phantom and Les Mis, and thought that JoT was a blast? And you ask who people should believe?? I would not believe you that is for sure. If you think that people will only listen to people that are famous, then you are wrong. When I go watch musical or even a movie I do not even care what the critics (famous people) says about the show. I always read the watchers review and then just go in and watch the show with an open mind. Above full moon is the composers masterpiece you say? How do you know? Are you that composer? But hey, I thought we are reviewing Jewel of Tibet here. I can tell you that I have watched over a dozen musicals from Broadway and the West End, and if JoT or even AFM was to premeire in the United States, they will not survive more than one month. And you will hear even more negative reviews that will sounds like a stab in the back.
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| posted by Runaway, Mon 17.03.200816:35:04 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| WOW OC_NY, very impressive having your thought here. The director and the composer, if you are here, I beg you to read all comments here and digest thoughtfully. Also, please read all what I wrote here, especially the last paragraph. Thank you. I am sorry that I posted a quick comment with my name Kenneth, but I am not Kenneth Chua. Sorry Mr Chua. I said I am a composer too, I know Siti Norhaliza mixed her last album at King Studio PJ. I can meet her easily and throw some simple question like "what do you think about JOT". BUT, what's the point to create so much arguement? If you don't take comments here seriously, why should you take siti's? AND, if she gives compliment, do you think that is good for you? Do you think that is real? Coz I am very sorry to say that I am not intested at all to hear music like this again in my life. Most of the people who give negative critics here are professionals, or people who know music. As I said I didn't criticize in your last 2 musicals in past simply because I respected you as Ms Ho a director and Ms Ooi a composer, and hoped to see a good one next time. It's actually not what I've ever done like now criticizing with people I don't know, coz I think what I am doing now is actually not respecting. But again, after 10 years and 3 BIG musicals, I have enough of it, and CANNOT tolerant to let you pollute the innocent public here. I appreciate your effort, I know you all put a lot of effort. But that is not enough by just paying effort, your capabilities are very important too, the result and the OUTCOME of a good show is even more important. Same thing like if you hit someone on the road, you can't tell police that your driving skill is not good enough but you've been driving for 10 years. Besides that, the director and composer both are the pioneers in this kinda genre of musical, that tell people here about our own religion. You guys sure have more experience in this industry to make a musical like this. So, I'm sincerely asking you both put together a good show in near future. The director and the composer, if you are here. I am looking forward to going to your next musical. Please don't stop doing. Again, please take our comments seriously. Why do I hope to see your next one? I think you have the responsibility to make a good one, as a return to innocent public who fully support you in this decade, as a return of your use of budhha as the main element in all your works, as a return to people who paid a lot to all your 3 musicals (which are very disappointing apparently), a return to the 1.5 M, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, tell people here... see, this is what a good musical should be, a good malaysian musical should be, that all nation should be proud of including me. The public here needs you to tell them what is good coz they trust you. I think if even me a composer say you should continue, no one here will say no. Anyone?? Sincerely,
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| posted by Ms. Saigon, Mon 17.03.200823:53:16 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| I agree totally to music runaway. When my fren ask me what is this musical about, mind me, I m unable to tell like I watch other movies and tell my fren. Due to the broken scene n frequent blackout n unrelated flow, the musical storyline is run by its distinctive scenes, not the story as a whole, thus make the content of the story a worst one. I really can't feel what is so great about the contribution of the princess to Tibet, rather than her voice in the musical. the musical is like a scattered puzzle, leaving a room to the puzzled audience. Yet, i don;t understand why they are still people who think this is a blown-away musical. I must say, u have not seen a good one. If u consider to have a good musical production team, try to put the setting of PGL with the singing talent of JOL and choreography of TUNKU. I have watched MAMAMIA!, CHANG & ENG, CATS, FAME, PGL in Istana, if they can utilize the technology of the theater so well, I wonder why u can't do it in JOL with 1.5 million budget. If u think it is risky and u cant go to the standard to use the international standard theater, then do your research and wait until u r prepared! We r not innocent, dont fool us with this benchmark of this musical to local scene, fellow Malaysians! PGL proves that we are very close to the international acclaimed musical. Overall, nice voice and nice costume. Poor scriptwriting and poor music and poor stage setting, like I am playing the soldiers toy when i was 7. No worth to my MYR163 ticket! Any refund or any rebate for ur up-coming musical?
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Tue 18.03.200801:47:33 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| Yeah, be humble a bit, it will only do you good, not for the worse. I think the problem with Malaysian art and music scene is everybody think what they do is great and they never tame down their pride to listen and learn. And some of us would always say, "ah, it's good for Malaysian standard lah!" What kind of attitude is that? If we always think like that, we will never reach international level! Just that your stage sets and props look magnificent doesn't mean you are making a great musical. If the contain is empty, if the music is bad, you're not proving anything, I'd rather watch an MV. Recently I heard my friends told me that there was this musical on Broadway called "The Pirate Queen" got pulled down after barely a month or so just because the review was so bad. And mind you, that is another work by the writers of Les Mis. If those big shots also can get pulled down within such a short time, you can imagine how cruel the world out there is! Not that we want to put you down, Ms Ho and Ms Ooi. Being criticised at home is much better than getting criticised out there because we only want you to be better before you show your work outside. If you let people outside to criticise your work, they are not just criticising you but also the whole of Malaysian standard because you represented us. do you realise that? so please please please, think think think before you defend yourselves with your glorious words!
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| posted by OC_NY, Tue 18.03.200805:58:55 AM Readers say: (Good post )
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| I totally agree with you Kenneth. I wanted to watch the Pirate Queen, but it will be impossible now as it has been pulled because the reviews were so bad. What did they do? Well, at least they didn't go telling the media that they had a "great" musical and everybody should give it a chance. No... that will never happen in Broadway, nor in the West End. When you get critizied, you should take it as a constructive comment, and try to fix what should be fixed. If you are too stubborn and do not listen, then you will never survive in the big leagues. Oh well, next on list, The Little Mermaid the musical.
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| posted by someone, Tue 18.03.200809:00:08 AM Readers say:  (So-so, but makes a valid point)
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| let's wait and see-la!
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| posted by someone, Tue 18.03.200809:35:45 AM |
| kenneth chua: yeah. i agree, non-commercial music also nice/good....heeee
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Wed 19.03.200800:14:14 AM |
| Just to clarify here... I meant non-commercial music ALSO CAN sound good, if written well. :)
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Wed 19.03.200808:38:03 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| But Ms Ooi's so-called "non-commercial" music ---- uh uh, no no.
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| posted by someone, Wed 19.03.200810:11:02 AM |
| ha...as i said, i'm not qualified to comment here.. so i better keep quiet and "wait & see" la haha HAPPY DAY!
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| posted by runaway a.k.a Kenneth, Wed 19.03.200812:29:32 PM |
| Kenneth chua... you talked like you are really talking to the composer. duh... "Someone" is not the composer la. Give him a break. Just wait and see and hope the composer can be able to show some good stuff to people here. She ought to do that coz she is now a god among chinese musical lovers here who don't check out other music. I met the composer's teacher recently, Jenny chin. haha but she never went to watch the musicals. save her life. Who are you mr chua?? Your accent... seem like you are an old folk back in... Don't tell me you played with west side story last summer somewhere else. opps. email me la. u will be surprised who i am. mezzofky@hotmail.com and OC_NY?
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| posted by what's up~~~, Wed 19.03.200814:10:36 PM |
| wow wow wow, hot hot hot topic here, i didnt watch jewel of tibet, but i think this musical is not a small deal yeah, it causes a big , hot and spicy discussions here, regret that i didnt go and watch, no matter it is good or bad...
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Wed 19.03.200814:58:15 PM |
| Mr/Miss Runaway: I didn't think Someone is the composer herself. I don't even wanna guess who is who. I just wanna pass out my concern and care. No need to guess who I am, I'm just someone who cares. You can leave your e-mail add for people who are not happy with your comments. :)
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| posted by apek, Wed 19.03.200815:01:50 PM |
yala still talking after so long oledi must be go big big impak on some people. say music so bad 10 year oledi why go see again,2 time some more?dun want to safe your own life meh>>>
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| posted by what's up~~~``, Wed 19.03.200816:21:54 PM |
| dear apek: you are just funny, lol! Dear all,it's good to give comments, and it should be rational one, but not emotional one, some comments here seems to be offenced to others, like what "runner" (you give many damn good suggestions and comments, in fact,you are a bit jealous too... and true music, please don't tell us you fell sleep in Phantom... even it was true,my God!) Dear all: no hatred! no war! no shooting, but still can provide good comments ok? peace~~
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| posted by what's up~~~, Wed 19.03.200816:23:41 PM |
| oops, it's runnaway, not runner, sorry ~`
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 19.03.200817:56:54 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| Dear apek: Reviews are only made after watching the show, so that's why they are talking about it now... Are you awake? Didn't you read their posts? Runaway Composer said he still went to watch this 3rd musical by the same production team is because he's trying to support local productions, & I guess he has kept hoping for them to improve. And, to TRUE MUSIC: I don't care whether you are one of the production team or not, it's useless being defensive! Again & again, people here has been telling you (or the production team) none is from Kaki Seni & none is trying to tear the production down! They just want the production team to improve more, & the points they gave are constructive, not like those "It's bad" or "it's horrible" & just stop there, no suggestive solution! For me, I'm proud of any Malaysian productions, commercial or non-commercial, because I understand that we are not in a good environment for Arts & Culture activities. But in this case, I will tell you, I just want to feel even prouder in the future for the production team! To the Production team (& the rest): Well, I've been reading comments here, haven't been posting any of mine simply bcos I wasn't sure whether the production team is reading this or not. I think it's useless if the audience like us here busy "arguing" or "fighting" or as simple as "making comments" but the production team isn't reading & trying to understand what we audience is trying to tell them... Whatever production which has been put up by any company, I'm sure they have put in a lot of effort. But any commercial (even non-commercial) show is for the audience (like us, pro or non-pro) to watch, so our comments, professionally or not, are very important if not the most important, because we are the ones buying tickets & watching the shows!!! It's ridiculous if the production team has "SELECTIVE HEARING" where they only listen to COMPLIMENTS but not CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM! And personally, after watching the show, I wouldn't say music is the only element to be blamed if you feel bored/disturbed/flat... Everyone here has been "focusing" (more or less) & making comments on the music in this production. And again, I don't think they are attacking the music, instead they are just trying to help, although sometimes the words are kinda harsh, but that's the real world. Your show is for people from different genre to watch, so comments from different angle & different gestures must be expected. >Back to my point, the music is bad & unmemorable, I don't think I need to elaborate more over here, points have been made up there by those who care. >The story, besides being like a flat-liner, I don't see your point or agenda. I'm not really a pro, so I'm posting a question here. Can musical be made like a documentary? Because it's lack of drama, & looks like a documentary to me. Even then, again, what is the main agenda? The love story of Princess Wen Cheng/Tibetan King? The Princess' contribution to Tibet? Or the Princess' sorrow? Somehow, those I just mentioned looked more prominent to me, but still, it's not clear & solid. In fact, I would like to see more of the Princess' contribution or her feelings & journey to Tibet as well as her journey from being sad/shock/struggling to being contributive... That, I feel, can help to focus more on the Princess since she's the TITLE in the musical. Instead, what I see is very scattered bits & pieces of her parts, & too much focus on those who aren't that important ie: the Tibetan King, the Chinese Concubine... I do understand they have their importance in the story, but I think their part should be cut shorter, since your show is REALLY REALLY loooooooooooooooooooooong. >The character of the roles, all are underdeveloped. A good theatre play, musical or drama, all characters must be fully developed so that they won't look so ONE-DIMENSIONAL. This, is definitely the director's work to fix it, together with the actors. And of course, if you are using untrained or inexperience actors, please, do something to help them before going on stage. >Speech. I know, all of the actors are speaking Mandarin. But I really couldn't stand it when most are speaking bad Mandarin, in terms of bad diction & wrong pronunciation, since when bad speech is one of theatre performance's criteria. This is a show in a period thousands of years ago, the characters are not from Malaysia that's for sure! Not asking you guys to speak like ancient Chinese or Tang Dynasty nor Tibetan accent (if accent can be performed well, that'll be great), but at least speak a normal standard Mandarin (well, not Malaysian punya normal pasar Mandarin-la)! I do understand as well, how hard it is to find performers who can speak good Mandarin in Malaysia, but still, that's not an excuse, because I'm sure there're dialect teachers around! This is the basic & one of the main element that affects your performance! >Blocking. Excuse me, IB is a huge stage, I don't see why you want your actors to stand still & sing or act! It's so funny when sometimes you have the lights almost fully lit, but your actors movements are just like an ant moving ONE SMALL step... Not trying to be funny here, I'm just saying it's "ugly" (sorry I don't know what other word I can use) when your actors doesn't know how to move on stage, no matter how small the stage is! Don't worry fellow actors, I know it's not fully your responsibility! (O, by the way, I read a post up there & only realize you guys have 2 person sharing the role of General, I don't know who was that I was watching, it's on the 15th Mar Saturday, me & my friends wonder why is the General fighting in SLOW MOTION, so Stephen Chow, & it's not a compliment!!!) >Singing. Ha! I'm not an expert, but I LOVE musicals. So, I'm wondering, why is this show called MUSICAL when literally you only have the Princess Wen Cheng singing in musical style? I wouldn't say I hate it when you have the father singing so operatic, the general singing so classical, the Tibetan King yelling, the Chinese Concubine singing Chinese old-folk, the Chinese King singing Pop, the other Princess singing badly, & some others singing differently. I just need someone to explaine to me, because I don't understand & don't like it. For me, musical is still acting, so singing must be done in a way where it's flowing with the character & story, showing appropriate gestures & mood (having said that, when the characters are underdeveloped, the singing won't be exactly right as well), definitely not "singing-in-a-concert" kind of performance! By the way, I'm not saying they are doing very badly, in fact some of them sounds alright, like the Princess Wen Cheng is definitely good, at least I can feel her mood. The father is good although it's operatic, but he can still show his character in singing. Tibetan King is definitely over-doing it, but sometimes he's ok. Chinese King has less power, well too Popish, but ok, at least not as annoying as Tibetan King or the other Princess. O ya, the general, sorry, you are singing in a concert, no doubt your singing voice is quite nice, but hmm... Besides, personally, I hate it when I can't hear what are the words sung, because of bad diction, again! The general, sorry again, I really feel that your words are blurred! Actually I quite like your voice although it's too classically done but definitely not your diction! I noticed that some melodies were composed in a way where it doesn't flow with the lyrics, hence words are sung in a weird tune, and Mandarin is a tonal language, how can you have your music not fitting the lyrics? Can you please fix that as well? >Set. Beautiful at times, empty at times. Most of all, I think the set should be designed more smartly. When watching musical, I actually enjoy seeing the casts/ensemble moving the sets, without black-out. Which helps keeping the energy & not letting black-outs cutting off the mood or energy built by the performers. So the set must be designed in a way, where you can do scene change beautifully. I have to use PGL as an example again! PGL is just using a few "rock-like-staircases" & they just flip them around for each scene. What is smart about it, is that it's multi-functional, multi-faceted, & most importantly it's not boring because you don't even feel that they're the same few pieces of "staircase" Sometimes they're rock mountains, sometimes it's a castle, sometimes it's a staircase... >Costume. Colorful, nice, quite like it! Not sure about the character of each role has been helped by the costume, it is important in that sense though. And by just looking at it, I think the dancers are quite comfy dancing in those costume, which is great! Because costume for dancers must be made in a way where dancers can move easily, & costume for actors must be made in a way where it promotes the character of the role. I can have more to say, but am so tired typing... hehe... And I guess it's tiring for people to read such a LONG comment. So I'll just stop here for now. Last but not least, this is just my opinion/comment/review as an audience. I'm not from Kaki Seni nor any other Malaysian production group like TRUE MUSIC mentioned. I just hope my points are constructive in a way or another. Thank you for reading. :)
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 19.03.200818:08:32 PM |
| Oops, just in case. I don't hate the show, at least I can feel Princess Wen Cheng's sorrow & struggle, even though I don't think that's the agenda of the show. :)
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Thu 20.03.200803:34:45 AM |
| Sounds fair enough to me!
