P.Ramlee The Musical

The Life, The Loves and the Inspiration.

Back in 1975, the people of the United States of America lost an icon and a man who touched the hearts of many in his path, The King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley. Then in 1974, United Kingdom lost their icon, the radical peace loving John Lennon. In 1988, South America lost their hearts to Selina. In 1973, we lost our legend Ramlee bin Puteh or better known to many simply as P.Ramlee.

Yesterday I walked into the Istana Budaya (Cultural Palace) to watch the greatly hyped and apparently very sold out P.Ramlee The Musical. Women dressed in their best evening wears, strutting across the foyer with the panache of jackals on a full moon’s night, constantly sussing out the competition and prey. This is called “Being Seen”. Their companions were dressed in casual suits and Batik so they won’t look like they had been dragged from the dumpster to attend a musical, but not too formal that they could steal the limelight of their better half. This is called “Smart Casual”. The ever obvious and noticeable homosexual community strutted in with their torn, ripped and aged designer denims, an ugly mismatch of t-shirts with glittered images of an Andy Warhol rip-off, and the elegance of Marylyn Monroe gone awry. So, I walked into the building in my black pants, a brown striped shirt and a red tie, certain that I was both gravely underdressed and overdressed at the same time.

So I tucked my left arm under my right elbow, fork in my right hand pointing up with a piece of chicken at the end of it, weight on one leg, hips pushed forward, throwing out my best Australian-Brit-States slang, loosened my tie and wore it like a sash and mingled just in case Malaysian Tattler or The Star newspapers got hold of a picture of me.

At 8:30 sharp I stepped into the amphitheatre and took my seat up in the bleachers where the view was not perfect but not bad and away from most of the showpieces from the foyer. On the screen and in true west-end musical styled design was the title of the play, P.Ramlee The Musical. 2 feet above that a small train-station like electronic notice board reminded you where you were - P.Ramlee The Musical; just in case we forgot what we got our tickets for. The lights went out and the announcer proclaims the presence of the Sultan of Perak in supreme and mundanely elegant palace formality. Half an hour went past.

Finally she says, “Presenting P.Ramlee The Musical”. Hands clapped. Cheers from the crowd. Silence. Half an hour went past.

Then a character jumps from the side of the stage, spotlight on him, as he announces in an extremely expressive manner that we are about to watch a musical entitled “P.Ramlee The Musical” so as to kindly turn off our mobile phones and not distract others with your calls from the Prime Minister. Half an hour went past.

Finally at around 8:45 the curtains roll up for the introduction scene. I shall not delve too much detail as I think one ought to catch this tribute to a legend before our time. I enjoyed listening to songs I grew up with watching P.Ramlee movies on my black and white television set and then some really nice compositions added in by Dick Lee for the performance. The musical opened to P.Ramlee’s childhood in Penang, how he got discovered, moved to Singapore and made a name for himself. It was comical, it was serious and mostly well done. The set was excellent as it captured the ambience of each location the story moved to – Penang streets as it were almost 70 years ago packaged with “cendol” and “rojak” peddlers; The 50’s feel of upper class entertainment in the New World Hotel on Act 2; the film sets and P.Ramlee’s home. The train in scene 4 got the crowd clapping. It felt like a full sized steam engine with smoke machines adding to its effect. The lightings were well played adding crucial effect to each and every scene. The love scenes were as classical and as touching as they were in movies of the time. My favourite was in Scene 7, Act 2 when P.Ramlee and Saloma had their playful courtship. That was such an iconic scene. You never miss that in P.Ramlee’s movies.

I applaud the children actors as their performance in Scene 1 was nothing short of brilliance. They were vibrant and fully immersed in their roles. Another thing I liked was the way the play started and ended with in a setting of 1973 with the older P.Ramlee and Saloma reminiscing. That was a nice touch. Last but not least, I must say that the orchestra did an excellent performance deserving of the standing ovation they received in the end. I was truly delighted with the musical as a whole, leaving the hall with contentment that my night had not gone to waste.

There were however some things I was disappointed with. Firstly, Shawn Ghazi unfortunately did not or could not bring out the lead character. His performance is at best mediocre, lacking the essence of the “Man”. He obviously took very little effort in researching this icon and this is one character you cannot get away with “I wanted to portray him in an artistic manner”, in which case art was no where on Shawn’s continent. A friend of mine described his portrayal of P.Ramlee’s flamboyant and unrestrained sex appeal – “His has the sex-appeal of a tree trunk”. The other disappointing thing about Shawn Ghazi was that he constantly disappeared into the background. I mean literally disappears. He could be standing in front and you still don’t see him. The supporting role of Sukardi played by Chedd Eddie Yusoff was more distinguishable. I swear I was playing a Malaysian version of “Where’s Wally?”.

This leads me to my second qualm, costumes. I was a little upset that the reporters were overdressed for that time period but contented myself with that being an artistic approach. However one cannot forgive a wardrobe underplay for the lead character. The ensemble’s costumes were a far cry better than the lead’s. The “3 Perempuan” and “3 Gadis” girls stood out so much they seem to almost steal the limelight from the lead actors every time they appeared. For crying out loud, he is why you had this play written; make him standout as he did in life. Norizan played by Melissa Saila had such a brilliant and vibrant costume selection that it outshone Liza Hanim’s Saloma.

The script and the storyline was good, but not great. I felt that that musical was too much on P.Ramlee’s success. It would have been more touching to see his painful rise and get a feel of the human side in P.Ramlee and that is exactly why I liked the opening and closing scene so much. It portrayed P.Ramlee the man and not just the iconic star of Malaysia’s film industry. And why did the chaos in Singapore have to take a whole 15 minutes of the musical?

Finally I have to ask, what happened to Saloma’s iconic beehive hairstyle?

All in all the play is not to be missed. It is a good production. I put my hands together for Tiara Jacquelina the Executive Producer for having come up with this enjoyable musical. You are certain to walk out of the amphitheatre thinking “I’m glad I did miss this one”. I heard that tickets were sold out. So for those of you who haven’t a ticket in your hand, I hope for you that they will bring it around a second time. I myself wouldn’t mind a second sitting.

To the production team, would it be possible to have the musical end with Legenda from Sheila Majid? Just a thought.