RECENTLY, I had the opportunity to celebrate an ocassion with a theatre show at Istana Budaya Kuala Lumpur. We watched a local production, P. Ramlee The Musical.
After the show, (I had earlier intended to watch a foreign jazz band concert at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas), I had this to say: “Very impressive and of international stature.”
My wife, too, was full of praise for the cast, sets and props, in fact, the entire production.
We just could not believe that the showcase was similar to the West End or Broadway standards which we were used to overseas.
The two-hour musical, which had a full capacity crowd that evening, had us glued to our seats as we laughed, cried and were entertained by the superb performance.
What surprised us even more was the audience. They were a combination of young and old, a multiracial mix and even foreigners, apart from those who came from Singapore and Indonesia.
We believe the performing arts fever has caught on with our people by virtue of the rising standards of the stellar performance and several state-of-the-art theatres now mushrooming in the city.
We watched the show’s third season, which meant it came back by popular demand with promise of a better show, cast and production.
And, indeed it was!
For me, P. Ramlee was a “giant of a man” who lived in all of us — with his music and movies.
How many times have you viewed reruns of his movies on television or listened to his songs that are evergreen and everlasting? Trust me, once is never enough.
Minister of Tourism and Culture, why can’t we promote this musical on the international stage?
P. Ramlee, in his heyday, was internationally known as far as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.
Some of his music touches the heart and soul of people beyond our shores and has even been sung by foreign artistes.
I remember his great songs were also played by the prestigious Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra in Tashkent, which showed that he was a music genius and ahead of his time.
By bringing P. Ramlee The Musical to the international stage, we can easily promote cultural tourism that can impact people-to-people relationship towards understanding of our arts, culture and history.
In line with next year being designated as the Year of Festivals 2015, it’s timely if our very own and most beloved original musical gets to go places and acts as our cultural ambassador to promote tourism.
Azhari Mahmood,Petaling Jaya, Selangor