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| posted by Ms. Saigon, Thu 20.03.200818:32:27 PM Readers say: (Good post )
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| after watching their 3 productions under the same production team, i must say that this is the worst among all, needless to say, the setting is bad, lighting is bad, acting movement is bad, script writing is bad, and music is flat, regardless how hard your effort put into the production. your hard effort does not act as an excuse for all the bads, its not worth it. last but not least, please do your research and prepared, to be creative at least! we cant simply say that, yea, we have put in a lot of efforts and $$$, so what? what a waste to produce such a rubbish. dont you know how to conceptulize and visualize your directing before everything are up for the show? please, our audience here is not stupid.
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| posted by Runaway, Thu 20.03.200821:30:59 PM |
| what's up~~~, it's very funny. why should i be jealous? I am not interested to work with crappy production. sorry. I sincerely apologize if my comments got too exagerated. "I AM LEARNING" very good detailed critics. Impressive. :) Agree with most of the things you said. I didn't pay lots of attention thou. music was haunting then my eyes got too tired and couldn't concentrate, fell asleep a bit. But, serious. Keep it up. You guys got the very rare chance in Malaysia to do such a big musical. appreciate the chance and do well. Maybe... we can have a forum for this. and see if the comments from music lovers and professionals can help the production in future. I don't think anyone wanna see the only chinese religional big show in malaysia screw up.
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| posted by 'Disappointed', Thu 20.03.200823:03:23 PM Readers say: (Good post )
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| Dear all, especially those that had made contructive comments here. And I am really glad that there are actually people in Malaysia that care about the music industry, with their sincere heart (if you guys are). I am not a Kakiseni's regular 'reader', but I came here to purposely read comments about JOT. I started watching their musical from their production 'The Perfect Circle', and I was impressed with their performance, perhaps that's because it was my 'quite new' experience. And there after their continuos musicals. Basically for the sake of supporting some friends performing and local production. Nonetheless, JOT was a great disapointment. My sister basically dozed off, and I was just watching how bad could they be. I agree with most of the comments posted by the others, and for rating, overall I would only give 5, +1 for their efforts and passion. I was not impressed at all, and the show was so draggy and confusing, that in the end, I didn't really understand what contribution was made by Princess, (despite the fact that it might be because of my low interpretation skills), even I actually made the effort to read the story in that RM10' cost of 'souvenir book'. And it's so right, it didn't worth my money, and I sincerely feel bad coz I dragged along my sisters (who were so tired after work) and friends. I wish I could be refund for all 4 RM163 tickets...hahaha... Their music was boring, and yea, I felt that the diction was crap and it sounded so forceful to sing the 'words/conversation'. and the so called 'casts' for all those important roles, other than the princess, I am not sure if they understand by musical, be it in acting or singing wise. well, personally I think the casts chosen are from very different background, pop, classical, bla bla bla...Somehow made me feel like, it was actually a way to just want to make the show a 'higher ranking' by corning the public to watch those that are 'considerably famous' in Malaysia. [winners of contests and so on so forth..] But of coz, background is only a minor factor, if they actually make the efforts to act/sing accordingly as a musical, but yea, like a comment posted earlier, some of them actually sounded like singing POP :S Even the dances, it is so similar, everything's similar, music, acting, dances...I can't remember any songs after that, at least for the previous musical, I can still love a few songs. I am a music pro, nor i m trying to be a jerk, and I do not know how to put good words to make criticals. But I just hope that there will be improvement in their next musical (if any) , and likewise being said, don mislead the public, it's time to have a change in Malaysia!!~ Go GO Go@>----- I really salute the efforts put in by all of them, and also because of that, your efforts should worth more than what was delivered. Hope the producer/composer/choreographer don't manipulate their casts too much too, let them have their own creativity and freedom on the stage, I guess that might have more sparks too!! signing off... =D *wishing that wont kena bomb* LOLzzz
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| posted by Disppointed, Thu 20.03.200823:05:10 PM |
| Oppps...sorry...I meant to say, I am NOT a Pro... . and CONSTRUCTIVE! TYpos...
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| posted by Just An Ignorant Student, Fri 21.03.200803:21:41 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| I'm not entirely sure whether my comments here will actually help the JoT production team any, but I feel the need to say something about the show. First, just a few notes about my background, to help you understand where I'm coming from: I'm only a poor, woefully ignorant student whose only claim to any musical knowledge is 3 years in a highschool band and a grade 5 in piano, which, I have to admit, I obtained through luck more than anything else (I can't play the piano for peanuts). JoT is the first local stage production I've seen, but the third in all, the first being STOMP and the second being Tokyo Notes @ KLPAC. As you can probably tell by now, I'm what you would call a member of the "casual" audience. In fact, I did not know about JoT, not until my mom received free tickets from a friend and I was persuaded to go (Hey... free tickets!) This is in no way a professional criticism; I'm just sharing my experience here. Expectations: My mom and I arrived nearly an hour early for the show, and, having nothing else to do, we spent our time reading the newspaper articles put up in the lobby. The both of us were VERY impressed by the glowing reports. 15 minutes later we were so hyped about it we decided a show of support was due and promptly bought a copy of the programme guide and a T-shirt (yes, we were quite stingy, actually, considering our tickets had been free). I'm adding all this to show you how excited I was about watching this. BUT... The show: By the time the intermission rolled around, I was thinking "Wait... this is only the intermission? I have to sit through the other half of this show!? Argh!" I'm sorry to be so brutal, I really am, but I was extremely underwhelmed by the show, for much of the same reasons the more theatrically literate (is that even a word?) people here have already written about. The songs weren't memorable -- most of the time I felt that the actors were simply "singing their lines", if you get what I mean -- the characters were hopelessly one-dimensional (the evil guy is EVIL, the loyal official is LOYAL, the other princess is jealous in one scene then complying in the next, and Wen Cheng is absolutely perfect in every way!), and, perhaps most damaging of all, the plot simply failed to retain my attention. I understand that this is a historical play, and that there is only so much you can do with historical facts, but really, at every turn (or lack thereof) of the plot I simply couldn't help thinking how predictable it all is. By the second half I regularly caught myself, rather guiltily, zoning out and thinking of other things. Audience reception: This probably only applies to the showing I went to, but I had the vaguest feeling that most of the people in the audience were as unimpressed as I was. I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but what I can say is that while the applause had been enthusiastic during the first two fade-to-blacks, the clapping stopped altogether after the third, and was revived only briefly for the river scene (my favourite in the entire show) and the duet with the king. I do think the lack of applause overall should be an indicator of the audience's opinion, but hey -- what do I know? The applause was very much heartening at the end of the show, of course, but even then I felt there was something empty about it, something, even, a teeny weensy guilty about it, like "I'm sorry I couldn't appreciate your show better." My mother, who is likely the least musically inclined person in the world, also found the songs very much lacking in impression. When we got up to leave, I asked my mother: "How many of the songs did you remember?" Without even missing a beat, my mom replied: "Not a single one." I realize this is a far cry from a constructive review, but my thoughts, as a member of the uninformed audience, are all I can offer at the moment. I can't give professional advice, simply because I'm not qualified to do so, but I've given you my thoughts on the matter, harsh as they may be. I do sincerely think that the opinion of the casual theater-goer is important to note -- we make up a good number of the audience, after all. I can tell that a lot of effort was channeled into this show, but in this case I am sorry to say that it failed to translate into good, solid entertainment for me. Would I ever watch this show again? No, absolutely not (no offense), but I would certainly keep an eye on the next lineup, in the hopes that things will be better then. No show is ever truly 'perfect', and I truly understand how painful it must be for an artist to have to read criticisms about his or her work of art -- but that shouldn't stop us from striving for something even better now, should it? Being supportive is a wonderful thing, but being complacent would be altogether destructive for everyone. Thanks for reading this wordy, amateur review in its entirety, and I apologize for taking up so much of your time. Hope this was of use to you. //Just An Ignorant Student (By the way, just an ignorant question from uneducated ol' me -- what kind of mics do the actors/actresses use, and where do they keep them? Under their collars?)
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Fri 21.03.200804:49:02 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| Ignorant Student: Usually they hide their mics either on their foreheads or paste it on their faces. those are very small condenser mics that have tiny cables. They're light and flexible, that's why you can shape it however you like according to your costume and hair make-up. Does that answer your question?
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| posted by OC_NY, Fri 21.03.200810:30:12 AM |
| To Runaway, Let's just say I am a musical lover and have studied drama and musicals in NYU. I have watched over a dozen of musicals and I am employed in one of the theatre in Broadway, New York. ----- To "I AM ALSO LEARNING", You almost just said everything I wanted to say in a very detailed summary. The "General" you watched was probably the "A" Cast. He had the great voice, but slow-mo fighting scence. Stephen Chow... haha... I like that. But yeah, great comment.
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| posted by runaway, Fri 21.03.200815:25:16 PM |
| I think fair well to have you comments here 'Disappointed' and 'An Ignorant Student' as amateur music lover... I really don't want anyone to misunderstand my intention here and think i'm cursing the production to screw up. Thanks for your comments. Happily reading. i'm chatting with some people on MSN: very happy to see people voice out on kakiseni. 2:52 i was very disappointed with awareness here. 2:52 those people comments mean a lot. 2:52 @#%$^*&#%$ 2:53 not that i want the production to screw up 2:53 it's different story... 2:53 but awareness here are like... 2:53 errr. like me going to pasar to buy a good fish. if the hawker gives me a stingy fish and says it's fresh. I will believe him too. __________________________ 2:44:37 PM Stresssss ~: actually the saddest thing is the media.....so brainless. they never knew how influential they are. They support for the sake of the big cast, for the sake of 1.5m... anything but for the sake of the quality.... never thought if they support local arts without filtering, they may teach poeple here to appreciate a piece of crap. 2:45:17 PM Stresssss ~: i am sure there are a lot people who have doubt. 2:45:31 PM CJu the man: well, somebody's got to be the devil's advocate 2:45:36 PM CJu the man: and speak the truth 2:45:37 PM Stresssss ~: HAHA 2:45:38 PM Stresssss ~: normal musicially untrained audience 2:45:52 PM Stresssss ~: sure they have doubt... 2:45:52 PM CJu the man: yeap 2:45:58 PM Stresssss ~: doubt like... applause was big wor.. 2:46:07 PM Stresssss ~: ok lo... everyone said good... it should be good. 2:46:10 PM Stresssss ~: newspaper said good.... it must be good. 2:46:12 PM Stresssss ~: this is malaysia 2:46:18 PM CJu the man: of course lah.. you go show, you dont clap meh? 2:46:30 PM CJu the man: everyone else clap you also will terpaksa clap lah 2:46:34 PM CJu the man: nanti look bodoh only 2:46:36 PM CJu the man: ahhaha 2:46:37 PM Stresssss ~: i did clap for afew scenes that i think they did well....but soooo rare. 2:46:46 PM CJu the man: it was that bad huh? 2:46:47 PM Stresssss ~: i was not clapping if i don't think its good. 2:46:51 PM Stresssss ~: VERY BAD LAA! _____________________________________________
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| posted by runaway, Fri 21.03.200815:32:52 PM |
| Hi OC_NY, Some fellow musician in east coast would like to be your acquaintance. He is an active musician in your city. Thanks. He doesn't wanna publish his contact here. since i did.... so. Would you mind to email me and I will hook you guys up. mezzofky@hotmail.com PS: Don't worry I am not anyone from kakiseni nor JOT. I've never done any musical in Malaysia. So.... I am clean LOL.
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| posted by runaway, Fri 21.03.200815:37:32 PM |
| Someone sent me an email and SHOT me for my bad english. SORRY.... i never said my english was good. 'Disappointed' and 'An Ignorant Student', I think fair enough to have you comments here as amateur music lover... ____ errr. like me going to pasar to buy a good fish. if the hawker gives me a STINKY* Fish and says it's fresh. I will believe him too. -----Not stingy fish in the MSN post. Happy sharing.
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Fri 21.03.200815:41:23 PM |
| Let's just say, even the media is full of ignorant people, or people from the same Buddhist organization, of course they help to promote the show lah! not to mention some of the articles could be written by the production team themselves also. what i really don't like is people always "bei min bei min" (give face), and never really care about the real quality. Very sad... it's time to change the attitude and take arts and culture seriously. Some uncles and aunties might think, "Aiya, art and culture non-productive one, why take so seriously? entertainment only!" See? That's exactly the mentality of the majority of our society, that's why we never improve --- or improve very very slowly.
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Fri 21.03.200815:49:34 PM |
| We are already 20 years behind (if not more)!!! Even Singapore has been ahead of us, with their (gov & public) effort for the last decade... :(
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| posted by lala ...., Fri 21.03.200816:59:35 PM Readers say: (Everyone's entitled to their opinion)
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elo brother and sister,why not you all make one musical and teach the stupid malysian who go to see wen cheng gong zu what is fresh fish smell? don't sayang masa here talk talk and talk and forum somemore.write to big sponser and tell them so stupid they all also.but don't get big hope for 1 million because wen cheng big sponser is only sponser for 1 night show only you know,I know fren work in stage for them.I see them 2 times got free tiket also but I THINK they ok only, may be I STUPID.SO I WAIT YOU ALL SHOW TIME OK?
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 21.03.200817:27:06 PM |
| Lala: hahaha, you are funny... Nope you are not stupid, just like your name, you are LALA.
