|
Not Another Drag Show II
23 May 2003
DBS Arts Centre
Review by marc
Everything's as if we never said goodbye!
"And this time will be bigger, And brighter
than we knew it"
For the fans and family who had been eagerly anticipating
NADS II since the irrepressible pondan Smurf(-ette?) and his merry
(and gay) men had us rolling in the aisles in July last year, the
evening of 23rd May 2003 was everything we hoped and wished for
and more.
Better set, better lights, better sound, a virtuoso
pianist, bigger cast with more eye candy, more songs, more jokes,
and of course it was performed in front of a bigger audience at
my favourite theatre.
The performers were more comfortable with their
material and appeared more relaxed, more polished and at the same
time more themselves.
The first half of the show spoofed familiar show-tunes
around themes of favourite gay neuroses. These ranged from looking
old to finding the right boyfriend. The cast also developed their
archetypal gay personas: Sam the wise-ass campy bitch, Alan the
repressed neurotic, Wei the himbo, and Gerald the straight-acting
hunk.
The songs they chose showcased each of the soloists'
strengths, especially the two duets. "Anything you can do"
contrasted Wei's clean and forthright delivery with Alan's soaring
lightness. "Over the Rainbow" allowed Sam and Alan to
out-diva each other, Sam with Mariah sass and Alan countering with
Whitney trills.
Sex all night…
Watching Disney's The Little Mermaid will never
be quite the same again after watching Alan spoof of "Part
of you world" while playing with his collection of 'toys'.
The first act closed with a rousing chorus of
"Every Sperm is Sacred" featuring the only actual drag
act for the night, Wei - the singing (and dancing) nun.
During the interval we gave up trying to identify
the straight guys in the audience and went for the easier task of
counting the women. I think there were 11.387 of them.
The second half began with the highlight of the
show for many. Sam has perfected his stand up routine and has absolute
mastery of the fun, fears and foibles of gay life in Singapore.
The show concluded with each soloist doing a "straight"
(as opposed to a spoof) song. With the exception of Wei, of course;
he swapped his habit for a bathrobe as he tried to exorcise the
ghost of Glenn Close singing "As if we never left Bangkok"
in a towel-clad, hunk-filled bathhouse.
As far as straight singing went, Gerald belted
his way into the audience's heart with "The way you look tonight."
All too soon it was time to say goodbye as the
whole ensemble gathered to sing Barry Manilow's "One Voice"
in perfect harmony. The audience needed only the tiniest prompting
to raucously demand for an encore.
As someone in the audience said, "It was
a celebration of our talented community with songs we love, we could
wish for nothing more."
|