Trees, when they just grow together, do not form a “jungle”. A jungle should have different layers of vegetation like the emergent layer, canopy, understory, and forest floor. Each layer has a unique set of plants which mean a totality of the conditions such as sunlight and humidity.
Likewise, when drama (through a sequence of dialogues and actions), music (through a sequence of melodies and rhythms) and dance (through a sequence of choreographed body movements) are put together, they will not necessarily become a “musical” (音樂劇) in its authentic meaning.
In Hong Kong, a lot of the so-called “musicals” are not really musicals. They may be “music drama”. They are just incompatible drama, songs and dances combined in a show. It is very undesirable that any drama director who can only handle a play or concert should claim to venture into a musical despite his or her lack of professional expertize in the field. Every art form has its unique demands. This is why the musical of HighLights — The Memories of Charles Kao (一束光—高錕的記憶) is not up to a good standard. It is an emotionally isolated arrangement of drama, singing, dance, and digital arts presented in a show, arousing no strong feelings from the audience. We find this musical acceptable but not stimulating.
Charles Kao (高錕) is famous as the “Father of Fiber Optics”, a Nobel Laureate (2009) who revolutionized modern communication by proving light could travel glass fibers with minimal loss and so paving the way for the high-speed broadband that we use today. Kao came from a family in Shanghai, moved to Hong Kong in the 1940s, and went to study and work in the UK. He met Gwen Wong and got married in 1959. In the 1970s, he returned to Hong Kong, and focused on his academic career.
The musical is written and directed by Erica Li (李敏) who is more a playwright. The music director is Johnny Yim (嚴勵行) who is more a pop music composer. The two together are not fully able to make a great musical. The work is supposedly dedicated to Charles Kao, and so the story is suffering from a congenital deficiency in that it cannot be too dramatic because there is a responsibility to accurately describe the life of Kao. There is therefore nothing important at risk for the characters and the pacing of the story, without much dramatic conflict, naturally turns out to be very sluggish.
The pieces of music are individually quite nice to listen to. But, for musicals, all the music works should be consistent and form a unified whole. They should be systematized into one coherent body of music styles. The performance now is merely a collection of good songs.
The main cast consists of Jordan Cheng (鄭君熾) and Mischa Ip (葉巧琳).Other actors, including Gigi Yim (炎明熹), Hedy Chan (陳海兒) and Brian Chow (周國豐), do not have an important part to play, and so look very insignificant. Cheng performs sophisticatedly due to his years of musical experience. Ip has the makings of a good musical star, but at this stage she is relatively green.
HighLights — The Memories of Charles Kao’s attractive selling point is the art technology to be contained in the show. The elements of “art tech” used in this musical, inclusive of the computer-generated line, colour, light and vision, are however fairly elementary. The art tech displays bear little artistic relationship to the rest of the musical as a whole. The tool is chiefly lighting projection which casts tacky images, patterns and colours on 2 stage curtains. All these illuminations appear somewhat ordinary. The awkwardness is that actors often have to sing and dance between 2 projection curtains, and this affects the audience’s observation of the facial expressions of the performers. Art technology is an extremely expensive device, but the audience these days are no longer satisfied with lighting projections alone. They expect a greater variety of art technologies. Shows in Hong Kong will need a bigger budget in order to add art technology. The only thing exciting about this musical is perhaps the surround sound effects which do create an immersive experience.
Many drama and concert organizers want to do musicals. They think musicals can attract more audience. They fail to realize that musical performance is actually a complicated endeavor because it requires the simultaneous coordination of numerous artistic elements. It is an integration of multiple disciplines like acting, singing and dancing. It must additionally ensure that the music shall correctly serve the plot and character development rather than interrupting the narrative. If there is an orchestra, an extra effort will be made in order to ensure there shall be good coordination among the performers on stage, the musicians in the orchestra pit and the backstage crew.
Some musicals in Hong Kong are a mockery of the term “musical”. Some, like HighLights — The Memories of Charles Kao, on the other hand, raise ourfalse hopes that Hong Kong can finally have a perfectly justifiable musical!
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