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| posted by Just An Ignorant Student, Fri 21.03.200818:19:09 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| Kenneth Chua: Yes, thank you, that was all I needed to know! The question of the mics had been bothering me ever since I saw JoT (Neither STOMP nor Tokyo Notes used mics, as I recall, though I might be wrong), and now I know better, thanks to your post. Although this isn't an official forum of any kind, I have to say that I'm glad to have found a place to express my thoughts. I realize there is a popular saying that goes "What gives you the right to criticize if you haven't done something better yourself?", but I think that argument spells disaster for all of us if we choose to accept it, especially in the abstract world of art. If we choose this "Either make a masterpiece yourself or shut up" mentality, we are all doomed, because from what I gather what this means is that nobody, and I mean NOBODY, would be qualified to say anything about all works of art -- not even to offer praise. The saying works both ways: If layman A isn't qualified to criticize, what makes layman B qualified to point out what's good about it, anyway? Movie critics shouldn't be trusted, art critics clearly don't know what they're talking about, book reviewers should be fired immediately, and the average person, the non-musician, should not be allowed to complain about awful music! We should accept everything given to us and not complain, but clearly that isn't right -- if a television, say, was badly made and you complained about it, nobody would tell you "What do you know? You don't make TVs!". We have consumer rights, after all. Why this "No right to complain" mentality should apply to the world of art is beyond me, especially with a paying audience. In the end, if nobody has the right to say anything (which would be downright puzzling, in a country practicing democracy), how will we ever be able to differentiate the good from the bad? I believe that what we need to look at here is "responsibility"; the producers are obliged to put up a good show, to try to meet the expectations of the audience -- no sane person would want to watch a bad show, after all, but in a similar vein the audience also has a responsibility. We have to be responsible when it comes to our opinions; we have to point out both the good and the bad, because to do otherwise would be to fail our basic moral obligations as an audience. As Asians we are always taught to be diplomatic, to always give "face" and not a "hard time" to other people, but in the long run this is obviously not going to work in the producers' best interests. Is 5 minutes worth of false acclaim really worth years of future stagnation? I don't think so, but then again that is only my uninformed opinion. I don't claim to know how theater works, or what the producers are thinking, but I would think that the producers' idea of what makes a good show depends largely on public reception -- if we mistakenly lead them to believe that everything was 'fantastic' and perfect in every way, I wouldn't doubt for a minute that they would presume this is what the audience wants and that they should make more of the same thing in the future. If this happens, then we, the audience, would, in all likelihood, be guilty of indirectly sabotaging the future of Malaysian theater. Whose fault would it be if the producers' next offering turns out to be so subpar (knock on wood) everyone -- the sponsors, especially -- loses faith in them? It won't be the producers' fault then but OURS, the audience's, for failing, time and again, in our duty to voice our opinions. With that said, I understand that while most of the comments in here were of the constructive variety, posting them here may not serve any real purpose. From what I can remember everyone here gave proper reasons as to why they did or did not enjoy the show, and that is a good sign: it shows that we are a thinking, responsible audience. If this place had been flooded with one-line comments like "The show is horrible" or "I LOVE THIS SHOW" with no proper elaboration, I would have lost all faith in the Malaysian public. However, back to the original point -- does anyone from the JoT team actually read our comments here? Perhaps there would be a way to write to the producers themselves, or at least remind them to take a look at the comments here every now and then? Anyone know? //Just An Ignorant Student
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| posted by runaway, Fri 21.03.200820:53:27 PM |
| Oh jesus, allah, pu sha.. An Ignorant Student, you spoke every bit of my thought!!! The biggeeeeeeessssst concern is actually not how bad or how good the show is. Who cares... actually. What I am worried the most is the inner judgement of Malaysians, the awareness here - cultural, art, music, theater, films... the artistic awareness. Asians, in general, especially chinese, seldom protest what we are told good or right. Unless that thing hurts, even we are beaten, we could be told, this is all good for you.... and we believe! Believing is fine, but, the "why" behind the things being told... no one concerns. I am not saying all of us but many of us are like that, including me sometimes. even we think it's bad, we will just give face and keep quiet.... as i did in their past 2 shows. I gave "face" to my friends in the production ma. ALL THE TIME, it's very important to know why it is good, why it is bad. We need to give face... still. but, good or bad, we still have to know or find out. We can't betray the value of art and music. I posted my 1st comment and there was no response for a while. I was thinking... damn, I don't think there is hope for the art / music scene here. Now, I am glad to tell myself, Malaysians are not brainless!!! I am smiling. I noticed, all people who have negative comments contributed a lot by giving reasons, and proved why they said bad. Those who thought good about the show, just wrote very short and briefly. Simply they don't have much to support their thought... or, i am wondering if the people from the production can actually read and write english well. (well, my english is not very good laaa obviously). I am quite sure many of the people went to show, involved in the show, the vocalists are chinese educated, including me.... no? So, people who read all the comments here, who care about the music / art scene here, are just a few. So i hope the next person can post comments in chinese, if you can. Let them read what people here think.
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| posted by 来自唐山, Fri 21.03.200821:12:24 PM |
| LALA ： 1.5 million 只是赞助一场??? 你一定是开玩笑！！ 我差不多要丢我的鞋上台了。我付那么多钱去看一场 1.5亿的制作，只有很烂的电子配乐？烂到甚至Sedaya 学生也可以做的比较好。最丢脸的是我邀请了一班朋友去支持而我被骂到狗头。。 他们都不是等闲之辈，他们有些还是有做外国的音乐制作。LALA，你知道他们只是赞助一场，那你一定知道最大块的那块蛋糕（那1.5亿）去了那里。 为什么没有人讨论这个。 LALA ： 1.5 million just to support ONE SHOW a? u must b kidding! i want to throw my shoes！i pay $300++ for 2 seat but go to listen MIDI whole night of a 1.5million musical. the cham thing is i asked many friends to go to the show. they scolded me like DOG HEAD (cantonese). they are musicians you know, some of them got experience playing orchestra in overseas. LALA, u know they only sponsor for 1 show yea? a then you also know where the hell the biggest piece of the cake (the 1.5 million) goes to? why nobody talk about this?
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| posted by i am from jot(timidly), Sat 22.03.200802:52:42 AM |
| wahh u all very concern ar..u see,if u want someone to listen to ur bad word(i mean critics)y not say ur bad word nicely?n bside pooking out bad point giv some simple idea wic u think can make the show nicer?(like wat the 1st comment of dear runaway suksuk write one)u know they like to listen nice word wat?(i mean compliment)i bliv tat ur purpose to write comment is to let them 'accept' or unless listen?right?not jus for fun ?(i know shooting ppl r quite fun..)sometimes adult r like children too...even cant write english well (like me)also can understand wat u guys write one,dun say chinese edu ppl won read english la,i angry already la runaway suksuk..bcoz i m chinese ed one...yo~~ if u guys want jot to listen to u guys..talk like tat no use la...u think jot previous musical never been critic meh?u think kaki seni s comment can see on9 so convenient nobody in jot can see?thank u la u alll so sincere here,i am from jot,i am jus a very tiny person inside so i guess i m the only one who will admit i m one of the jot member !1i am i am!! dun ask me who i am la i scared ar dun pook me
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| posted by Suicide Bomber, Sat 22.03.200804:48:55 AM |
| i am from jot: If you're from "JoT" then pls "jot" down the points and ask your big bosses to think carefully. We were offended by this musical until we started scold like that, you can tell how bad it is. Maybe there were people criticizing the previous two musical, but i heard your director only say "aiya, no need to choi them one lah!" i know people in the production team also, this is straight from them. now u tell them, people criticze nicely she doesn't listen, now what else can we do? BOMB LAH!
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| posted by Another Audience, who got angry!, Sat 22.03.200805:19:08 AM |
| I am from jot: Wat do u mean? R u saying we as audience must give our critics in a very nice way? Or u mean u don't see much constructive criticism here? I wonder if you have read the comments here carefully, calmly, rationally... Comments have been given VERY CONSTRUCTIVELY in a VERY GOOD MANNER already! Like what OC_NY said earlier > When you get criticized, you should take it as a constructive comment, and try to fix what should be fixed. That's exactly the way it is. YOU, the production team do the FIXES, & WE, the audience gives our COMMENTS, & our words can be even harsher! We will, if possible, to give our comments constructively, no matter it's a good or a bad comment, that I think is the responsibility of the audience. But what kind of mentality that you have there, by asking your audience say things nicely? To be honest, there's NOT MUCH nice thing to be said! I am an audience who's not happy with the show, & I don't care if others LOVE the show! But I feel even more unhappy when I see some posts here are like asking the audience to shut up & stop saying negative criticism!!! Well, so sorry, if this is your production's "professionalism", I will tell you surely, you will lose your audience, one by one, even the existing supporters! Because you guys don't even know how to respect your profession as well as your AUDIENCE, who pays you!!!
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| posted by lala.., Sat 22.03.200812:16:19 PM |
elo elo,one show only sell something like 100 something tousand/go ask the big sponser boss real or not,his name is berjaya,canot blaf one.he never give 1.5 million lah.when you see jot people ern 1.5?no big cake here only cake sam how to find money pay all the people my fren say,go read old newspaper produser say even all show full also may be cannot get 1.5.you all must good heart a bit,no good show is no good show but no need say people eat money la,sin sin you now?
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| posted by Another Audience, Sat 22.03.200813:14:40 PM |
| Hang on! Yeah, I think people here misunderstand the "1.5 million"... LALA & 来自唐山: 1.5 million is true! But it's the production cost that this production team has claimed. They told the newspaper & other medias that they have spent 1.5 million for the whole production. This is what most of us has been talking about. LALA: Since you read newspaper, go read again, or you go ask YOUR FRIEND who works in this production.
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| posted by runaway suk suk, Sat 22.03.200813:19:40 PM |
| Wow 来自唐山, i am from 唐山 too :D You were brave you are the man!!! but ding... 1.5 millions but why MIDI strings. Maybe all money went to the costume le. don't 冤枉 people, don't bring people into deep shit. moreover, that 1.5million is your sponsor. but, i'm more concerned with outcome and result. I believe most of us are... time to voice out. "i am from jot", Who doesn't know berjaya sponsored the show. My english is not that bad until i don't know who the main sponsor is. I am not giving simple ideas ok? What a big shame you said that !!!!!!???? Do u actually understand what I said in the 1st message? Why didn't u respond to my critics line by line? voice out which points don't make sense, and defend yourself in a rational way. 110% agree with "Another audience" - Who Pays You!!? You said like. I paid 100 bucks for a chicken rice at a high-class hotel restaurant. Then I complained to the manager why it was tasteless. the manager told me. "YOu eat la, so much GIT GIT GAT GAT. Don't complain you know, we are highclass u complain also no use. newspaper rated us d A class." Media can be stupid, and the comments here ensure that people here are not chowderhead. I don't think shooting people is fun at all. What of big head you have. I don't give a damn if you guys listen or not. I already gave the compliment that you deserve. Here i emphasize again, wen cheng princess' voice saved the show. If not, u would get even harsher comments for pretty sure. And also, your runaway SUK SUK is chinese educated too and very CINAPEK! I never said I was angry sitting there and being tortured all night, and now u said you are angry reading these comments? Who is childish here? OK.... I typed my comments carefully, especially the 1st comment criticized about the music. if my words were harsh, I apologize sincerely. Later after me, there were even more and more valued critics that your boss can actually JOT down the notes for their next show, like diction, 1st dimension acting, long sentences of lyrics being squeezed irrelevantly to the music, mixing of the sound, lack of knowledge to use the wonderful stage at IB, the scene transition too long, more detailed critics on the voice and acting... Those comments are priceless you know MONG SING SING. Now you tell me, opps sorry you just played a small role... and it seems like you don't understand those comments thou... so ask your boss if they are willing to accept public comments here and go improve. Or you think JOT is just perfect and Nothing much to improve, ok people stop wasting time here, they are not only tone deaf who produced bad music, they are completely deaf and blind. So sad to see your response here. You and your fellow friends only gave comment with no contents, empty. Not responding to the valued critics we contribute, but just like a small kid yelling there.... MAMA 有人吓我 (someone bullied us in cantonese). Really feel shame for you, a person who devoted herself to art and music. How can you get the chance to work in a big production like this?? Wait... were there audition for the cast of this show? Or the boss picked the people they like, or probably just picked the people who gave compliments only and didn't GIT GIT GAT GAT.
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| posted by runaway suk suk, Sat 22.03.200813:53:39 PM |
| typo >> ONE*-dimension acting not 1st dimension. Something I wanna add, about the music again. OK i make sure i talk nicely as "I am from JOT" commanded. If not people won't listen laaa. like i am begging duh. The whole musical is mainly about chinese dynasty, culture and religion. Actually all your musicals were. Maybe you can try to arrange your music in pentatonic. Not only the melody, but the arrangement and orchestration. Composing pentatonic melody is horizontal line, which is different from arranging and orchestrating in pentatonic. That needs your skill to show the pentatonic texture in your music, the vertical depth. It will be a long long story if i explain here. You know who u can ask. Tibetan music is very interesting. they are pentatonic too, but coz they are close to Nepal and India.... they have strong influence from outside culture. I listened to Tibet and nepal folk before when i was in university. Their ornamentation of their folk tunes (not buddhist music) is interesting. Should spend more time on doing research on their ornamentation. They don't really use western scale (sorry i am not sure, i think they dont)... they have their own mode besides pentatonic. Keep in mind that their culture are not canggih until got western harmony. but their music have texture, huge depth like multi tonality and most importantly rich overtones (because of throat singing). Very weird if you write western harmony. Consecutive 5th is common in their music. I don't remember any throat singing in JOT which is a typical tibetan singing. One style that can easily differentiate the Da Tong and Tibet dynasty... too bad, you didn't use it. Is the music for the solo dance is in tibetan style? I am not sure.... someone from the production please answer. I hope this helps... go do research la.
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| posted by Ans-wan-jitsa, Sat 22.03.200814:13:59 PM Readers say: (So-so, but makes a valid point)
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| Hot and spicy...cool! Thank you all for all the relevant and irrelevant "constructive" comments. Well, I have to admit that I felt sorry for my director and I personally am feeling disturbed by all the comments (not that I am not receptive) because when you guys read them carefully, the comments have evolved from being relevant to the production to wanting to educate us to be good producer/director/musician/actor/dancer/choreographer according to their standard and measurement. There is nothing wrong as i know this might not be a thumbs-up production. But I personally am interested to know how many of you here are not bias with your comments...what i mean is that did you comment based on the show or based on who were behind the show, i.e. if i know the director personally and i am always against her way of directing, therefore i think JOT is also another crab of hers, and therefore i am here to comment because this is the best time to do so...well, you have to ask yourself. To be frank, we are all artists (in a way) and I myself am a teacher. Let me tell you that artists and teachers are the two groups of people who are the most arrogant, individualistic and critical lot! No teacher likes to be told that their way of teaching sucks. Likewise, no artist likes to be told that their work is a piece of crab. Well, again, there is nothing wrong for the dissatisfied customers to complain about the low quality food or service, and i also think it's irresponsible for the chef to say "fuck off, leave if you hate the food!"...however, we cannot control what others think and do right, we have to just respect each other's work, and if you think my director didn't do a good job, you may critisize and leave it to them to take necessary action. I would also like to tell my prime minister to do certain things, but it takes time right...it took about 20 over years for the people to speak through their votes, likewise, it might take more than that for your comments to be heard and responded! So, i would say be patient :) otherwise, put up one of your own :) we may call it Modified Jewel of Tibet :) As a cast member, i personally am interested to know how many of you here did really notice my acting in JOT. If you think i acted the character with no layers, please tell me from the start of my appearance till the last scene, how i should do it. I sincerely want to know how to improve myself because this is my first and definitely i don't want it to be my last :) I really hope you guys out there are the observant audience. Well, i also suspect some of you here are the cast who are unhappy with the production and therefore you are here to voice out your opinion. Well, only God knows right. Come on guys. We all love the arts scene in Malaysia. So, stop being emotional but supportive of each other for the benefit of all. (Note: emotional means you might have unhappy history with someone in the production; supportive doesn't mean you must come to watch us, there are so many underlying meanings) Well, guys, if you are now feeling to write another response after reading this piece of crab it could mean that you don't like my way of tell you how to be a good PERSON. This is what i felt when i read yours :) Therefore, stop telling people what they should do to suit your way of doing things, instead, suggest ways to improve the show. For example, in the BEN JIAO scene, use elephant head instead of buffalo head....be more specific and detailed, otherwise, let's put a stop here because it is not going to help, you and me, neither. For those who are working, spend your time in your career. For those of you who are jobless, be a sleeping beauty or go hunt for more good productions. Last but not least, for those of you who are commenting here, lovers of arts, please let me know of your next production as i would love to see you perform. It's always nicer to be on the other side of the picture. I am looking forward to meeting you guys :) Hey, perhaps you guys can drop by The Actors' Studio next Thu - Sat (27-30 March) to comment on my play - F For Female! It's not a lesbian show, so don't worry. Come, buy the tickets, which is only RM20, peanuts for you guys right. If you like the show you may comment anything that is good and criticise anything that is bad! If you don't like it, well, no refund ok! You are all welcome! Hope to see you there....Zac
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| posted by Ans-wan-jitsa, Sat 22.03.200814:28:03 PM |
| Runaway....i love your last comment by the way. 80% specific and detailed. Next time don't say you are not sure or you don't know. Imagine you go to check the answer from your teacher and you get this kind of feedback. I am sure you will never visit that teacher again right :) anyway, it's a good piece of comment. Keep it up! Am i behaving like a teacher now hahaha.... Thank you!
