Singing a different tune

SINGAPORE — An upcoming Mandarin musical here will boast something that not many productions can — it will contain material that is composed and written entirely by the cast themselves.

Bilingual Singapore theatre company Toy Factory Productions, which is presenting Innamorati Two, said they hope to celebrate creativity and originality with this move.

“We think that the most precious thing in the life of an artiste or the company is to create their own work. Through this musical, we have gathered a group of very strong talented former singers and actors together to write, design and compose the entire show by themselves,” said Goh Boon Teck, Toy Factory Productions’ chief artistic director to TODAY.

“It is actually very uncommon to have the entire cast write their own musical. This type of move is not even seen in countries like New York or London which are home to the land of musicals,” he said, adding that without risk and courage, there would be no creativity.

“It is like giving birth. We started the process six months ago and day by day it is growing.”

Innamorati Two, which is about finding perfection in imperfection, is a shift in direction from the first Innamorati in 2014, which featured 12 hits from award-winning singer and songwriter Eric Moo.

The seven-member cast in this “sequel” — comprising Chriz Tong, Sugie Phua and Jing Wong, who were in the original, and Stella Seah, Sunny Yang, Ann Lek and Jacky Chew — will come up with 10 original tunes and work together to come up with their character’s storyline.

“The structure for Innamorati Two is totally different. This is the first time we have seven people coming in to work out one musical — everything from scratch,” said Phua. The 34-year-old, who is acting as well as double-hatting as the musical’s assistant director, plays Ah Gu, a backpacker travelling the world to complete a journey that he and his demised girlfriend had planned to make.

On his directing role, Phua said he has never been in this position before. “There will be some scenes where I am not acting in and those are the ones I will be directing ... I actually feel quite anxious about starting this new role. Like going to meet my wife’s parents for the first time,” he quipped.

The other cast members are also feeling apprehensive about how the musical will be received.

“Because it’s your own baby, you start to put more effort into it. You focus, concentrate and have more willingness to make this musical a success,” explained Wong, 33.

“We are all nurturing this fetus right now. Like first-time parents, we are jittery, nervous and scared but at the end of the day, we are still very happy with what we created,” said Tong, 31. “When it eventually comes out, we will be very proud parents.”

Tong plays Ai Mei Li, a girl who has an autistic brother (played by Wong) and who is on the verge of giving up on love.

One of the challenges he faced, Wong told TODAY, is in portraying his character accurately. “I do not know anyone around me who has experience (in autism) or has autism. This makes it harder to get reference for my character.”

Pointing out that he is a “perfectionist” at times, Wong says he will be “practicing a lot to make it seem natural”.

At the end of the day, the cast and Goh hope to bring viewers on a journey of self-discovery. “What we really want to bring out through Innamorati Two is that you need to embrace your flaws and your imperfections in order to really move on with your life. After all, nobody is perfect,” said Tong. Sonia Yeo

Innamorati Two will run from September 22 to October 2 at Drama Centre Theatre. Ticket sales start from July 11 from Sistic.