I don't have an affinity to Singapore's national service as I was too young to understand what my brother had gone through, and neither male friends to share any of their 2.5 years miseries. I'm totally watching the play from perspective of a foreigner.
I wasn't particularly impressed by the storyline and suspect that it may be overused, over-simplified and over-played, i.e. too much exaggeration and hence becoming too predictable. Overall, the choreograph was decent and music/song was well delivered.
I can't stand the Aunty Lucy part and suspect that Margaret Chan's rendition could be a lot better. To me Auntie Lucy is a middle-income HDB auntie and that doesn't gel with the concept of a rich auntie who lives in Namly Drive, Sixth Avenue. In addition, she is supposed to be amiable and approachable, not the snobbish nose-in-the-air mother.
Enlai's rendition of Hokkien peng (soldier) as Corporal Ong needs a lot of improvement to accentuate the broken English. I usually enjoy his performances in other plays, but not this one. I wonder if Sebastian Tan would be a good choice.
And the X-man... just proves to show the scriptwriter's bias (or should I say implicit dislike) for the current president. Seeing it once is funny, but after a few different plays with the same pun, it gets repulsive and I wanted to say "Give it a break, you are really boring me with old idea. Move on with your disappointment and try something more interesting".
Overall, this play doesn't fare well with me. While I find it entertaining, it doesn't provide me with much laughter except for a few "Ohh..." and "Hohoho". I do give brownie points to Norleena Salim's performance as I totally watching her sing. Her powerful voice really kick a punch!
Ratings: 3.5 out of 5 fairy clouds. I was more disappointment than intrigued.