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| posted by runaway, Sat 22.03.200816:19:07 PM |
| Ans-wan-jitsa. Damn I really respect you. But I can't spend long time here. I should work. 1. I don't know the director, nor the composer. I admit that some of my comments went too harsh. I don't hate them, I don't know them at all. So I can even tell them who I am (in private for sure). But do they really listen? 2. If you read all my comments, I hope you did. You will understand my intention. I might take it a bit too personal... but only one reason (that comes next) 3. Why should i care? Only one reason. They have the responsibility to tell people what is good arts and music especially to the chinese educated community who are more ignorant (Sorry i mean in general, i am not racist). U know the awareness here is already very low. People don't appreciate the good work. There are so many other issues that make people support a show or work, and all these issues overwhelm the most important element - the quality of the art / music. 4. My critics are purely based on the outcome, not that I want it in my way or it should only be good if you follow my way. But, it's very obvious this is another crappy work of this production. and what I pointed out were those obvious flaws or fundamental flaws. PS: I read your info on the program note and I knew u were in Tunku, even before the JOT show. See hahah I did my homework, and I did care although I already expected how the sound would be. I am not saying I am fancy with Tunku especially the music. and I believe production from JOT put looootttttt of effort. but. I like tunku so much more, i prefer to listen to tunku music even sometimes it didn't make sense. at least the writing is better JOT. and that musical I would recommend people to go. I hope u see my intention - supportive in local productions. and definitely not bias with the people behind the production. but if the they are big head and not listening as I heard since Siddhartha, i am here to voice out without giving face. walao... i can't tahan and have to say again 3 musicals in 10 years still wanna cheat people. Enough lo. Emotional? yes, but the intention behind, please take it seriously. Ans-wan-jitsa you know i am not pointing at you. I respect you a lot. You made us to. I would love to check out F for Female. It's already in my calendar. I know about that show and I know Dato Faridah and Joe personally. Johari is a great composer / arranger too. From the crew i see, with johari and mervyn in there, as well as some fellow musicians playing behind scene, you can see how serious they are taking the music. At least they know the stuff they do. Sorry... I don't have time to talk about your acting and singing. I hope there will be a better person to talk about it. I have to run to a meeting. I will do it later.
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| posted by runaway, Sat 22.03.200816:36:40 PM |
| You said emotional means you might have unhappy history with someone in the production. Tell me if you find me emotional towards a person. I will accept. and i will definitely mind my language. I am saying that i am emotional towards the situation in malaysia, how people were educated, and how serious the people doing the production know their responsibility in the educating public. and how well they are ready to educate people here. Correct me and thank you. ok ciao.
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| posted by runaway, Sat 22.03.200816:45:29 PM |
| About arranging in pentatonic... u know who u can ask. Just to make it clear if anyone or Ans-wan-jitsa misunderstand me. I am NOT implying to tell u to ask me. NO... go ask your teacher. OR, go study debussy's score. WAIT, I am not sure about this is right to do that about studying debussy, i am not sure if it matches your genre, coz it's impressionism and it's VERY western way of treating pentatonic. but is very much doing with pentatonic, horizontally, vertically, 45-degree, inside-out, outside-in. But if you intend to produce a western score with your chinese pop tunes on top like u always did. maybe this is one of the option. See i am not sure so i am not qualified to say too much. But i hope it rings a bell.
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| posted by Ans-wan-jitsa, Sat 22.03.200821:29:49 PM |
| Runaway, thank you for taking the time to reading my crappy comments and I too respect you and i believe you are a great fan of the local arts production. Well, I am not saying that you were emotional as i know you are here to talk about the music. What i meant was other people out there who behaved like the music in JOT did kill their whole family. Well, to be honest, i respect Mervyn as did Tunku with him (although no one knows!) and i do like some of the pieces, but most of my friends, this means 90%, who went for the show hated it. They liked the singing and the ensemble, that's all. You loved it, well, this is again very subjective right. I hope you see where i am coming from. Let's just say JOT did all that you suggested and recommended, can you guarantee you will not cause another RUNAWAY to come all the way to say that the music does kills his family? What i am trying to say is that a fantastic piece of work to you might not be a wonderful job for the other. Whatever we do or plan, there will be a group of people who think it's not their cup of tea as they never drink tea. I respect you as i can see that you have great knowledge in music, may be one day we can meet up to discuss more on this :) However, i do feel that you are upset about the whole thing because you felt cheated again! It's difficult to admit that we have been cheated, not once, but for the 3rd time. Yeah, what i suggest is that never go to watch us anymore, but do come to watch my show ok :) Hey, let's go to watch Ismail together and see if we do have some comments in common :) Once again, thanks for taking your meeting time off to reply us. Now go back to your work! Love (i am not the spoke person of JOT ok, my director might hold my cheque hehe...)
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| posted by Anak Music, Sat 22.03.200822:10:11 PM |
| Oh my god finally, I truly truly agree with Ans-Wan-Jitsa hurray!Runaway...is just isnt your cup of tea la! So i beg you if theres a 4th production just dont go since its so torturing for you. If the music is that bad,do you all out there think that imee ooi still exist and still survive in the music industry till now? Its very very invidual when it comes to what you like, what you think is right or wrong. Her albums sold millions of coppies worldwide, do you mean everybody who bought her albums were fooled by her, if "yes" she must be the greatest"conman" on earth. LOL. Well whatever! you can say what you like, I really wish she could keep up her good work as long as she lives.
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| posted by humble one, Sat 22.03.200823:41:18 PM |
| i watched the show, and i enjoyed it. i must admit, this was my FIRST experience in musical stage production, and it satisfied me. i also must admit, i went to the show because of Imee's music. i follow all her Buddhism songs and like them, so i find no difficulty following the almost "monotonous" melodies. i like Paulway Chew, she has GREAT vocal! male lead also not bad. but other supporting male casts have problems, especially with the generally low notes... i like the set too, and i think the transitions of diff sets is fast enough. again, maybe it's because this was my first musical show and i haven't seen the better ones. but i DO have problem with the story. before the intermission, i find the story is okay highlighting the struggle of the princess, but it is definitely too draggy. 2nd act is exactly the opposite, no focus at all, and at the end i don't really understand why the princess gain so much respects from Tibetians. the structure of the story really is weak without pushing it to the climax, if there is a climax at all. sorry i don't know at all the musical terms, and my english is poor. as an "ordinary" audience, i'll give this show a strong 6/10.
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| posted by Ms. Saigon, Sun 23.03.200800:55:58 AM |
| I like imee too, but when talking about this production, please separate her profession and the production. generally, the music in this production is bad in terms of arrangement and the MIDI sample. i do agree that the MIDI sample is cheap and due to the repetition of the MIDI, the musical content could not stand out. This certain has not something to do with previous or imee's album in the future. who can deny that imee is one of the great musicians in new age buddhism music? but in view of the music in musical production, its something far more different than producing a new age music. pls dont mixed up with one's profession and one's musical production!! again, we r not fool!!!
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Sun 23.03.200805:08:42 AM |
| Ans-wan-jitsa: Would like to understand, why would you think we, whoever has given negative comments here have unhappy history with someone in the production? Why couldn't you look at it the way where we are actually being supportive? :) Like what you have been telling Runaway, if we feel cheated, we do not have to come back for the 4th show, if you guys would have the 4th one. Why are we giving comments here? We can just walk away, & "walking away" is exactly what has been happening in Malaysian performing arts industry, especially the Chinese group (sorry if what I'm saying here offend anyone in this area). I don't know about others, and I can't represent all of them. I'm speaking just for myself, as I said in my previous comments, I don't hate the show. My intention of giving comments here merely is to offer constructive criticism, which I hope could help in any way. I do hope that you guys have more shows coming up, improved ones... I call this SUPPORTIVE. Correct me if you think I'm wrong. I do want to admit too, I am a bit emotional, but NOT against anyone in your production. Instead I am emotional because wasn't happy with the very basic/fundamental & the technical problems your production has. And I can tell you, I like your musical director's own album, a few of them actually! But doing a musical production is a totally different thing. Knowing your production cost is around 1.5million even makes me more emotional. How many 1.5million can you have to do a theater production here? It's rare, so I just really really hoped that you guys have used it wisely... Personally, I do feel that anyone, can comment on anything which is technical especially, but not anything which has anything to do with the artistic direction. Because, doing so, we couldn't justify what is correct & what is wrong. And this topic somehow, couldn't & shouldn't be touched, simply because, in performing arts, without our own (distinctive) artistic direction, we are all the same. Well, tell me (if you have read my previous comments carefully), which part that you think is not constructive? I'll try my best to explain. By the way, I'm not intend to have you guys follow exactly what I said/suggested, but just to let you know what I think, as an audience. So it's still, up to you guys to pick out points that you think is valid & useful for you. I totally understand sometimes our comments are "invalid" because we are just judging by what we see, & not being able to know what exactly are the reasons that you chose to do certain thing. But does that mean we shouldn't say anything just because we don't know what's the reasoning? For an example, if a production has a limited budget, & has to choose between having: (A) great set + costume & less training + research OR (B) slightly simpler + lower cost costume + set & more constructive training + research & the production team has chose (B) to the execution. When the audience come to watch, if they feel the set & costume is a bit too dull, they will just voice out. But the production team is the one who has to justify whether this is "valid" for the production or not... So, I hope what I'm saying can explain my intention, & hopefully you could understand that I'm not here to teach you or your fellow colleagues how to be a director/producer/composer/performer... Well, as for your performance. :) Since you asked, I need you to understand, when a script is not helping in your character, it's very very hard for us to judge an actor's performance. Frankly, that's what happen in you production. I noticed you that's for sure. Among the underdeveloped-characters, your role somehow has more dimension to it, not 1-dimensional if that's what you are concerning... Having said that, of course, it won't be less interesting if you can have even more layer built in you. :) But be careful, don't over-act in terms of, do not do certain thing on stage just because you want to do it, you need to know why this particular person (the character that you are playing) want-to/need-to do it. Besides, since this is a musical, singing is also one of the vital "weapon" you need. Singing in your range & singing in a range where it's possible to show your vocal-tone is definitely important, but of course, you need to know how your character should sound like. In musical, some characters can sound very squeeky, so it's up to you & your director to decide what's right for your character. But the basic thing here, vocal skill is very important if not the most important. In short, I think you need to polish up your vocal skill, because from what I see, you are good, but when you sing, you kinda lose it somehow. Well, again, I'm not an expert in singing, so am not sure what I'm saying is correct, but I noticed one problem which might be affecting your performance in singing as well. Your songs sounded not in your range, am I right? Because I felt that you have some difficulty hitting certain notes. (In fact, not only you, the general & the father, I just felt that their songs are just too low for them) Whereas for you, is it too high (& also some part are too low)? But well, yours not so bad, the other princess' is REALLY REALLY too high, that I can be sure, even if I'm not an expert in singing, I can tell she's having difficulty hitting the high notes. Your movement/body-language: again, you are doing alright, but if more dimension of the character has been cultivate in you, you'd find yourself doing certain movement naturally, & not doing certain movements "purposely" & "repetitively" on stage. Certain gestures, ie: scratching head/picking nose/shaking head will be like your identity, but not by doing it 100% consciously. So, you'd need to rehearse so much till you are him (in a way-la). There are exercises which can be done to help an actor "dig" deeper into his character, I hope your director is doing this to help you... I sincerely wish that what I post here now, is helpful...
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| posted by Ans-wan-jitsa, Sun 23.03.200811:50:36 AM |
| Wow...very constructive :) I love it. I wish we could meet one day. If you do see me one day, please say hi ok :) Thanks. I hope that this is the kind of forum we are having here...constructive on one end and receptive on the other. Thank you so much :) I really mean it!
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| posted by SALESMAN, Sun 23.03.200812:18:06 PM |
| 各位同学大家好, 我也有幸看了JOT, 跟朋友谈起时他说这里的读者都有谈论, 而且很精彩, 我也来凑凑热闹咯, 我花了大概两小时看完这些评论(英文烂嘛!), 学了很多东西唷~~超精彩! 首先为了不浪费大家时间, 我简单介绍一下自己.我只是一个做SALES的, 没有音乐学问, 看JOT都是因为有时间还有要捧捧场.以下意见请JOT同人原谅我的愚昧, 各位同学我也没有要冒犯. 各位同学里面有些意见真的让我的思路打开了很多. 但是哦, 有些同学提到说有人闷到睡啦, 妈妈看完不记得歌曲啦, 没观众拍手啦既然拍都是敷衍啦,觉得奇怪有人在他背后哭啦, 甚至有人怀疑有人暗中吃掉那一百万的制作费. 我就觉得跟大家分享我的意见. 我感觉哦各位同学, 这里的观众实在太爱睡啦, 各位同学也知道我们的观众已经落后了20年, 可能爱睡是一个弊病啦, 您有觉得我们是什么场合都爱谁的吗?座谈会, 梁静茹演唱会, PO OPERA..什么地方都睡, 那"睡"已经是弊病了, 是不是还要用"睡"来评定一个演出的精彩程度呢? 有同学问妈妈说有哪首歌是妈妈记得的. 说真的看完SHOW后我也只记得赞谱的"问我是谁"和天葬里的"雄鹰", 超正. 其他的比较模糊, 但是哦, 我在想, 我看了PO OPERA也只记得女主角坐艇的飙高音啊. 但是MAMAMIA里的歌我就很有印象, 因为听过了很多遍嘛.我是觉得, 一听就记得的好歌固然有, 但是会有多少首呢? 有同学说没观众拍手, 拍的也可能是暗示"对不起, 下次可能我也不来看你们了". 超喜欢这同学的观察力, 利害. 我自己谢幕时就拍到手痛, 而且在表演其间我都没拍手鼓励, 因为有几个朋友说其实看乐剧整天在拍手是不好的, 因为是很直接的表演者, 拍手会破坏演员的情绪. 我不懂哪是对, 拍会影响演员, 不拍有好象有点冷淡, 请同学指教. 我也有在想为啥这样的表演要整150万, 本来我也不"削"这个可能是宣传的伎俩, 但是同学的讨论我想通了少少. 我问过朋友, 公主在家里的那幅观音COLOUR PRINT, 也要大概3千块了. 还有每位都称赞的戏服, 我当他200块一套, 平均一位演员2套, 就花掉16千, 单单这样就20千了, 还有同学们坐的那么舒服的IB..十几场..加其他我们看不见的消费...我是感觉150万已经是非常基本的消费了.我相信如果能选择, 制作群一定不会吝啬现场拌奏的. 有各位同学说了故事没GENRE(是主干, 主题吗?), 我看回PROGRAM BOOK和上网了解了一下, "雪域的光芒" 应该是要歌颂公主的贡献吧. 有一幕是尺尊公主请教文成公主应该怎样建边建边蹋的大小昭寺. 大小昭寺今天在西藏是举足轻重的精神代表, 虽然是野史, 但确见证了公主的一大贡献. 赞谱也唱了说因为公主, 西藏这荒蛮地接触了佛教戒律并立法. 还有输入了种植法, 纺织法, 医学, 命理风水, 我是觉得都有交代公主的贡献, 如果同学觉得应该每一样贡献都用一幕来交代, 可能要演十几个小时咯. 我有一位朋友在MSN讨论时(我应该也象上面一位同学这样把MSN对话贴出来:P), 他是嫁了给回教的朋友而信仰回教, 他说他之前也知道文成公主的最大贡献是把佛教带进西藏, 但看了JOT他不觉得是宗教的活动, 反而他深深被最后公主放弃回家, 留守西藏30年的精神感动. 是不是这样的表演方式会比打正旗号来的更容易给大众接受和带大家进IB呢? 多一点DIVERSE一点的观众, 也很好嘛. 但是哦, 来自尼泊尔的尺尊公主的高跟鞋有少少碍眼,还有唐王的龙椅... 哈! 各位我无意冒犯. 合十.
