Urgh. For some reason, when the arts community decides\nto embark on a production that have frogs who dream of singing, they get all\n“cheesed out”. All that reservoir of cheesiness, all that pent-up\ncorniness. Yes, that corny energy, unleashed upon the unsuspecting public. Just\nlook at “Frogway” ‘s television spot — which, perhaps, pray to God,\nwas done like it was because they only thought about it a few minutes before\nthe cameras rolled. It featured almost the entire cast reminding people not to\n“frog-et about it”: “it” being the show’s dates, and\n“frog-et” the brie assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes. Frog-et. Oh. My. God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, “Frogway” — which runs at The\nActors Studio @ BSC until September 2nd<\/sup>, 2007 — itself is not as\nbad as its TV spot. The music and lyrics, by Michael Veerapen and Marcel Nunis,\nwere quite good. (And, with Saidah Rastam as the musical director, you can rest\nassured that at least the audio quality is the best you could expect of any\nperformance in Malaysia. And some say beyond.) The songs all have a tinge of\nthe 1970s and 1980s in them. Somewhere in the score is “Earth, Wind and\nFire”; some funk, swing, jazz and whatever else, in an eclectic mix too\nprecious to slap labels on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fables<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The story, almost intentionally, was simple and\nfable-like. The anthropomorphic protagonist, Eddie Thaddeus Frog (“Akademi\nFantasia” ‘s Vince Chong), is the son of Horatio Frog (Thor Kah Hoong), a\nconductor. Though he is a frog and is supposed to only croak, Eddie dreams of\nsinging — a foolish notion, according to amphibian standards: frogs simply do\nnot sing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adamant about his decision, however, Eddie leaves the pond where he was hatched and raised with his buddy Freddy the Toad (Ash Nair) and goes to the swamp, where all manner of creatures congregate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Together, they find super-stardom, ushered in by\nSuzanna Stork (Elaine Daly) and Smiley the Snake (Harith Iskander, who also\ndirects) — big talent agents with an agenda. Pretty soon, Eddie is invited to\nsing at Frogway, ditches his friends and starts getting hooked to the drinks\nand peculiar seeds supplied by the stork and the snake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back at the pond, everything is falling apart, and\nHoratio misses his son profoundly. The question: will Eddie get back in time to\nsave the pond, or has he become too “swamped” with his career as a\nstar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, it’s about a story of dreams and roots. Of\nhow, when you are reaching for the stars, you aren’t supposed to forget the\nground you’re standing on. Or something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heartstrings\nand Accents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For a musical with such a cheesy theme and an even\ncheesier TV spot, “Frogway” delivers just enough for a musical to get\nby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They have some wonderful songs, sung by equally\nwonderful singers. Vince, in the lead as Eddie the Frog, can’t act for nuts in\nthis musical — however, whenever he shut up and simply sang his heart out, the\naudience’s heartstrings got tugged; the man shows you why millions of people,\ntears in their eyes, voted for him in the first season of “Akademi\nFantasia”. His performance of “Do What I Feel” truly delivered\nhow he, the little frog from a small pond, hopes to make it big his way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Vince wasn’t the best singer in the show. Ina Fabregas (no relations to Cesc Fabregas, the Arsenal midfielder and still Real Madrid target) came all the way from the Philippines to wow us with her vocal prowess. And she did her country — where people take singing so seriously, Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” is banned in some karaoke centres to avoid the patrons from beating each other up over the proper way of delivering it -\u00ad- proud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ina delivered swerving crosses and intelligent through-passes\nthat spoke much of her training and vocal coaching. She scored many times in\n“Frogway”, garnering most of the audience’s applause as Helen the\nFish, and as one of the Frogettes — backup singers in the vein of The\nSupremes; Diana Ross, yo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ina’s 14-year-old sister Marielle and\nsinger-songwriter Chelsia Ng are the Frogettes’ other two members — excellent\nvoices all. Chelsia, in particular, was the surprise of the show. (People who\nhave not followed the developments of Malaysian music, bothered to read her\ninterviews, or have not bought “Frogway” programme book, will not\npreviously know that this Penang-ite has recorded an album before: “Empty\nDecorations”, the title song of which was the theme for television series\n“Kopitiam”.