Award-Winning Yudi relives the iconic 50's in "East Meets West"

The Soprano’s is excited to present award-winning Yudi 友弟 in dinner show on 13 & 14 Nov, "East Meets West" 《中西唱盘》, where she leads us into the charming era of the 40's, 50's & 60's which produced many hit songs in both the East and the West, in English and Chinese. The iconic 50's conjures up the glamorous and unforgettable Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Audrey Hepburn in the West and names like Lin Dai 林黛,Yao Li 姚利, Rose Chan in the East.

At the 11^th BOH Cameronian Arts Award in 2014, Yudi won Best Solo Performance and Best Group Performance for the Malayan-inspired -- ‘KOPISUSU,’ a concert play she produced and performed in that garnered 8 nominations.

She won the inaugural Golden TV awards 2010 for Best Theme song for the hit NTV7 series, 'The Iron Lady' 女头家.  

She has several solo albums to her name, ‘The Iron Lady’, ‘Good Old Tunes’ ‘Mind your Heart. Love your Soul’, a duet audio file ‘Shades of Passion’ with Tay Cher Siang, and the commemorative album in conjunction with “KOPISUSU Re-cham” in 2014.

Throughout the years, Yudi, is known for her soulful rendition of 时代曲 “shi dai qu” ie. Shanghai oldies, and continues to evoke nostalgia for an elegant era. 

She has judged for Astro’s highly-rated 'Classic Golden Melody'   In the musical Princess Wen Cheng, Yudi played the role of the Queen since 2012, which traveled from Istana Budaya in Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, Taipei, Busan, Xian, and Beijing. She was also invited to perform Olympian Datuk Lee Chong Wei’s wedding, before the Agung, in an event that generated highly acclaimed exposure to her jazz singing. 

Make sure you catch Yudi 友弟 and WVC along with Calista Lim in performance! Limited seats available for the dinner show at only RM250/200/150 per person. Get here by 7pm for sumptious 5 course dinner specially created for the occasion, followed by showtime at 9pm.  Book now 03-79728363.

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Sisa-sisa | Three Doors -- my interpretation

Sisa-sisa? The name of the play wandered in my mind. A collection of four plays, the name and the poster did not sound too happy. So I wondered how my Saturday evening date with the theatre would turn out. 

Sisa-sisa? What is it? The English translation came up as "scraps." The dictionary definition is "a small piece or amount of something, especially one that is left over after the greater part has been used."

Hmm....

As expected, the stories addressed the more distressing realities of life, Nevertheless, I went in with an open mind to observe the artistic and theatrical styles of telling the stories. I was thrilled to see that it was a full house in Pentas 2 of KLPAC (KL Performing Arts Centre). Claps for Malaysia's theatre scene.

Four plays: Three Doors (top left), Reservations (top right),
The Joy of Solitude (bottom left),  Blind Spot (bottom right)

Three Doors opened the evening. 

Faridah Merican plays a woman at the funeral of her husband. Though a sad topic, the play is humourous, beginning with two female neighbours, played by Douglas Wong (in wig) and Ho Lee Ching (in wig too), attending the funeral, unapologetically taking advantage of the free prawn bihun (rice noodles) served at the funeral, and then complaining about the coffee. 

The woman, instead of being depressed, shows off her fiery character by chasing away the obtrusive neighbours, and questioning the dead "old man" about leaving her there by herself to decide which of the three doors she should choose from -- the three doors being her three sons. With whom could she spend the rest of her life with?

Faridah Merican. Courtesy of KLPAC


Then, as she related how differently she served curry chicken to each of her three sons, a revelation of how different each relationship is, she moved three chairs for us to symbolize the three persons.

From left: Ho Lee Ching, Faridah Merican, Douglas Wong (Courtesy of KLPAC)

Douglas Wong's silhouette and voice becomes the dead old man, who is still having a conversation with his wife, albeit imaginary. 

Then he takes on the roles of each of her three sons, coming on stage as flashbacks of her conversation with each of them. The director could have cast 3 different actors to play each of the 3 sons, instead, he had Douglas Wong come on stage in 3 different personalities, which somehow differentiates even more how differently each feels about their mother. The character that struck me most was her eldest son, a health freak who ironically lives nearby to her, but distances himself from mother by only offering her brown rice and tofu... if she came over.