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Sun 23.03.200812:20:43 PM |
| Ans-wan-jitsa: By the way, as I keep on saying, these are just my own point of view, including whatever related to your performance. O ya, forgot to mention, I watched Tunku too... & I definitely fond of the ensemble's energy in Tunku. Not saying it's perfect, & do not want to compare it with JoT now. By itself, Tunku is "ok", again, because the songs are unmemorable, which is kind of sad for a musical, but I like the performance in whole. Well, that's all about Tunku as we are not reviewing Tunku over here. :) By the way, I do put myself in your shoes, I understand how hard it is having people criticizing "my" work, "my" performance, "my" art, "my" way, especially after so much work has been done & so much time & effort has been put in to it. And totally understandable that, as a part of the production, I'd be very defensive towards being criticized. But I would have to make sure that myself is calm when reading reviews, while put my pride down, try not to take things too personally, as long as I wanted to go further in this journey. It's not easy being in performing arts, because your work is always being presented to the PUBLIC, not like other jobs. Since the receiving end of the "work" you do is the PUBLIC, you are much likely being criticized by people you know, people you don't, people who are professional, people who are not, people who are gentle in words, & people who don't care. Yes, it's the same to be a teacher, you might be facing the parents or the students questioning your work, but for performing arts, the amount of people questioning you is multiple by I-don't-know-how-many times. Hence, the pressure is greater, so you must be able to handle that, or must learn how to handle that. :) I'm saying this not because I think it's easy, instead I think it's something really hard to do. Even in a professional environment, people who claimed to be professional still might not be able to handle reviews properly, healthily. It's always easy said than done, but whatever must be said must be said. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say... p/s: Again, haha, am not trying to teach you anything, am just sharing my thoughts...
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| posted by Another Audience, Sun 23.03.200812:58:21 PM |
| Agree to I AM ALSO LEARNING, 荧光灯带来的是焦点，而你现在得到的就是焦点.
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| posted by humble one, Sun 23.03.200814:57:59 PM |
| chill, nobody is a fool here. i have no difficulty following Imee's songs here does not mean i think her compositionss in JOT is great. in fact, i agree with ms Saigon that producing buddhism songs is different from writing musical production, perhaps Imee should read the comments here and if there's any new musical production for her in the future, pls take all these constructive criticism into consideration. about the MIDI, actually i didn't realize that, i was sitting at the highest tier, where i cannot even see half of the backdrop, cannot see the head of the Guanyin, can see the princess was not walking on human bodies... and i naturally assume that the sound system should be bad there too. hahaha. how naive of me... but ya, it would be really nice if there's a live orchestral!! but i wonder, how come they use MIDI, and now recording live orchestra? oh i agree with I AM LEARNING that most of the male vocals are written too low, some of the songs, especially those officers talking about solving questions, so low i can hardly hear what they are singing, or were they just mumbling?? that's a letdown. is this a problem with the composer, Imee? errr... i don't know. but still, i like Imee's songs here, i don't think they are ridiculous or a disaster. perhaps they are just not good enough. hope she will learn and improve. jiayou. again, apologize for my poor english. :(
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| posted by humble one, Sun 23.03.200815:01:58 PM |
| correction. not "now recording", but "NOT" recording live orchestra... why don't they record live orchestra and use it as minus one during the show?? no more budget? :(
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| posted by humble one, Sun 23.03.200815:06:05 PM |
| correction. not "now recording", but "NOT" recording live orchestra... why don't they record live orchestra and use it as minus one during the show?? no more budget? :(
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| posted by humble one, Sun 23.03.200815:14:42 PM |
| dear SALESMAN, i noticed all the scenes that you mentioned about princess's contributions. my opinion is the "plots" can be more wisely interwoven into each other to create proper story structure. audience like linkage and relationship, and will almost guaranteed to get frustrated if they see no relation from 1 scene to another. that's what happen to me during Act 2. All scenes seems to stand alone, but not unified. my humble opinion, cut down the duration that focus on the struggle of Princess leaving home, and elaborate more on her contribution and struggle at foreign land. and for that part of story, write better script, plan plots properly so that we can see structure that lead us to the climax (her decision to stay with Tibet). Act 1 is good, i can almost feel the princess's hesitation and why she finally agree to go Tibet. Act 2 should have followed the same, but to my disappointment, all the scenes are too fragmented. oopss... getting a bit too long winded repeating same points... sorry. ciao.
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Mon 24.03.200812:25:21 PM |
| humble one: yeah, i think i agree with your point. that's what makes a novel more fascinating than a history textbook. by the way, live orchestra is not cheap babies. using MIDI, in my opinion, is fine, but please lah, do it better.
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| posted by namonamo, Mon 24.03.200818:31:25 PM |
dear humble people here,I have a bit experience working in small theatre ...sometimes we got to see if the story is made up or it's history itself.What the script writer present would have take into consideration the flow, balancing the important events to be told, balancing the entertainment value,balancing the number of cast they have in hand to spread out in so many scenes, balancing the timing needed for them to change image/clothes and so on.Princess contribution alot alot, but if they focus on that, may be most of you here will fall asleep further and scold them worst than already done!!So to spice up the play, put in some sob sob story like you see in act 1.If they link Wen Cheng story, which I am quite familiar with,the show have to have part 1/2/3/4/5/.... to be able to finish till the last.I notice this group focus on Buddhist story, and all of the story or rather history, cross over big change of enviroment,place and period of time.To tell such big story over 2 and half hour,some more have to consider all the factors above, is a big big task.So, for A Malaysia production,I think they are really super super already,and that is why after 10 years, they are still the only group around, a group of selfess people who only wants to contribute but not make money.(Oh Ya, someone suspect people eat money,very very bad thought!!)I am most sad to see the way they are shot down like May be you all should chant namo namo for your real bad thoughts on them.Comments are good for improvement,but,no no, I see alot of bad bad thoughts here.namonamonamonamo....
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| posted by namonamo, Mon 24.03.200818:31:46 PM |
| dear humble people here,I have a bit experience working in small theatre ...sometimes we got to see if the story is made up or it's history itself.What the script writer present would have take into consideration the flow, balancing the important events to be told, balancing the entertainment value,balancing the number of cast they have in hand to spread out in so many scenes, balancing the timing needed for them to change image/clothes and so on.Princess contribution alot alot, but if they focus on that, may be most of you here will fall asleep further and scold them worst than already done!!So to spice up the play, put in some sob sob story like you see in act 1.If they link Wen Cheng story, which I am quite familiar with,the show have to have part 1/2/3/4/5/.... to be able to finish till the last.I notice this group focus on Buddhist story, and all of the story or rather history, cross over big change of enviroment,place and period of time.To tell such big story over 2 and half hour,some more have to consider all the factors above, is a big big task.So, for A Malaysia production,I think they are really super super already,and that is why after 10 years, they are still the only group around, a group of selfess people who only wants to contribute but not make money.(Oh Ya, someone suspect people eat money,very very bad thought!!)I am most sad to see the way they are shot down like May be you all should chant namo namo for your real bad thoughts on them.Comments are good for improvement,but,no no, I see alot of bad bad thoughts here.namonamonamonamo....
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Tue 25.03.200800:55:01 AM |
| i'm really sick of people saying "for a malaysian prudction, this is ok/good liao". Listen guys: Why don't we just keep on making P. Ramlee movies if any level is accepted only because it's Malaysian production? It's really silly! If anything can be forgiven only because it's MALAYSIAN PRODUCTION, then go ahead and keep doing the same thing for 50 years, see how far Malaysian art scene can go lah. Yes, I agree that some people are thinking too far a bit about the money thing. To those people, I'd like to say, we're talking about artistry here, not the things that takes up money like costumes and backdrops. please think before you accuse something lah. i mean give comments is good, but don't 有得讲就讲 lah ok?
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| posted by Runaway, Tue 25.03.200810:05:02 AM |
| Dear NAMO, Kindly read the comments people posted here if you are not ignorant. Not interested to explain it over to you again. I checked out Imee's CDs too. I appreciate that she contributed so much to the Buddhist community here. Cheer for her :) Is she only good in writing that kinda genre? the outcome of past 3 musicals told everything. Imee, I respect you a lot as a great composer who put our Buddhist music at a high level standard. I had a lot of fun listening to you CDs. I won't say they are excellently well, but undoubtedly yours have a fresh sound in this kinda genre. Composing for a musical is much more than that. I don't really give a damn to what NAMO said. The main purpose we are discussing here is to let you know audience here are ACTUALLY smart. So please work hard and produce something good for us. I am sorry if my past comments sounded harsh to you. but I sincerely hope you read us, and really jot down notes people said here. There are also a few professionals here who already gave u very technical and specific suggestion. NAMO, go improve your awareness, before making yourself a laughingstock.
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| posted by runaway, Tue 25.03.200810:19:23 AM |
| Sorry for for the late response Ans-wan-jitsa. If i were the only runaway. I wouldn't criticize like this unless the situation was extremely horrible. As I said, I didn't say anything in their past 2 musicals. Even some close friends from the production asked for my feedback. I would say keep it up. what i am saying here especially those about the music are vain comments, straight to the point, naked truth... not play play one. People who don't agree with my say (not you Answan jitsa), point out which line i said is wrong (those technically about music). Really can't stand ignorant people. I hope this answers you well :) Again, appreciate your valued response. we will meet for quite sure in future.
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| posted by Audience queen, Tue 25.03.200813:58:28 PM |
| 哈哈..SALESMAN我觉得你一定是买了他们的CD，所以才会对"问我是谁"和"雄鹰"有印象。我可不相信你真的在现场听了那些音乐就对那些歌有印象哦..因为啊,那些歌名只有CD上才会出现吧？除非你是团体里面的人，你才会对剧中的歌名那么清楚. 人家同学们是说故事有点平啦，不够Focus.我也这么认为.因为我也差点想睡！只不过音乐太吵导致我又睡不着！我想睡并不是因为这是马来西亚的culture，是因为觉得累。尤其是当人站在舞台上，不动，又听不到他们在唱甚么的时候，我就开始要往字幕看。真得很累！！没错的话，音乐剧应该是没有字幕的吧？而且而且..那些人唱得那么"凶",吓死人咩！又吵，耳朵也真很累啊！我在英国看的几部音乐剧，至少它们没有给我累的感觉。哦...当然文成公主唱歌时，我也很enjoy啦.至少她在的时候，我都没有想睡觉.不过另外一个印度公主唱歌的时候我觉得她在割我的颈咯. 其实我并不懂太多音乐，这只是我个人观看过后的感觉,我想因为我也是观众之一，有权利说点话吧？希望你们可以稍微做些调整啦.谢谢.
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| posted by Audience Queen, Tue 25.03.200814:20:40 PM |
| 还有还有,故事感觉没有主题，我想看文成公主3年路程发生过什么事，这没交待.反而突然间说什么文成公主是绿度母化身，为什么？没有交代.如果是没时间交待就别放那一幕吧.因为真得不明白为什么.还有，什么是绿度母？我真地看的一头雾水..?_? 当然还有其他啦，一时想不起那么多，希望下次的一部剧会比较好咯.
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| posted by runaway, Tue 25.03.200818:16:47 PM |
| hahaha u mean the solo dance? I didn't know 文成公主是绿度母化身.
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| posted by Chinese teacher, Tue 25.03.200823:39:24 PM |
| One thing I don't understand is, aren't people who wrote the script and all are Chinese-ed??? Why can't they spell Princess "Wen Cheng" correctly spell it as "Wen Chang"???? Come on, 文成 and 文昌 is very different ok???? memalukan saja...
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| posted by 问我是谁?, Wed 26.03.200803:31:35 AM |
| Actually, I can remember the song "问我是谁" also... but not the song actually, just those last 4 words... "问我是谁"... I remember the performer was just flat out yelling them words very loud... not singing. heh...
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| posted by HP, Wed 26.03.200804:11:48 AM |
| First off, I am not Malaysian. I am just a person that enjoys watching musicals and have watched a numerous amount of them. I am also a supporter of Asian arts, and hope that it can influence and inspire worldwide audiences. This is the goal of the JoT production team also. Quoted from the production team's website, " our aim is to produce top notch musicals and cultivate local talent to achieve international standard in musical theatre to the likeness of New York's Broadway and London's West End. Predominantly with Asian themes, we are confident that these musicals will inspire the Malaysian audience as well as audience around the world." So for those of you saying that its ok that JoT wasnt that good and its ok because it is an Malaysian production. Well, this is not their goal their goal is to achieve international standard as Broadway and West End. If they are to set um lets say match the standard that of Broadway or West End, then they will need to listen to what all critics say and improve on it. They include professional critics, media, musicians, actors, performers, Audience.. etc Im sure there are a few musicians and performers in the above comments and some are just audiences. I do not see any comments stating that JoT sucks and they should Shut-down. Most comments are just pointing out what they think needs improvement. We all just want our local arts to improve, so why all the bickering and defensive argument. If MoSP (Musical on Stage Production) wants to achieve international standards, then please just listen to these constructive comments and improve what you thinks need to improve. All comments are just a mere opinion of what we think needs to be corrected but not necessarily all comments are correct. If the production team can review all comments, Im sure they can find some Area of improvements with the help of these constructive comments. Casual Malaysian audience with no artistic (musicians, performers etc.) background might think that JoT is OK, but to those with artistic backgrounds can tell that JoT is NOT to the International Standards, they are just trying to help this industry in our Asian community improve. The worldwide audience from USA, Europe and around the world can give even more harsh comments that can just Shut-down your production. We are not here to destroy JoT or any other Asian productions, we are here to express our own opinions and hope to improve the Malaysian and all Asian performing arts so that the worldwide audience can accept and acknowledge. Thank you for your time! I love you Paulway!!!
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| posted by Runaway, Wed 26.03.200804:54:01 AM |
| Ans-wan-jitsa, can I ask a question and you gotta be frank to me. Have you guys met for any after-show evaluation? Or do you guys actually have one? err.. perhaps... at least the producer, director and composer, the people who ran the show, have they met and evaluated? Thanks a lot HP. That means a lot to us, Malaysians.
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| posted by humble one, Wed 26.03.200808:21:33 AM |
| NAMONAMO, hahaha, you are a really cute and funny person. i think i kinda like you. and whatever you said does not sound offensive to me, coz the tone is just too funny that i won't take it seriously. and thank you for exposing me to the difficulties faced by the stage production groups. how ignorance of me not to take these into consideration? for that i apologize. as an "audience", i only see what i see in front of me on the stage, how would i even know the difficulties you all have gone through? and in fact, why should i even care? on second thought, don't you think you are a bit too offensive over the whole thing? truth is, i don't see any problem for epic films to tell story across countries and time, they have no problem telling good story with only 2 or 2.5 hours. i don't see why that's a problem to JOT. Films don't simply put in ALL facts and history, but being selective and choose those plots that are significant enough and structure and link them properly. and to HP, thanks for making it clear, i am really not here to "tear down" the production, basically to give my 2-cent about what is weak and need improvement.
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| posted by Dancer, Wed 26.03.200809:55:34 AM |
| I am one of the dancers of JOT. I am not coming to defense anything. But please dont have the thought as the people who gave the good comment were from the production group. It is unfair to them. Although I just only a small character inside this musical, I really glad and enjoy reading all the constructive comments here, especially about the music knowledge where I was very poor on this. Thank you guys, you all really help me and my friends learn a lot here. However, friend, please stop all the personal attack, e.g. Chinese educated topic and the money stuff, do respect other and also yourself. Actually, my purpose here is to seek out the comment and also suggestion, no matter good or bad, which is more focus on dance (such as the arrangement, movement and also our Tibet dance), even though might some of you think it is only the dessert of this musical. But we really care about all this and need you all to help us to improve ourselves; definitely, I will bring up to date to our choreographers if there is any comment or suggestion from you guy. Thanks a lot.
