Ah!Yum

We were doing our last full run before the show when Kok Chong commented on how amazing this whole thing was, that we were staging a Singapore musical in London. Said it felt like he never left home. (the only reminder that we were in London was ol' Alex sitting opposite us, one of the rare genuine Brits in Imperial) It definitely did feel surreal.

Ah!Yum was a huge success. I seriously don't think that it could get much better, given the fact that planning only began last Dec, and our limited funds of course. I still remain in awe at the sheer magnitude of the entire production - somehow the entire batch of Singaporean freshers from one college managed to come together and contribute their various expertise to put up an incredible show.

Everything started one day in the JCR when Anne, Shiwei, Dikai and Joshua came together to write the script. The main plot was decided upon, and we never looked back since. Back then it was to be called Spices of Life. Then we had a meeting to revise the name, which threw up all sorts of ideas. (for eg. chicks and cocks, courtesy of you-know-who-you-are) I suggested that Ah Huat be renamed Ah Yam since he was a chicken rice seller. Then Josh said no, why not let that be the name of the musical. And so Ah!Yum was born.

And so work began on all fronts - I'd initially auditioned for Ah Hock and was just about ready to play the lead antagonist when I got roped into music/songwriting. I resigned myself to the fact that I was probably doomed to be a musician for life - and started work on the songs. That was around the time I watched Les Miserables for the first time, and as it turned out I Don't Care was heavily inspired by Les Mis.

But the deadlines were looming and I still couldn't get enough ideas out. Then came along this guy named John Chua, a student from RCM doing masters in....composition. He worked his compositional prowess and in a matter of weeks came up with 4 more songs. Soon we had enough songs and began our practices - very draining but no end of fun, almost invariably ending up in dinner at Oriental Canteen. Music practices have become such a regular fixture in our schedules - I imagine life will feel pretty empty without them from here on.

I think Singaporeans are an insanely talented lot. Everyone had some form of expertise to contribute! In the music team alone there was piano, drums, violin, guitar, bass, clarinet, dizi (played by none other than Ben Ang, champion dizi player from the 87 batch), flute, sax. And as I've mentioned before the dance team is just so professional, with amazing choreographies by Liu Qian and Dexuan and Guiyi. The logs team was also really impressive in their attention to detail (love that roast chicken) And the actors/singers...omg don't get me started on how amazing they were. No prior training at all - to this! In something like 3 months.

And the CD! The ultimate token to remember that whole experience by - at least to someone in the music team. Those 11-hour weekend recording marathons were worth it.

The audience last night was amazingly responsive and encouraging and as performers we really couldn't ask for a better audience. I think the highlight of the night must have been when this middle aged man came up to me and asked if I was the guitarist. He then went on to commend us all for a wonderful show, that we were all really professional, that everyone was on task and knew exactly what to do. Said he'd visited Singapore before in the 60s, and that the Singapore we recreated was exactly like what he saw (I seriously doubt so..but oh wells I'll take that!) And just all the people who came up to me saying the music was fantastic and the comments that Listening Ear (what a horrible title) was their favourite song. It's moments like this that make you realise that as a performer you've done your job.

Thanks to everyone involved in Ah!Yum for the beautiful memories! (: