THEATRE: Pitch perfect but thin on jokes

HOW often would you respond to a curse of “Bodoh! Why you so like that one?” with wild applause and a thunderous ovation?

Well, if you catch Broadway Parodies Lagi Lah!, you definitely will.
After all, when the offensive phrase is warbled, pitch-perfect, to the tune of The Sound Of Music, how can one help but smile, cheer and clap?
That, in a nutshell, is what BPLL is all about.
Snapshots of everyday Malaysian life, foibles and idiosyncrasies of our elite and digs at our politics and government are couched in the familiar (and sometimes not so familiar) tunes of Broadway hits in this roughly two-hour play of two acts and 26 musical numbers.
Under The Sea (from The Little Mermaid) becomes a homage to mamak dining called Under The Tree, while Heigh-Ho (Snow White) is reincarnated as Aiyo!, that most favourite of Malaysian exclamations.
America from West Side
Story, on the other hand, becomes a ditty by Filipino migrant workers called I Like To Stay In Malaysia and Hello Dolly from, well, Hello Dolly is turned into Hello Datin — a sly poke at the vapid and pretentious lifestyle of a rich Datin.
The singing, dancing and acting talents of these thespians are definitely above reproach.
Tabitha Kong absolutely nails her roles, especially in The Bomoh Of The Bursa (The Phantom Of The Opera), where every note is trilled to perfection.
Mia Palencia, powerful yet controlled, commands the stage every time she sings, proving she is very much the diva of this particular opera.
Glamorique Arshad is capable of singing, acting and tap-dancing equally well and doesn’t hesitate to showboat his many talents at every given opportunity.
The loudest cheers though, were reserved for Sham Sunder Binwani and Tria Aziz, the former for every role he played, the latter for her gut-busting turn as the spoilt, insecure and bitchy Datin.
Binwani’s beetling brows, bushy mustache, jelly-belly and rolling eyeballs had the audience in stitches every time he came on. Yet, his best received performance was undoubtedly I Just Want To Be A Dame, where he morphs from a V.K. Lingam-like lawyer to a sari-clad transvestite.
The image of a mustachioed dude in a sari was so wrong that the audience just couldn’t help chortling.
That being said, the show was a slight letdown in that it was funny in fits and bursts and seldom truly hilarious.
Jokes like Malaysians always being on a See Food (we see food and eat it) diet, the reluctant National Service inductee Orked grumbling that the horny lads in training camps “have nothing much up there and nothing much down there” and or the background slide-show of famous Hollywood leading men in cross-dressing roles while Binwani pranced in a sari were the exception rather than the rule.
The gags in a lot of numbers were just not droll enough.
Punch A Docket Or Two, Karaoke, Damansara and We Must Play Golf All Day are just a few examples of songs whose lack of inspiration drew applause that was more dutiful than enthusiastic.
At the end of the day, a parody has got to be more than just a skewing of the familiar. It has to lampoon, satire, mock and skewer its subject at the same time.
And it’s got to make tears run down its audience’s cheeks.

You can watch the last show of Broadway Parodies Lagi Lah! at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (Sentul Park) at 3pm today. Tickets: RM60/RM40/RM20 (students). Call 03-20940400/03-40479000.

The show will be in Ipoh on Oct 7-8 at Taman Budaya Perak (8.30pm); Penang, Oct 10-11 at Wawasan Open Univeristy (8.30pm); Johor Baru, Oct 17 at Jotic Auditorium (8.30pm), and Kota Kinabalu, Oct 25 at UMS Recital hall (3pm & 8pm). Call 03-20940400 or visit www.broadwayparodieslah.blogspot.com or www.theactorsstudio.com.my.