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| posted by HP, Wed 26.03.200811:31:11 AM |
| Runaway... Yes, they have briefings after the shows. Well, at least for the first few shows. Dancers... You all did a great job with the choreography given to you. Some of the routines were very similar to the previous musicals from MoSP but that is not your fault. I'm not a dancer so I don't think I qualify to say anything about it. At least not much people here said anything bad about the dancers. So that's a good sign I guess. =) I'll let the pro-dancers elaborate on it.
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 26.03.200813:26:43 PM |
| HP: I think Runaway is talking abt post-mortem kinda evaluation meeting after the whole show is finished performing... Runaway, am I right? Dancer: I'm not a pro in dancing as well. To me, everyone on stage must have a purpose. For what you guys were doing, you are the ensemble for this musical. For ensemble, you'd still need characterization, especially when you guys have "certain" roles like good-sellers, merchants, some aunties... That part, as what I have mentioned earlier, you guys are underdeveloped, even if it's such a small role. Before talking about the choreography, I think the overall "energy-level" of ensemble is very very important, especially for a musical, & for a musical your scale. The group dance at certain scenes, I personally feel that the energy is lacking. For an example, the first group dance in Tang's market, it was "low". Since it's the 1st ensemble scene, it's even more important where you need to "grab" the audience attention, not forcefully but giving adequate energy to it, each and everyone of you. "It" needs to be colorful, not only by utilizing the lighting & costume, but also your energy & character. (I hope my "abstract" words here are still understandable.) However, the dance piece at where the Tibetan King passed away, your energy is more focus. Of course I understand, when talking about energy level, it varies from day to day, so maybe that day I watched is different from the others. Ok, now the choreography or some other parts that are related. I can't elaborate each & everyone, just some example. Like the thousand-arms-Guanyin, well, it's ok. And why is it only "ok" for me? I'm not sure but think it's because the enormous space that you have in IB, it's not "dramatic" enough. It's not easy for this piece, because you guys now are now not HUMAN but GOD-like images, so must be able to make it "larger than life" but not over-doing it. My guess, extending your finger nails would be helpful, & they must be flickering/shining material, since I don't see the "stuff" that you guys holding are helpful in your dance. For this piece, I guess with your SHARP & CLEAN movement it'll definitely help, but as what I see, they're not to-the-dot yet kinda sharp & clean. O! And I think your position is too far upstage already, making you guys looked very small. I'm not sure what I say here makes any sense, just my thoughts. The 绿渡母 solo, so sorry it really didn't work. First off, it's because nobody knows what it is. Besides, again, it's not HUMAN. I actually watched your PERFECT CIRCLE years ago, & I like it on how you guys treated this piece, at least that time there's something to see (you have the EXTRA-LONG-SLEEVE). For the rest of the dance, frankly I can't remember much, but as far as I can recall, some of the pieces are kinda "messy", & some are ok only, hence not helping too much in bringing up the overall energy of the musical, which is the main purpose (I think) for the ensemble. Without each piece's distinctive character (I mean the character for the choreography), it doesn't "jump" out to the audience when a certain piece is being performed, so what imprints in our head is, "they all looked similar". So sorry, I know they all are different, but that's my feeling. Overall, ENERGY is what I think lacking the most. Well, I need to emphasis here, I AM REALLY NOT A PRO in dancing, & not knowing much of the technical stuff about dancing, so my words might not be very helpful. Thanks for reading. :)
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 26.03.200813:33:07 PM |
| O o o, add-ons. I do understand for certain pieces of dance at certain time, you guys need to look as though you are "one" in terms of one character for the whole group instead of one character each dancer. But, still, characterization. Do I make any sense? :)
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 26.03.200813:39:59 PM |
| O o o, add-ons again. I think what I have just commented is more for the choreographer & director to see, except the "energy" & character part... Hmm, not so helpful for you as a dancer ya?
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 26.03.200813:44:24 PM |
| O o o, add-ons again (again). Hehe... I do not think dancing & choreography is just dessert to a musical. Instead, I think it's the appetizer, VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT ya, if not, no mood eat the main course already... Without it, digestion could be worse, I could fall asleep... :)
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| posted by HP, Wed 26.03.200814:47:30 PM |
| Yes, that's what I mean. After the show is finished and all the performers have removed their costumes and make-ups, they will have an evaluation meeting with the whole cast and crew.
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 26.03.200815:00:02 PM |
| O, no no, that's the daily briefing. For me it's the post-mortem for the production team after the whole show is down from theater, meaning for this production, is after their last show, maybe a few days later, or some time arranged for the meeting.
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Wed 26.03.200815:05:48 PM |
| Dancer: No lah, talking about chinese ed topic is not personal attack what, because this musical is in Chinese, so taking note on the accuracy of chinese also very important.
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| posted by SALESMAN, Wed 26.03.200817:40:52 PM |
| AUDIENCE QUEEN 同学您好,我真的是买了CD. 还多买了两张给朋友, 你有发觉里面没歌词吗? 如CD有歌词就好了.
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| posted by runaway, Wed 26.03.200818:15:44 PM |
| i am going to put my foot down again. the reason i am voicing out here is to stop letting the public awareness (especially local chinese educated community) descend to even lower level. Don't ever think i am attacking certain chinese educated people, this is a fact! i am chinese educated malaysian. i'm just concerned about composition and arrangement thou, especially the melodic line and the arranging techniques. the uninteresting melodic line with long lyrics made the singer difficult to sing and the audience's ears suffered. again, if the music only depended on the voice to bring out emotion, and the music was flat, it just wouldn't work. lack of composition and arrangement skills were the most serious problems of all musicals this production produced. limited arranging variety and lack of understanding of orchestration were making their musicals very ugly. more details go read my 1st comment. overwhelming texture (dynamic) and no respect to silence and space restricted natural vocal projection, and made people ears very tired. other obvious flaws were the diction, lyrics, the mixing of the minus-one track, the singing style. Dances and choreography were fine to me. Other issues, i'm keeping my mouth shut. I know fans and supporters are pissed with my critics. but when you respond. respond to my points directly. for the very first time in our community, as i know, the critics here "no give face", ignored those unrelated issues like composer's CDs (as i said I paid high respect to her great work in buddhism music), reviews on paper, chances to perform in overseas (tell me how much can you believe in those reviews??!)... just focus on the outcome of the musicals, and the quality. sincerely hope the director and composer look into the problems seriously. these are for your own good. I don't get anything. i am definitely not trying to create a mess and want you guys to shut down. i believe others too. please don't misinterpret my intention. I could write a personal email to director and composer and i don't think i would have problems getting their email. but I knew they wouldn't listen to critics in past. although it's kinda ugly to criticize publicly and and it's not respectful in my principle of treating people in the same industry, i really don't know how to make them listen. Again, i am responsible with what i am saying here.
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| posted by too much, Wed 26.03.200819:38:05 PM |
| Hello runaway, I think you a bit gone too far and talk too much, why don't you try to product your own musical and make us understand, in stead of standing up to the hill just give comment, show that you can and you able to do better.
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| posted by too much, Wed 26.03.200819:46:39 PM |
| Hey come on all of you,before you guys go for musical please read, search and understand the story before watching it. All about don't understand storyline or who is Green Tara, oh please, read the story about JOT or Wen Cheng before go for the show, this is one of the lesson we need to do before wathcing musical dear muscial lovers! Where to read? Seach on line please.
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| posted by runaway, Wed 26.03.200821:37:50 PM |
| Hey too much, sure i did do research before the show. I respect ALL the shows i attended, including this one too. I still do now in some extend. I won't go to a show without preparation, even a movie. You shot the wrong person. i did know wencheng was an incarnation of a tara, even before the show. I was saying the way the show presented the green tara wasn't effective. the connection wasn't clear. perhaps, my artistic comprehension is just too low. Sorry to make you annoyed. another one who didn't DIGEST my comments and didn't respond to my points, and defend her/his own stand with own pride. My current projects in KL keep me busy until september. i can't take new projects anymore. i don't think i wanna promote my work here. if not u may doubt my intention. but ya, i am doing something here. Welcome to criticize me, i will listen. For your information, i haven't done any musical here. but i did a small one in LA. with the limited budget and non-professional casts and crews, i did my very best, and we had a blast. Don't worry and be patient you will see me one day here, hopefully. This is my last comment here and I am not going say anything about JoT anymore, and i don't think i will do this to any production in Malaysia anymore. (unless i got personal attack with no reason like you did) I am not trying to create a mess here, and not trying to shut your production down. but sorry, u don't see my intention. If you are from the production, go on with your pride and ego. If you are an audience, i am too sad to realize how ignorant some people here. too disappointed to see people like you. sorry again to make you annoyed by true thought. have fun with their coming show. Actually i HATE criticizing behind people back.... it's just not me. Here is my real profile. I don't wanna be someone u think a jerk messing around. I say it with my gut. but do you? Ken, kenscore@mac.com www.myspace.com/hfken http://hfken.multiply.com/ Some of you are really cool and smart, and some even more observant than i do. i've been very surprised to read some valued comments. Thanks for sharing. Bye buddies.
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| posted by Music notes, Wed 26.03.200821:57:30 PM |
| oh dear Runaway, whatever you comment doesnt proof anything, all i can say is that its only your own personal opinion, like a piece of art with just a few strokes can be sold for thousands of dollars,what can you say, something must be terribly wrong right..whatever, whatever JOT s just not ur cup of tea.
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 26.03.200823:53:27 PM |
| RUNAWAY: Same goes here, this is my last comment here too. I've spent too much time here, what I could say I have said it loud & clear. LALA, TOO MUCH, MUSIC & those of you similar to them: You can't even read properly, or think properly & maturely, GO THINK AGAIN. Eventually, we care but it's not really any of our business. A production that aims to be international top notch musical, but nowhere getting there yet; with too much room to improve, with some ignorant people involved, with so much of ego & pride, will only drive you guys further away from that aim. Sorry to say, whoever you are, LALA, TOO MUCH & MUSIC, you guys really are too much, even if you were not part of the production team but are supporters, you don't help much either, by being so defensive & so ignorant. And whatever you guys are doing now, only will bring them down faster & earlier. Good luck on your work. BYE.
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| posted by I AM ALSO LEARNING, Wed 26.03.200823:54:43 PM |
| Sorry I don't mean MUSIC, but is MUSIC NOTES.
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| posted by Another Audience, Thu 27.03.200800:15:16 AM |
| Ha! Haha... So funny, eventually... U know what, Cantonese says, GO EAT YOURSELVES, that's what I hear!!! And, that's what I'm going to tell those of u who are IGNORANT & DEFENSIVE, whether or not u r part of the production team, or just some audience... GO EAT YOURSELVES! Do whatever u want, be whatever u want, u have all the rights on earth to continuously be more ignorant & unimproved... I was proud of the production because it is a 100% Msian production, although I don't really like the show. But I have never hate the show, even after I've seen so many negative critics here, instead, I realize this production can still improve, with the help of those constructive comments. However, now, u know what, I hate the production already! Haha, since u guys have been so IGNORANT for so long, I want to be as IGNORANT as u r, I don't have to find out whether you are part of the production or not! I just don't believe that those of u who are incredibly defensive are normal audience. You must have something emotionally attached to this production, be it because you are part of them, or your family/friend is part of them! I would say, whoever u r, u made me & my other friends who have watched the show, and have read the egoistic-proud-and-defensive comments here, hate the show, cos we hate your attitude. Thanks for those of u who r IGNORANT, you have ENLIGHTENED me!!!
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| posted by Another Audience, Thu 27.03.200800:27:57 AM |
| Runaway: By the way, it is not disrespectful for any audience to comment on a show where they pay for the ticket, so don't worry that it's an unethical action to comment. Instead, I think it's wonderful because we still have audience who are pro & care about the improvement of local production.
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| posted by HP, Thu 27.03.200801:05:22 AM |
| MoSP doesn't like to listen to comments, they don't understand what we are trying to tell them. All they think is that we are trying to tear them apart. They either can't read or just doesn't want to read negative comments about their production. They think that what they have produced is the best out there and is international standards already. I have spent time with MoSP before and glad to have known a few of the cast and crews there. Most of them are a bunch of very nice and talented individuals. The main problem with MoSP is their production crew. They all have their own ego, and some will only listens to their own crew members or their favorite casts. If you are not in their favorite list, they will not listen to you. So... if they do not listen to their own cast's opinion, they will not listen to our comments. That my friend, is their main problem. There are a few casts that are very unhappy with MoSP and I am sure a few of them will not perform for them in the future. I am sure that Paulway (Wen Cheng) will not perform with them any more, even if she wants to, I will not allow it! They do not understand that we are here to help support them. In their egoistic minds, we are there to shut them down or something. To those that are NOT in MoSP, PLEASE read our comments carefully before you post here. If you can't understand what is going on, then please not reply. Runaway Ken, let's have lunch when you are back in LA. =) I'm sure some of you should know who I am by now.
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| posted by HP, Thu 27.03.200801:40:47 AM |
| Too much... you are just too much. When I go watch a musical or a movie, it is for my pleasure. I do not want to read about it or go search for more info online. That is what a musical or movie suppose to do, tell us about the story... in a more interesting visual presentation. Allowing our minds to enter their world they created for us. THEN, after the show, if I am very interested in the story, I will maybe go read more about it in more details. I have no idea who is the Green Tara until someone told me about it. Why was she dancing on top of the mountains? So musical lovers "should" go read about the story before they go watch the musical... hmm... so, if JoT is to perform in Broadway... West End... Las Vegas... they expect ALL the audience, Asians, Americans, etc... to go to a class and learn about the story before they can watch the musical? You are funny. The musical IS the story and should educate us what the story is about. I do not see anyone in this blog space stating that they can do better or MoSP should shut down. We all just want you guys to improve. Is that too much for you too much? You don't want to improve? To achieve (really achieve) International Standards? If not, then I am sorry, and help others say sorry to you. Thank you all for your time.
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| posted by runaway, Thu 27.03.200803:16:14 AM |
| Sorry i broke my promise. DAMN! HP I kinda suspected who u are. I am really curious who the rest are. Hai... i really respect you a lot. U came here from the other half of the earth to watch a bad show, no... at least 3 shows. Pity you. Me too, was there for way, but I went there from my house from Kajang. now i know why you are so pissed. Yeeeaaaahhhh The power of love!!! Way, you better appreciate. Again, I didn't say anything bad to anyone in the past 2 shows. For the sake of respecting way and her production team and I never talked bad about this show to people outside kakiseni too. Coz it was a pleasure to watch her sing although she couldn't sing comfortably i am sure. Her singing is the closest one to broadway vocalization. I didn't give her face, she deserve the compliment! no? without her... these past 3 shows were nothing, at least they were nothing to me. the title of this musical is WEN CHENG GONG ZHU. But was the musical really about her? i afraid it wasn't. 何必呢？演秦始皇 isn't it better? You-know-who is always in the list what. OK, Shut up.
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| posted by Mong Min Chiu Yan, Thu 27.03.200809:57:58 AM |
| Wah.... everybody also start to reveal his/her own identity liao wor~~!
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| posted by Audience queen, Thu 27.03.200813:35:54 PM |
| SALESMAN,抱歉，我没买CD，既然很多里面的人不想听不好的评语，不如我这样说啦..算我不会欣赏他们的高难度，复杂，先进又曲高和寡的音乐吧！让"未来人"去欣赏罗.真好笑...从来没听过要看音乐剧之前先去搜查资料的啦..TOO MUCH,I guess you just never watch a "good" musical or movie before!that's why you need to do so much of research before you get into the theatre or cinema!哈哈哈！！！
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| posted by scrutiny, Thu 27.03.200816:26:23 PM |
| dear runaway: yeah, you better shut up from now, because you start to talk rubbish already, meaningless, just wasting the space here!