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n And singing was not the only talent she displayed on\nstage. Chelsia managed to understand and carry her character well, giving some\nextra dimension to an otherwise filler role. She affected a faux Japanese\naccent, and got it 99 per cent correct, uttering lines like: “Zat isu\nnotto mai ne-mu.” (“That is not my name.”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This worked, endearing her to the audience; her solo\nwas well received. What can one say other than: “Ore no neko wa\nhandsamuda.” (My cat is handsome.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Villains\nand Slackers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of supporting roles, the biggest of them all\nwas that of Freddie the Toad, Eddie’s best friend and manager \/ band leader. To\nbe a foil for Vince’s Eddie, the production turned to Ash Nair — a finalist\nfrom that other, arguably less-successful reality talent search thing,\n“Malaysian Idol”. The chemistry between the two was all right;\nunfortunately, it wasn’t all that good for two characters who are supposed to\nhave grown up together as buddies. However, Ash gave a solid performance as the\nwell-meaning slacker, leaf-guitar-playing toad, a character more Charlie from\n“Lost” than Toad of Toad Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which brings us to the two villains of the show:\nSuzanna Stork and Smiley the Snake. Elaine Daly’s Suzanna Stork was\ndelightfully bird-brained and annoying, as all second\u00adrate villains should be;\nshe affected an accent that sounded like Cyndi Lauper — or Sheila Majid —\nwith her tongue accidentally electrocuted with a cattle prod. A good thing, by\nthe way; good villains should have the ability scare or annoy you, only using\ntheir voices. Look at Darth Vader, or Jar Jar Binks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harith Iskander’s snake, meanwhile, was all right; he\nwas more menacing simply because the character itself has a predator’s brain\nand is not afraid to use it. For a few moments, Harith even sounded like Brain\nfrom “Pinky and the Brain” — a perfect foil to Elaine’s Pinky-esque\ncharacter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both villains sang, in a manner, though their songs\nwere more like slow-rap, rather than the vocal acrobatics the rest of cast were\ndoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kids and\nAdults<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Frogway” ‘s singers can sing, and its actors can act. And, while none of them could do both perfectly — it takes a rare breed of performer to pull off both disciplines properly -\u00ad- the entire cast complemented each other, and the result was a competent show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All in all, it’s a safe bet — tentative musical-goers\nwon’t have wasted an evening. “Frogway” delivers to multiple levels,\nso kids (who are enjoying their school holidays now) might appreciate the\ncostume and the pantomime-like nature of the show’s anthropomorphic animals. Meanwhile,\nadults can enjoy the singing, the music, and a story of roots and dreams — and\nthat oh-so-subtle message of how everyone should strive for their dreams but\nmust never forget where they come from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, it beats watching “High School Musical” repeats on the Disney Channel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ~~~ <\/p>\n\n\n\n First Published: 27.08.2007 on Kakiseni <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Urgh. For some reason, when the arts community decides to embark on a production that have frogs who dream of singing, they get all “cheesed out”. All that reservoir of cheesiness, all that pent-up corniness. Yes, that corny energy, unleashed upon the unsuspecting public. Just look at “Frogway” ‘s television spot — which, perhaps, pray […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3568,3569,3535],"tags":[3573,3588,3572,939,3586,3570,3587,1131,233,49,494,550,46,687,3571],"language":[7523],"writer":[7593],"class_list":["post-27199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-musical","category-review","category-theatre","tag-ash-nair","tag-chelsia-ng","tag-elaine-daly","tag-harith-iskander","tag-ina-fabregas","tag-marcel-nunis","tag-marielle-fabregas","tag-michael-veerapen","tag-musical","tag-review","tag-saidah-rastam","tag-the-actors-studio-bangsar","tag-theatre","tag-thor-kah-hoong","tag-vince-chong","language-english","writer-amir-hafizi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27199"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38764,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27199\/revisions\/38764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27199"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27199"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}