'Crazy Grinch Asians'

Let's just say that I have strong opinions about musicals. I have a special dislike reserved for this genre of music and theatre. A musical can be good, as generally agreed with, but I've never seen a musical that I actually like; I've watched MANY, and I try not to do that anymore. The one that I didn't mind, is Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Whistle Down The Wind' (1996). No, I don't like the writer-composer's other productions, and there're a few choice musicals at the top of my most-hated list.

I'm at best iffy about local shows because I'm not impressed with the toilet humor and I can never understand the going-ons. Each time I watch one, I regret the monumental waste of time on it. In staunch support of Dream Academy's hard work and less of their brand of humor, our friends bought us tickets to their 'Crazy Christmas' show titled 'Crazy Grinch Asians'.

I don't identify with Kumar's brand of jokes or perspectives. I wore a sort of grimace throughout his segment. It's not funny or clever like the penis scanner Kevin was intimately acquainted with in The Leftovers S3EP7. There was indeed a Christmas Grinch. I was like, OMG. Grinch belongs on the Seventh Month getai! I didn't know that Grinch was played by Sebastian Tan, aka Broadway Beng, and I obviously never watched 'Fried Rice Paradise'. He ermm... has a good voice, but it sounded like the very Taiwanese getai type of vocals that raised all my goosebumps. It was all mildly horrifying. It might well have been titled 'Crazy Cringe Asians'.

I didn't understand half of those spoken words or songs. There should have been surtitles for even the English and Mandarin dialogue and songs, not just the Hokkien phrases or songs. A cappella group Vocaluptuous also performed in the show, and I confess that while I understand the technical skills involved in performing a cappella, I don't appreciate it. The one segment I enjoyed loads was performed by Mel Ferdinands and his daughter, Gabrielle. That was some proper singing. I wished they had sung two more songs.

At the finale, there was a mention of Dim Sum Dollies returning for a run at the Esplanade Theatre in 2020. I hope so. That is one show I don't quite mind watching although some of those jokes flew over my head. It was painful when Emma passed. There's no way anyone could watch Dim Sum Dollies now without heartache, much less the Dollies themselves. It has been seven years. While Denise Tan does a superb job since her 2014 induction as a Dolly, it's very hard to fill the void.