Ho Lee Ching and Faridah Merican. (Courtesy of KLPAC)

Ho Lee Ching also potrays several characters, one of it being a very blonde Chinese girlfriend of her second son who offers the old woman chocolate as condolences, which pisses off the old lady even more. This also tells that all is not well of her relationship with her second son.  Ho Lee Ching offers more comic relief as a dreadlocked vagabond, who meets the woman on the streets as she searches for her missing son. The vagabond then breaks into a funny rendition of popular Hokkien song "jiu gan tang boei bo..." (do you have empty beer bottles to sell), which is an iconic song of the poor who lived on the streets, as it is from a hit Taiwanese movie about a mute man who found a baby girl while collecting bottles on the streets.

Saturday night out at the theatre!

A rare photo opportunity with Datuk Faridah Merican

Three Doors' humourous presentation, with great acting in English and hilarious smatterings of Hokkien, was interesting enough to make it worth an evening drive out. 

The reason NOT having 3 actors play the 3 sons WORKS, because in the end, the 3 chairs that symbolize each one are still empty. As an audience, we also agreed with the old woman that neither of the three doors would make her ideal life.

Three Doors was directed and written by Mark Beau De Silva.

Witnessing Sean 许益凯 Celebrating 21 At Kobe

I was privileged to be invited by the bosses of Kobe, a newly-opened, huge Japanese feasting hangout at its new residence at Nihonkan Club, Jalan Ampang.

And was privileged to bump into many young and talented singers from the Astro Star Quest 2014 who were having a birthday celebration for Sean 许益凯.

It is what we call 缘分 (yuan fen) - fate -- because I have friends who work closely with them, and through youtube & TV,  I recognize their talent.

From left: Uriah 徐凯, I, Sean 许益凯, Ron 彭世豪

It was a sweet time witnessing the sweet and clever table deco that Sean's friends and family had put up for him on his 21st birthday, a huge difference compared to my own humble 21st at home. 

It was interesting to see fine dining Japanese food being prepared. An earnest work of delicious art!

I heard it was an 8-course Japanese dinner. Me never go out too much. So it was interesting to hear about the creative ways of doing business and serving food. 

It's a pretty casual and special atmosphere to eat in the cool breeze of the night beside the little pool in Kobe. It was a great chance to taste such refine Japanese dishes and have a few Asahi's in between, really a rare delight for me.

The edamames, just peas in the pod, can make a dish look so elegant.

After a full, hearty meal of vegetables, seafood and meat, it was a time for more cheers before cutting the cake. The entire restaurant joined in the celebration. 

The whole gang line up for a photo memory

Fireworks to celebrate the shooting up of a boy's career

Ron's 11-year-old cousin, up to his tricks and his best entertaining self.
I think he may grow up to be an entertaining MC or talkshow host.

Worthy to mention is this song by Sean. Not many know the story behind it. 

Sean 许益凯【听见爱】 MV 完整版
 

My good friend, Eugene, decided that he would set a challenge to himself to achieve something in his life. From the very start, he and I set our minds on having the positive Qi, and he set about telling me that he just decided to do something which would be a success. 

Without any experience doing something like this before, he boldly initiated the project of getting a song composed with Sean in mind for Astro's Parents' Day campaign. I spent many hours listening to him talk on and on about this wonderful song, listening and smiling by himself, enjoying this song, and about the marketing that he had a hand in. At the time of writing, this song has hit No. 4 on MYFM radio charts.

Skip to minute 4:04 to see Uriah's winning performance at the 2014 International Chinese New Talent Singing Championship in Hong Kong.

My pleasure to have known Mr & Mrs Leong, who are the most excited, energetic and gracious-hearted people I have met, and who truly love music and entertainment with all their beings.

Bosses of Kobe, Mr & Mrs Leong, congratulating Sean.

As I focused my wishes on meeting like-minded people, to keep on loving the idea of creating music, promoting talent and continue floating in the storms of showbiz which has been my entire life's journey, I am led to shore to sweet surprises I have never tasted. Mr Leong & Xian Hui, are a couple who have shown me an example of "follow your bliss."