A lighthearted and surprisingly entertaining production which is currently playing at the Drama Centre in Singapore is EDGES the Musical. Produced by Slightlines Productions and directed by Derrick Chew, the musical takes a look at four characters – young adults at the crossroads between adolescence and adulthood. Their experiences, their hopes and dreams and their emotions are expressed through what is a fairly new concept in their use in musicals seen in Singapore (and to me), a song cycle.
Edges features a cast of four young locally based performers in a small scale but highly entertaining musical.
Written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (who are the youngest winners of the Jonathan Larson Award), and with performances seen in North America, Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa, Edges features “Be My Friend” in its song cycle, more popularly known perhaps as the “Facebook Song” which went viral on the internet. In it is a locally based cast, three of whom are from LASALLE College of the Arts Musical Theatre Programme, Mina Kaye, Linden Furnell, and Kristy Griffin. The fourth member of the extremely talented cast is Benjamin Kheng, a member of local indie band, The Sam Willows, who has been named as one of ST Life’s face to watch in 2013.
Benjamin Kheng who has been named as one of ST Life’s face to watch in 2013.
While the production does examine contemporary issues faced by the young adults of today, told through catchy tunes and lyrics which offer a witty look at situations the characters face, most of us (myself, having left that phase in life far behind, included) can quite easily relate to the characters’ experiences. Combined with what must be said is a masterful performance provided by the young cast, the musical was great fun, thoroughly enjoyable and well worth very bit of the one-and-a-half hours of time spent watching the characters deal with the emotional roller coaster associated with the coming of age.
Mina Kaye a graduate of LASALLE’s Musical Theatre who made her professional stage debut at the
Esplanade Theatre in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.
EDGES the Musical runs from 3 to 19 April 2013 at the Drama Centre Blackbox (National Library Building Level 5). Showtimes are on Mondays to Fridays at 8 pm and on Saturdays at 5 pm and 8 pm. Tickets are avilable at S$38/- with discounts available for Arts Platinum & FRANK Cards (15%), and all other OCBC Cards as well as PAssion Card (10%) at TicketMash.
Linden Furnell and Kristy Griffin are also graduates of LASALLE.
I have two pairs of tickets, courtesy of Slightlines Productions, for the show on Monday 15 April 2013 to give away. If you are interested, do drop me an email by Saturday 13 April 2013 with your name, email address, and why you would like to catch the show. Winners will be notified by email the following day.
Production photographs courtesy of Slightlines Productions
Filed under: Events, Performing Arts, Singapore
