When I first heard that P Ramlee the Musical was coming to Singapore, without much of a doubt I agreed to watch it with my colleague Siti even though the tickets were rather hefty at $83. This was because I thought that this musical was the exact remake of the original one based in KL, since they had the same directors and producers.

Sad to say, it was only AFTER we bought the tickets that the list of casts came out into the open. Axed were the reasons I wanted to go in the first place, Siti Nurhaliza and Sean Ghazi BOOHOOHOO. But as they say, the rice has turned into porridge so might as well just attend and enjoy myself :)

Since Siti and I bought the tickets for the matinée, the crowd wasn’t as much as one would have expected for such an acclaimed musical, which had 25 000 tickets all sold out before opening night in KL. Nevertheless, it could be a good thing too, as Siti and I managed to get darn good seats right smack in the centre woo!

Still, it wasn’t really exciting watching a musical with so many seats unoccupied. I guess, it is a lesson learned - no more matinées!

The musical is basically about P Ramlee’s life, from before he gained stardom right down to when his starlight began to fade. In my opinion, the show focused more on the women in his life, on how they affect his work, and his struggle to balance being a husband/lover while being P.Ramlee, the star adored by thousands.

Replacing Sean Ghazi was Musly Ramlee, a P Ramlee lookalike/soundalike. I have to admit that even though I am still sore, the replacement was a very well chosen one. Musly really sounded like the late Seniman and his acting was really good! Many times I overheard people commenting, “Wah! Sounds really like PRamlee sia!”

(Ok typo, supposed to be Junaidah hehe).

The rest of the cast too had wonderful voices and top notched acting, and I have to really commend Liza Hanim acting as Saloma. Really loved her voice as she belted out classics written/composed by the Seniman himself. To me, the parts where she and Musly acted or sang duets towards the end were best parts of the show.

Although the cast, props and costumes manage to successfully entangle the audience into a time warp back to the 50’s, I personally feel that the letdown of the night for the musical is, ironically, the music itself. Perhaps this came about due to my own expectations where I had this assumption that since it is a musical staged to bring the audience back to the era of the 50’s, the music should follow suit.

What I meant is that even though the pieces played does not necessarily have to be written/composed by the star of the night, P Ramlee, the ‘feel’ of the musical compositions should, by right, sound like the songs back then in his era! The disappointment was felt when one after another, ‘modern’ songs composed by Dick Lee were crooned throughout the three hours show, safe for a few songs from P Ramlee.

And sadly, I heard the same remarks from Siti, a cousin who went to the night rerun, as well as some guy on the way back. If we, the more ‘hip’ youngsters who attend the concert feel that way, I can safely assume that perhaps quite a number of the other makcik-makciks who were in full attendance perhaps felt the same too.

Overall, it is in my personal opinion that P Ramlee the musical is not really a memorable one. Aside from factors mentioned above, I feel that is also because I used Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical as a yardstick for comparison, so much so that I think Siti got annoyed with me hahaha!

Really, I feel strongly that everything paled as compared to its predecessor :/ Like I said before and I’ll say it again, if PGL were to come to town again, I wouldn’t wait a second to buy the tickets. The opposite, however, can be said for this musical I just watched.

If you had attended the musical, how did you find it? And for those who didn’t, based on my review and others’, as well as the pictures I had so sneakily taken (thus the blur haha), would you give it a go?