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| posted by voice up loud, Thu 27.03.200816:58:56 PM |
| Havent been here for almost two weeks, when i come back and see.. here definitely looks like a war... sad... when people give comments, no matter it is bad or good, should pay respect to each other. The bad comments but useful syggestion should be respected and appreciated too even you dont accept it. And when people give good comments, you people don'f have to condemn too, ok? Of course, this is a good place to express their words, and this is our freedom to do so, but if you take this place to shoot people rather than giving comments, i think this is meaningless already, and it is just wasting time to read all these negative replies. I am quite agree to what scrutiny said, the people like runaway and another audience... you are too free is it?? non stop shooting, no use la after your first two good comments, i read your comments i oso feel boring liao, find soemthing more meanigful to do la, rather than concerntrate too much time shooting here shooting there. since you can read chinese, let me give you two chinese words, "wu liao". this is my last time to visit here, because it is just wasting my time to read those so called "unhealthy comments". Hi Fellow Thespian : I am not trying to criticize your comments, i am just giving my comments on PGL :)
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| posted by Another Audience, Thu 27.03.200817:46:38 PM |
| Ha! FINALLY, someone has VOICED OUT what u guys wanna tell the rest of the world already, which is ASKING THE AUDIENCE TO SHUT UP!!!!!! Thanks SCRUTINY by helping them telling us off! So, we will fuck off if u may like! Such a stupid bunch of people involved in this production! Wasted my energy being so supportive to u all this time! Disappointed & feel so sorry for u! I even watched your shows so many times, pushed for your every single shows, asking all my friends to support u guys... I even looked up to the stage & admire u guys so much... So stupid of me! I've never thought that any of your shows is perfect, but I support so eagerly because you guys are kind of like the only Malaysia Chinese group that has the chance to produce such a big show! You guys are rare because very little chance in Malaysia that can get so much money for so many times... Well, I'll tell u what u like to hear -- You guys have done a terrific job! You guys are the best in Msia, perhaps in the world! You guys are irreplaceable! Your musical touches so many souls! Your performance is so stunning! It even makes me cry! My life is lifted by your songs & music! I have such a wonderful night watching the show! Out of the world! blah, blah, blah... But you know what, you may like those GOOD comments, but so sorry, by now, deep in my heart, I'd say -- you guys sucks! VOICE UP LOUD: It's not that I want to SHOOT people, these bunch of people are ought to be SHOT! By just being so IGNORANT, STUPID & BLIND! They defend blindly, rude & ignorant! So what do you think I shall respond? Say thank you? Nope! It's their job to thank us for supporting the show! My response now is rude I know, simply because they want me to be rude. U get what u asked for!
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| posted by Another Audience, Thu 27.03.200817:47:08 PM |
| O! O! O! I c! Those of u including LALA, MUSIC NOTES, TOO MUCH, SCRUTINY, SALESMAN, TRUE MUSIC & u, VOICE UP LOUD, actually u guys are not trying to defend the show! U guys r trying to make the rest of the world hate the show, by purposely defend it so blindly & ignorant! I c!!! So, in fact, people like OC_NY, KENNETH CHUA, RUNAWAY, I AM ALSO LEARNING, F1GARO, FELLOW THESPIAN, etc are really trying to help, but this other IGNORANT bunch are trying to SPOIL the show!!! I SEE!!! Wow, what a day!!! So much of DRAMA here!!! Better than the show itself!
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| posted by Another Audience, Thu 27.03.200818:24:47 PM |
| O by the way, you don't like your audience to give negative comments? I would suggest you guys not to sell tickets, just send out invitation, invite those who love your shows blindly to watch, invite the relatives & friends of the casts/crews who support the show... Then, you will only hear what you like to hear. That's what I call "controlled crowd". It is effective, you should try it!
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| posted by Another Audience, Thu 27.03.200818:27:46 PM |
| And the 2nd step is, when you guys have the chance to go overseas, ie: US, UK... do the same!!! Only by invitation, don't sell ticket! Then, only GOOD COMMENTS will be heard, even back in Malaysia! I will be PROUD of you!
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| posted by Another Audience, Thu 27.03.200818:29:21 PM |
| But... don't invite me! :)
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| posted by Kritik Jot, Thu 27.03.200823:31:04 PM |
| hey calm down Another Audience, This is between you and scrutiny and other whatsoever JOT supporter out there, I felt the same as you do about JOT but I think we should give some respect to the producers, Dont get them involve with this bunch of low standard supporters.
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Thu 27.03.200823:55:00 PM |
| Oik? I see my name mentioned wer....:P
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| posted by 凭舞台, Fri 28.03.200803:09:06 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| 看了以上的观后感。也看到了很多建议。身为剧场的人我深感欣慰。谢谢。还有不少的人关心大马中文演艺。 不管好坏，意见是给我们身为演出单位的人的一个参考。从事表演工作，没有一天会满足，永远都在追求突破。从观众的回馈，我们或多或少能得到另外的灵感。再创高峰。 to HP: so sorry if it leave u a 'not so happy memory' but for sure it is a unforgetable thing to her in Malaysia. All the best to both of u. 将心比心，只要出发点都是为了大马演艺界更好的未来。大家心境平和的细读也无妨。 阿弥陀佛
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 28.03.200803:39:20 AM Readers say:  (Dey, get real!)
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| Dear KRITIK JOT (& to the PRODUCERS of JOT): Thanks for trying to calm me down. Ok, I'm sorry for being so angry. But you see, it's really hard for me to not be so angry, especially when I have been reading these responses from those ignorant bunch. After realizing that they're so defensive & ignorant, it evolves from being sorry for them to sad to angry. And really, it just doesn't look like they are the normal audience. As I said, I am just a normal audience, to top it off, I was always the production team's supporters, if those ignorant bunch are like me just supporter, I don't think they will react like that, so my conclusion is that they are part of the production! EVERYBODY WHO'S NOT IGNORANT: I'm sorry for being so rude. And I really appreciate your comments here, I've learned a lot here. I have been having doubts about certain things in this musical, but I finally realize what was the problem, & the explanation here even solve my doubts towards their previous musicals.
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| posted by pang, Fri 28.03.200809:40:23 AM |
| Answanjitsa said: "Hey, perhaps you guys can drop by The Actors' Studio next Thu - Sat (27-30 March) to comment on my play - F For Female! It's not a lesbian show, so don't worry." So what if it is lesbian or not? Why should we worry if it is lesbian? Is there something wrong with being lesbian? Now I am not sure if I want to watch a play that is produced by homophobic people.
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| posted by Kenneth Chua, Fri 28.03.200813:12:34 PM |
| ehem....now there raise another problem of Malaysian art scene: It's too conservative. But can we uh... bring this topic to some other places? We are focusing on JoT itself right here. Maybe Kaki Seni should open up a discussion board for everyone and for any topics about arts too. Just a suggestion.
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| posted by apologize, LOVING U, Fri 28.03.200814:23:01 PM |
| Dear hfken n others ~ i m greatly appreciate all of comments with your valuation. Yah~ it maybe only acceptable for normal audiences (ever it's even never achieve the level of i wished to be =P), NOT reality for an expert professionals (but how you targeted the professional should be =S or can i aware that u are sticking on which level of the professional stage). By the way, we have been performed at IB, most audiences have been felt in touchable n realize an intimate knowledge of story in "Wen-Cheng gong zhu". The meaning of professional for me: whether the so call professional have been/not towards to understand all the culture background and the processing envelopment of the once production, since u throw the bomb to part of the comments, rather then u blocked your wide eyes n judge out of the average standard on your own hated n trap shooting, make up to push others to discarded n make away an advantage. whether if you are utter in a casual way, with conscious under-emphasis, since he/her to make conjunction to each others. anyway thanks~~~ i appreciate some of comments. We have been put up our best n improve all the best, in whatever we knew we did, though we are not a professionals, and then hard work to be achieved so call professional level to give such a brilliant performances. however, we have been done our part, ever it's not so appreciated by some of target so call expert professional audiences. "support malaysia production" pls. ask again: what's malaysian production need, how to support malaysian production, when n where n why you support malaysia production. i don't knew that what's the meaning in your mind of support malaysia production. But to me, i realize that i must put myself into the hole (to be sure that how deeply of the hole) and to understand more of environment n culture of each others (dance, drama, musical.....), which stage of the whole production running on, and what they need to help. That's only way hope can be help to improve more on most of malaysian productions. It's better, instead of you just stand outside n sounded to wish to gather others people to accepted or approved on you opinion. That it's just driving in your own category. Ever, the price to paid of the ticket, actually it's not enough for large expenses of the whole production. e.g.: price of rm233vip ticket, i think that it may be only can buy a few dot diamond for Wen-Cheng's costume noh =P but ignore it, it's not the main matter. Hereby, have you do and ask yourself that what's malaysian production need, how to support malaysian production, when n where you support malaysia production. Why malaysian always kill ourself, and how to get the improvement of each others. e.g.: some of people are loving banana, but most of them may be like durian too, then they hated rambutan. What taste depends how tested of mouth, so then what type of music depends what type of people lah. Wishing all of you can join us n to be part of us in the future, then sure maybe grown up asap, but don't quit on the half way +P hahahha~~~~~ because it is trouble n terrible way to step and walk. loving you all, who have been pointed all of the comments, either it's negative or positive. thanks ^.^ *so poor of my explanation oh! hope you all can understand~~~~~ XD
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| posted by runaway, Fri 28.03.200814:59:37 PM |
| I was just talking about the music. who are you? dancer? vocalist? Did i ever criticize others as much as the music? Don't tell me the composer is not professional. Do you mean that she is an amateur composer? Fight against the critics, you will see this culture in Malaysia. When I was fired and scolded in front of all preview audience in my 1st scoring job in LA. I could only listen closely, digest it seriously and did it better in the next project. I never got fired anymore as far. You are lucky that you are here in this country. 1.5 million production it was a professional project! I was just about the music. Respond to my points namby-pamby. hfken
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 28.03.200815:12:35 PM |
| APOLOGIZE, LOVING U said: By the way, we have been performed at IB, most audiences have been felt in touchable n realize an intimate knowledge of story in "Wen-Cheng gong zhu". First of all, who are you? Obviously you are one of the production team, but are you the spoke person? O my gosh! What on earth made you think that MOST AUDIENCES HAVE BEEN FELT IN TOUCHABLE N REALIZE AN INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF STORY IN WEN CHENG GONG ZHU? What on earth? Maybe you don't consider RUNAWAY or some others are your "NORMAL AUDIENCES", instead maybe they are "TOO PROFESSIONAL" in your standard? But have you ever opened your eyes widely? I am a normal audience, who happened to support all of your previous productions. MUSICALONSTAGE FANS is also obviously your normal supporter, A.S.P., ANAK INTI, THE SHOW MUST GO ON, ANAK SENI, MUSIC, MS. SAIGON, DISAPPOINTED, JUST AN IGNORANT STUDENT, 来自唐山, AUDIENCE QUEEN, HUMBLE ONE, CHINESE TEACHER, 问我是谁, etc... All of us are your so-called audience, if not your core-supporter! So what do you mean? We are telling you crap by saying we don't like show? So we are now not being "CATEGORIZED" as your "MOST AUDIENCES"? Why are you so CHILDISH???????????
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 28.03.200815:20:12 PM |
| And what are you, who are you to question those constructive-comment-giver whether they have put themselves in this industry & come up with a production themselves? How do you know that none of them have done this before? Can you PLEASE WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!! You are embarrassing your production! You are embarrassing our Msian Performing Arts scene! What a shame!
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 28.03.200816:05:48 PM |
| If you are either one of the Director, Composer, Choreographer, Costume Designer, Set Designer, etc, then you are making it even worse! At least one of your cast -- An-swan-jit-sa is more humble than you!
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 28.03.200818:09:52 PM |
| I am so sad... so sad... really am... :'( I think I'll just leave you guys alone... Because I might not even be the kind of audience that your production respect. Even as an audience, I'm not "good" enough for your production. I cannot emphasis more, I have followed most of your shows, Siddhartha, Above Full Moon, Perfect Circle - Sidd & AFM in concerts, Perfect Cirlce (the one that you guys have Princess Wen Cheng, some years ago), & now JoT... I admired you guys, although I wasn't totally impressed or blown away by your production, and I sure respect you guys for putting in so much of effort. I'm sure it wasn't an easy job to do. I really am proud of being a Msian Chinese, because you guys are one of the foremost group that was doing Chinese musicals, grand scale musicals... Your lack of quality in production didn't drive me away. Instead, now, it was your attitude, your arrogant, ignorantly defensive impulse & ego that is driving me away. I'm sad because I have to put an end here to my support in you guys. I'm sure you won't feel sorry for it either, but... I'm leaving you guys alone, won't bug you anymore. 好自为之吧!
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 28.03.200818:54:26 PM |
| At the very last of my comments, I want to thank 凭舞台 for your words. It shows that you understand what's the critics are for, & shows how much more "performing arts" person you are -- you respect the critics, & grow from there. I'm glad to have one of the Msian Chinese Theater Group saying something here, it's simple & short, yet inspiring somehow, for both the people involved professionally or semi-professionally in theater. Thank you. I just hope people in JoT can learn from you.
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| posted by Another Audience, Fri 28.03.200818:56:40 PM |
| correction: I meant "inspiring, for both the people involved in theater works (professionally or semi-professionally) as well as the audience."
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| posted by kaca kaca, Sat 29.03.200800:59:55 AM Readers say: (Dey, get real!)
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| another audience, you need to see doctor, ok?
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| posted by Sick Audience, going to see a doctor., Sat 29.03.200803:40:19 AM |
| Now WTF is wrong with giving out opinions? Why does he have to go see a doctor just because he got angry from ignorant fools that does not listen? It's like telling all those kids from China during the Tianamen square incident to go see a doctor. They fought for what is right even when told they are wrong and not suppose to do that. They just wanted the country to improve. As in here, the people giving comments just want the Msian Arts to improve. If you can't take it, just go hide in the corner. Damn, sick of this. Maybe I should go see a doctor too.
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| posted by 文成公主, Sat 29.03.200809:30:27 AM |
| 老实说，从你们的意见中我真的学习很多，无论是从专业人士或普通观众的意见上，我真的深深向你们说谢谢。我也得承认我们的剧有待改进，真的，我本身是修念音乐剧，又看了很多音乐剧，我怎会不清楚一些状况？我只能说这个团体是个很重感情，而且以大家庭为主的团体。。。我们是处于专业与不专业之间，所以我只能说，各位别因为我们而大伤元气，我会把你们的意见在检讨会上提出来，互相讨论！也很感谢一些从以前就支持我们的朋友，你们的意见会让我们更进一步！我们会努力的！
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| posted by 文成公主, Sat 29.03.200809:38:53 AM |
| 抱歉！我要说的是我们的音乐剧有待改进，改进是很平常的事，我想每一样东西都一定有改进的机会！。。。。因为，nothing will be perfect!=)
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| posted by runaway, Sat 29.03.200812:02:41 PM |
| 文成公主, not sure who you are. But truly, thank you. Ken
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| posted by 文成公主, Sat 29.03.200812:13:26 PM |
| I'm the real 文成公主。Paulway Chew
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| posted by Runaway, Sat 29.03.200815:28:49 PM |
| u better do well in the bay area! Make us proud
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| posted by apologize, LOVING U, Sat 29.03.200818:40:19 PM |
| 致爱着艺术舞台的我们： 我是谁，谁是我！！！真有那么重要么~~~ 不过绝对不是你们想要他们出声的人，因为他们都很忙很忙得（不过，虽忙还是会深思一切评语）。我想大家都会把应该接受的意见紧记下来的，你们的意见有一定的帮助但并不是完全的。我们也一直在祈求更好，没人会不愿意把更好的自己搬上舞台上演绎的哦（就只因为重视你们，我们才不断的求知，在意的不断地想了解更多，才会来到这里结缘）。下次看到的我们一定有更进步的更精彩的演出，非常感谢各位的支持。无论如何~~~谢谢Amen~~~ 爱你们哦 ^.^)> 为我们的舞台一起努力加油吧！ 若有什么词不达意或得罪的尽请见谅！愿大家健康平安快乐~~~
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| posted by JOT/Remy, Wed 02.04.200817:19:24 PM Readers say: (Good post )
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| 这么多天来的所谓 争吵, 我想大家都累了吧! 感谢大家的评语, 就如PaulWay所说的, 我们的音乐剧有待改进. 我们的观众, 有的就像部分的你们, 都是专业或半专业的 音乐人, 有的纯粹是为了支持 本地表演艺术或者是持着其他的 心态来观赏, 我们都不知道
.. 只能说, 每个来观赏的观众都有自己的心情, 自己的评语, 自己想法
..能否感动是 见仁见智, 所以希望大家能心平气和地看待. 我坚信没有一个团体的目标不是为朝向 国际水准, 而具有或达到是两回事, 所以不要因为媒体从旁协助我们推广而怒骂媒体的 炒作, 新闻稿非出自记者本身, 请大家尊敬我们的 媒体人.
