The Rise & Fall of The Little Voice is Pagdemonium’s second play of 2014. It tells the tale of a reclusive girl named LV (Mina Kaye), who has an exceptional talent for impersonating famous divas like Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, etc.
Although I loved both of Pangdemonium!’s 2013 plays – Next to Normal and Gruesome Playground Injuries, I wasn’t as impressed with their recent Fat Pig. So I came to Little Voice not knowing what to expect.
The play starts off without mercy as Mr Boo (Ridshi Budhrani) flaunts his quick-witted and offensive jokes that were so audaciously hilarious. He doesn’t just use historical figures or Singapore’s four ethnicities as his objects of ridicule, but extends his “warm welcome” to the audience with douses of insults, very cleverly personalised.
His lucky victims in particular were the Cabaret ticket holders, a newly introduced VIP seating at Cabaret tables directly in front of the stage. Well, they deserve the special attention since they paid two or three times more than regular ticket holders, but boy was I worried that the convenient placement might lead to a live beating. But, I laughed so hard I almost teared, so even if it did happen it would be absolutely worth it. (easy for me to say)
Mina Kaye played the lead role as Little Voice, and she is UN-BELIEVABLE. I didn’t quite expect much from her initial dialogue and singing which was great but y’know, great isn’t always good enough. But we soon discovered she was more than meets the eye when she did impersonations of various legendary singers with completely different voice styles. It was so unbelievable I actually suspected it was an audio soundtrack being played at the beginning.
The best part of Mina Kaye’s singing was the tremendous control over her voice. She effortlessly switches her pitch to the perfect note in whichever voice style she sings without overstraining her voice. The moment of truth came when she did a live performance in the nightclub scene. And she nailed it.
Special mention also goes out to Sadie (Siti Khalijah) who is a bubbly, adorable and absolutely lovable character in the show. Although she played a minor role, she played it to its very best. And if Siti was anything like Sadie in real life, I would LOVE to meet her.
Adrian Pang this time round played a very cheeky role as Ray Say, an iconic personality along with Denise Tan as Mari. Both roles were very well-executed with great singing and great acting. They were so into their characters as sleazy lovers that in some intimate and downright horny scenes, I actually felt a pinch for Adrian Pang’s wife, Tracie, who was directing the show.
I thought the excessive usage of vulgarities and sexual connotations would be a little over the top for some viewers. It’s like how if someone cracks the same joke every day, it’s just not as funny as the first time.This production will be unsuitable for those with a low tolerance to liberal sexual references, gestures or coarse language.
People with short attention spans will also find it hard to keep up. Spanning 3 hours with intermissions, I found it hard to follow the latter half of the show. I felt that the development of the climax came too quickly as well.
With that being said, there is an extremely high level of engagement throughout the show with Ridshi Budhrani even having his own air time interacting with the audience. There was also good integration with the live band who were all dressed to the nines in retro wear, keeping us well entertained during waiting times before the show and during the intermission.
Another reason why I enjoyed the production was because of its enthusiastic audience. Pangdemonium has a built up a strong fan base in Singapore and even before the show you’ll hear the ticketholders discussing the previous productions and excitedly sharing their expectations of the upcoming ones. During the show, we burst out laughing continuously because after a hilarious scene you get super hilarious reactions from the audience and there’s no better feeling than camaraderie.
I felt The Rise and Fall of The Little Voice is a play that could break the conservative shell of many Singapore theatre goers with with its gutsy play of humour and perfectly complementing musical elements. Pangdemonium has always done things differently, daringly, and this time they managed to showcase yet another bold new style.
This is probably going to be the most entertaining show of the year!
Rating: 8.5 / 10
The new Cabaret tables were much talked about so I will be doing a mini-review of them.
Personally, I didn’t find the seats at the Cabaret tables to be worth $275 (two tickets with two drinks). If you think about it, the seats seem way too close to the stage and Cabaret ticketholders may have to strain their neck to watch the show.
With that being said, it does look very exclusive and you’re probably going to give your date an unforgettable experience if she’s into theatre and you land her a seat here. The cabaret seating also made great props, mimicking a real nightclub scene, especially when the actors sat at one.
Date: 2 – 18 May 2014
Venue: Drama Centre Theatre
Ticket prices: Weekdays / Sunday and Matinees – Standard: S$80, S$65, S$40
Friday and Saturday night – Standard: S$88, S$70, S$50
Cabaret ticket prices: (Reservation via email Debbie@pangdemonium.com)
2-seater table – $275 with two glasses of bubbly for each patron
4-seater table – $550 with two glasses of bubbly for each patron
Grab your tickets now!
Disclosure: First two tickets provided by Pangdemonium!. Media Invitation
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