DRINKS, food, friends, and sometimes more drinks. A typical night out in Kuala Lumpur usually revolves around dinner. As glorious the food, as exquisite the venue can be, it’s usually pretty hard on the newly-established diet plan and often on the wallet, too. There is so much more to be discovered in this vibrant city.
My family and I spent the recent year-end holidays on home leave in Europe. After countless dinners and visits with extended family and friends, I was ready for some entertainment of a different kind.
I decided that it was time to hide in the dark and anonymous space only a movie theatre can provide. No need to converse, no need to entertain, no need to ask a million sophisticated questions and pretend to be terribly interested by the answers given.
Instead, I felt like picking a blockbuster movie, sinking into the comfort of the red velvet seat and enjoying performance and popcorn alike.
The box office sales assistant seriously curbed my enthusiasm. I paid €15 per ticket, that’s a baffling RM75, plus the same astronomical amount for a medium-sized box of popcorn and a soft drink. Without gold class, reclining seat, or vibrating D-box super-dooper thingie. One movie theatre ticket in my hometown for the price of ten seats in any Kuala Lumpur cinema!
High quality, low calorie and affordable entertainment is so readily available in Kuala Lumpur. We ought to be more adventurous when we plan a night out in the city.
Kuala Lumpur has so much to offer when it comes to movies, live theatre performances, concerts, both classical and contemporary, ballet, stand-up comedy and more.
A quick search on relevant websites shows a myriad options catering for different preferences, ages, languages, and budgets.
Take movie halls. Besides the different price ranges and fancy seats, there are all sorts of international blockbusters, art films, foreign language film festivals and more to choose from.
Then we have a vast variety of live performances to check out. Exclusive shows by internationally-acclaimed entertainers are staged in big arenas on the outskirts of town on a regular basis.
Istana Budaya presents captivating shows, operas, ballets and more in the most spectacular halls. Countless times have I been stuck in Saturday night traffic on Jalan Tun Razak, admiring the beautifully lit palace, the extraordinary turquoise roof and the intricate, moon-kite inspired design of the home of Malaysia’s national theatre. Surely, I should be enjoying a sold-out performance inside Istana Budaya, rated among the ten most sophisticated theatres in the world, nota bene, instead of being stuck in my car in front of it, on my way to yet another dinner party.
A whole armada of middle-sized and small art centres has been established in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya in recent years. KLPac for one is set amidst an enchanted old city park. The marriage of the overgrown estate and the ultramodern design of the venue’s glass structure is a clear indication of the creative forces at play on the inside of the performing centre.
On the other hand, as modern urban living demands, quite some live performance settings have taken up residence inside the city’s many shopping complexes. Some cater for a young audience, others specialise in offering workshops, and there is even space for the occasional amateur theatre company.
Mud, Our Story of Kuala Lumpur, a very worthy production deserves a special mention. Performed daily at Panggung Bandaraya, a Moghul-inspired heritage building close to Merdeka Square, this musical show recounts a “Malaysian story with a strong emotional connection to the people of yesterday, today, and tomorrow”. This history lesson is aimed at local as well as foreign audiences, and even a “KL-ite” will learn a thing or two about this city we all call home.
And then there is the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas. Located inside the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, the home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra is Malaysia’s cultural pride and joy.
The classical concert hall features a stunning architectural design and superior acoustics. Its majestic pipe organ is witness to a vibrant programme of high quality classical music performances, ballet productions and family events. Most shows are performed in front of a sold-out crowd and a standing ovation at the end of the night applauds many an international solo star.
Thanks to generous patrons, sponsors and benefactors of the arts, most of these venues perform shows for less than my movie ticket and popcorn back in Europe.
If, like me, you are looking for a better way to spend a night in a town, look no further and dig into Kuala Lumpur’s rich offer of arts and culture. Enjoy!
The writer is a long-term expatriate, a restless traveller, an observer of the human condition, and unapologetically insubordinate