我的立场是 中立! 谢谢.
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| posted by 小草, Sun 06.04.200815:50:39 PM |
| 有远大目标是不错，不过希望在达到目标之前请不要口气那么大。明明还没有国际水准就不要在媒体上刊登说已经有国际水准。谦虚还是很重要的态度，相信各位学佛的朋友们不会反对这点吧？
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| posted by fish story, Wed 09.04.200818:40:44 PM |
| i cant believe i've actually spent so many hours to read all these... i dont feel like giving comments but just a few things to say.. i actually respect all the comments that u guys left here except the words 'piece of craps' that appeared all over in a column earlier. and i was surprised & getting upset to see some Audiences here were getting angry/upset/started to become dramatic and have irrational comments. why would this happen? everyone had good intention to give comments & suggestions but i personally dont think we should simply comment someone 'is not normal audience' or 'must be the ppl from the production' just when he/she is trying to say something that's different from our view. that's not fair for them. whether or not they are the production people, what's wrong with ppl here just giving different comments? we have right to give negative comments, so do they to defend, isnt it? besides, if we think ppl who try to defend for JOT are all ignorant and defend blindly, who give us right to say so if we never had personally talked to the top production/management team? how can we simply assume that they are the ppl who can direct the show, who can control what the media say. just by their intention that trying to defend for JOT? i saw friends of JOT like An-swan-jit-sa or HP also giving comments that is not in JOT's favour, should we 'categorise' them as ignorant also? definitely NO! so pls stop childish reaction here, and earn some respect for yourself too! i do not know music or musical but after reading the comments here some questions popped up in my mind: why would the responsibility of educating what is good music/musical/production lies with JOT? is it simply because they are the 'only' Chinese musical? i'm sure every producers want to show ppl how good his/her show is, but the result is very subjective, there's no rules of good or bad, all depends on the reading of individuals. so if one feels what JOT gave were not good at all, i thought it's good to have someone else (in the industry) to challenge them isnt it? put on a better one and tell the public how a good production should be, otherwise, it's meaningless for us with passion to raise Malaysia's Arts standard but keep giving comments here without any realistic action taken - talk to them or D.I.Y! :)
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| posted by Suicide Bomber, Fri 11.04.200802:06:24 AM |
| Fish: You're still the same as the others after all, just trying to ask people to put up another better show. Do you know it's NOT easy to get funds like how the JoT people got to do all these things? Even if one has the ability to put up a much greater show, it still doesn't mean that he/she can get that money. Why does the "responsibility" (if u wanna call that) of educating the mass lie on the shoulder of JoT production team? It's because they're the ONLY FEW people who could get this kinda huge fund, and of course, Malaysian Chinese-Ed community is usually very innocent about arts and culture, so JoT production team is one of the few who has the chance to educate them, since Chinese and English community is very --- i mean VERY ---- separated.
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| posted by fish story, Mon 14.04.200822:56:51 PM |
| Suicide: hi, i understand and pretty agree with what you were saying, but pls dont miss out my big "IF" there. i was just trying to say why not we put the efforts of 'criticising' into actions of 'correcting'? why we keep talking rather than doing it? (of course it's always easier in this way..) result of good or bad is very subjective, and i believe it has no direct connection with the scale of production (small production also can produce excellent show, right?) so instead of saying this/that is 'piece of craps' i was hoping there's more respect (or may be tolerance) on other people's works (unless the director's attitute sucks!) no one can produce a 'good' show, if his/her intention is like this, he/she'll never get it. the chef cooks the dish, should we: try it, like it, praise it; dont like it, comment it, scold him/her, or cook another plate ourselves? well, i suppose this is really subjective.. if JOT is the only few who can get the fund, THEREFORE the responsibility of educating the mass lies with them, then... pity them! or perhaps i should say, pity the society..!? ...
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| posted by Suicide Bomber, Tue 15.04.200815:38:17 PM |
| Pity the society loh I would say. Your points are good in many senses, but I'd say I'm glad that I see people that share the same views as me here, regardless if their way of expressing is radically rude or mild-mannered. That's the whole point of having this comments section. If nobody says anything, nobody would know how each other thinks. It's still a beautiful thing in the end.
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| posted by fish story, Tue 15.04.200817:11:52 PM |
| i agree! that's the positive spirit, keep it up everyone! :)
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| posted by 准备被大骂, Fri 18.04.200801:27:45 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| JOT/Remy：希望能心平气和地看待的是JOT吧。听说JOT到现在还没有什么内部检讨... 至少导演和作曲的没有在检讨... 他们应该认为JOT没什么做的不好吧... 也可能没人敢在他们面前提吧。JOT上上下下也应该认为如此吧。不能说全部人，但大家见面就是没人提kakiseni的comment，提了不会接受，也不会被接受。说错莫怪。 haih...一个团体的目标不是为朝向 国际水准, 和没具有或没达到水准，可以是一回事。 haih...大家庭...悲哀悲哀。
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| posted by 要骂就骂吧!, Fri 18.04.200801:44:55 AM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| 检讨什么？难道会改剧本、改剧场走位、改音乐、改舞台设计、改演绎方式吗?问问他们，有可能吗？演出那么久，那么多年，真正的检讨有过吗？去到国外还一模一样、一板一眼的重演，真是大马艺术界的悲哀。如果大家还抱着中立的态度看待这个音乐剧，有者还认为什么各花入各眼，觉得这个还算什么国际水准的制作的话，那这种中立不要也罢，继续孤芳自赏好了。
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| posted by 准备被大骂, Fri 18.04.200801:53:16 AM |
| 要骂就骂吧：仁兄，我只是很失望... 你很激啊！ 我还是希望他们好的。
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| posted by 我是家庭的成員, Sat 19.04.200812:43:34 PM Readers say: (Outstanding post!)
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| 以上幾位好像很了解jot內部的情況喔？和連誰誰有沒有檢討都很確定清楚，你們也是里面的人吧？大家見面你又知道？大家見時要提出這里的話題？要在場的某某人難堪meh大佬？ 國際是誰說的，去過隔壁幾個國家可以用國際嗎？你們這么捉緊國際這字眼？如果沒有說到國際這個字，這里會沒有事了嗎？好像天天都在人家身邊步步貼緊看人家在做舍說舍的，很暴露自己的心態喔！！你們多像是很不爽某某人多過真正的批評演出。 真的如此關心我國藝術的發展，不要只把責任都放在幾個人的身上。多多少少，他們，我們也用盡心了。做得不好不是偷工減料或不聽別人的，10個人10個意見，藝術，聽別人的就不是自己風格了嗎？之前不時有人說導演應該給演員空間發揮嗎？給，又說沒有direction,不給又說囂張。哪，看！演員都要做自己認為對的，何況制作人不是更有自己的一套，不然醬幸苦做來干嘛？王家衛你喜歡嗎？國際嗎？他會聽別人嗎？問題就在于我們有其他選擇，可以李安，可以張藝謀，可以梁智強，但是幾可憐的jot,暫時好像只有你們，所以，被罵是必然的！ 說的也對，導演作曲應該不會改什么的，也有這么多人喜歡啊，改了等下更少人看不是干打了！ 花十年花幾百萬這么多幕前幕后的人國內外的觀眾，是來孤芳自賞，啊哈，我們的制作人，也真有福氣.大家庭的悲哀？家庭人員的出賣，才是悲哀。 是否用心過卻達不到大家的認同，大家心里都很清楚。我的家庭多差，我還是會感恩，至少沒有它我沒有今天，無論國際不國際。謝謝導演謝謝imee,很多人那天說了這句話，希望都是心比心的說。
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| posted by Audience Queen, Wed 23.04.200823:22:48 PM |
| 我是家庭成员, 我们来到这里是给评语的，不是叫你在这儿谢谢谁谁谁的罗！当然可能某些表演真的是depends on the taste,可是什么叫国际水准？不是人家乱说你们有国际水准的，而是你们的团体在报纸上大声说你们具有国际水准！想问问你，你看过有水准的音乐剧吗？我现在针对音乐剧！如果你没看过，没听过，求求你!看了，听了，消化了，再来这里写！还有还有，为什么看了评语不能作修改啊？不能作修改的话，看评语来干什么？你应该不知道罗，很多著名音乐剧都有歌词修改的部分，不相信，请你去问问那些真正了解音乐剧的人吧！从你们的音乐剧，我可以看得出来你们的音乐剧没什么水准，因为不知道水准的定义！也没有水准的要求，而且而且，制作部分的人应该也没有专业在音乐剧的！我在伦敦看了几部音乐剧，我知道水准的定义，所以请不要当我们是傻瓜！浪费我的钱！没有现场演奏也就算了，演员看起来像在做演唱会，除了文成公主..舞蹈员看起来也好像不错，场景运用得不够聪明，浪费时间，工作人员还像蚂蚁一样涌进涌出，还要是很紧张的那种喔。故事，音乐部分说过了，当然，你们的服装顶呱呱！哈哈！不过，也救不到你们的音乐剧，因为这个不是服装秀嘛!哎，检讨检讨啦！
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| posted by Audience Queen, Wed 23.04.200823:39:56 PM Readers say: (So-so, but makes a valid point)
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| 哦！还有还有，其实当观众给评语的时候，都是针对你们的剧，编导，音乐，演员和舞蹈员的好或不好，都不是你们的问题，因为就算你唱得很糟，演得很烂，我们也不会怪你，只会怪那个让你通过audition的人.明白没有？？所以别太激动了，如果你不是有power的人，劝你看了就算，或者print out给你们里面有power的人看.谢谢
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| posted by voice up loud, Fri 25.04.200814:28:57 PM |
| To I am also learning: Thank you for your sincere comments :)
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| posted by voice up loud, Fri 25.04.200814:30:37 PM |
| i mean the comments onthe dancing part.
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| posted by x-NS Trainee, Sat 26.07.200821:17:11 PM |
| I know it's been a long time since the musical JoT is being staged but i feel that i have to voice out after reading all the comments here. To start off,i'm just a regular 18th year old who is still studying in a college,with a little musical background.I still remember the excitement that rose in me when i heard of JoT back when i was still undergoing National Service in Malacca.I am thrilled and eager to go for the musical and asked my mother to buy tickets for the musical and go view it after me completing NS. JoT was my second musical since the Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes GuanShiYin,which was being performed by a group of disabled performers from China.It was truly mesmerizing and spectacular. Since then the musicals that i know are from VCDs such Siddharta and Above Full Moon,which i purchased during Wesak. Siddharta was good but Above Full Moon didn't have the same impact on me as Siddharta. Coming back to JoT.As i was in NS,i did not know anything about the well-publicized articles about the musical.I only saw a single poster from the temple that we went for our weekly prayers in Malacca Town.Being an avid fan of China history,i have had this long obession with the story of Princess Wen Cheng and her marriage to the Tibetan King and how she introduced Chinese culture into Tibet.That's the main reason i went for the musical,to be honest. The musical was wonderful compared to Above Full Moon.The vocalist for the part of Princess Wen Cheng did a marvelous job,i almost cried when she sang her heart out towards the end of the show.The only other character that i had a strong impression on would be Her father.Though with only few appearance,he left me with a strong impression.He was also one of the main reasons that my mum agreed to buy the ticket to the musical.Both me and my sister were under his guidance in our primary years for singing lessons.However,this is not the reason that he left a strong imprint on me.It is because the way he sang is totally different from the way he usually taught us.It's more emotional and operatic than the usual style he goes for. Overall those were the two characters that gave me strong impressions on and sadly to say that the others were just pure 'characters' without much soul in it.I am sorry to say this but this is what i felt after so long a time. Apart from that,the change of scenes are alittle bit too slow to my liking.Props are well made and the musics were beautiful but i never seem to have any memory of it.I knew that the musics were produced by Imee Ooi,one of the best music producers,i know of,in the Buddhist community and usually her masterpieces like 'The Chant of Metta' would make me sing along or sing to myself after a long long time, and it's very unfortunate that JoT's music never made me do so.With the Thousand Arms and Thousand Eyes GuanShiYin,i was able to hump to the melody accordingly for about a month or more.This never happen with JoT. Acting.I can't deny that the performers did a tremendous good job and i congratulate them.However just one critique is that some dancesteps were abit stiff and lack of humane feel in it.Sorry to say that. The whole musical really clear some of my doubts of Princess Wen Cheng and her origins.I would say that JoT is part documentary and part musical and they did present it at their best. I have no objections to any of the comments posted above and i truly hoped that if anyone from production house of JoT did saw it,they would try and improve in future.I'm not a kakiseni member nor i am a member of any dance group but i am just an amateur audience that happened to like JoT and dislike a few bits of it. Lastly, kudos to all the performers of JoT for the hard work. To all who commented harshly,please just try and apperciate the hard work they been through. I am crossing my fingers now,in hope that when the next musical by the same production house would be better and lives up to the expectations of those who commented here. Sincerely, x-NS Trainee
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| posted by Supervisor, Thu 07.08.200809:36:31 AM |
| Trainee, as what your name tells, dun think many audience would agree with you... except the princess' marvelous performance. What you posted here was only your own thought, and apparently, it's really sad to hear. Sorry to say that It was one of the worst musical all time.
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| posted by supreme, Fri 08.08.200822:23:46 PM |
| to dear su su su per visorrrrrrrr: hello~~ who care about agree with who or disagree with who, the point here is freedom of speech, ok!! trainee just voice uo his opinion, ok, nothig to do with others! from su su su premeeeeee
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| posted by Runaway Composer, Wed 15.10.200804:17:09 AM |
| I would like to share my humble concert in August @ KLPac, Malaysia. Check it out closely. Come boom our official site if you want, but only after you listen to the music. Thank you! The videos and audio player (from Sunday concert) are at the Show Reel page. Enjoy! http://innervoicesband.blogspot.com We will have a re-stage performance next summer at KLPac Pentas 1 Hope you can make it to our re-stage performance - more new music to come! What is it about? Lets Go Mamak was a showcase of original compositions and arrangements by composer Ken Hor, and was performed by a stalwart group of local musicians specialising in various genres - from Malay, Chinese, Indian to Western. Let's Go Mamak features some of the most prominent names in Malaysian Music Industry including New York-based saxophonist Julian Chan and violinist Fung Chern Hwei, BOH Awards recipient Prakash on tabla, Jimmy Ch'ng from Hands Percussion Team, sought-after jazz pianist Tay Cher Siang, and the renowned percussionist Kamrulbahri Hussin. NST full review @ http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/SundayPeople/article/CinemaTheatre/20080809165718/Article/
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