ALL ABOUT BOB

In a previous post, I introduced you to BOB, the unofficial back-stage mascot of The Lion King. Veronique, Bob's and handler, recently posted a gallery of Bob's various looks and moods, giving us a true impression of what a chameleon he really is. I thought it would be a good idea to share some of Bob's many faces before he becomes a celebrity in his own right.

Bird-Lady Bob


Dashiki Bob



Grasslands Bob


Rafiki Bob (complete with mini-baboon-butt)


Shenzi Bob


Simba Bob


Zazu Bob


And just for something different...
Stagetech Bob

We're not entirely sure how Veronique finds the time to build all of Bob's various guises, but one thing is clear, the girl is certainly creative ( and just a little eccentric) !

During a recent matinee, there was very little time for backstage creativity, particularly for Stage Management as they had their hands full. One of our SM team was calling the show and suddenly became ill and passed out early in Act 1. Fortunately, our show is called from an elevated booth on stage left, so the booth is easily accessible. The Senior Stage Manager immediately climbed the ladder and took over the show after calling for the assistance of our heroic phyiso-healer who was on the scene in moments to assist. Unfortunately, the ailing SM also, well, there's no nice way to say this,....up-chucked all over the booth. It was difficult not to enjoy the comedy in yet another SM barging into people's dressing rooms screaming, "I'm taking all your toilet paper !!!". Now, this in itself would have been enough to keep everyone busy, but we also had an unexpected addition to one of the early musical numbers in the show. During "Grasslands", a bat appeared on stage, weaving and skimming through the tall-grass headmounts worn by the ensemble. Many of the audience were extremely impressed, assuming that our mastery of the puppet arts was so complete that we could dazzle them with this stunning, life-like effect. The bat, ultimately, disappeared and the ailing SM is fine except for a bump on the head. I guarantee that people who work in offices don't have days like these.

I mentioned before that we had reached our 100th performance. For this milestone, a short media event was organized to celebrate and show off the production in the Marina Bay Sands shopping mall. A temporary stage was erected on the skating rink (yes, skating rink, though it isn't actual ice) where the cast performed a few numbers from the show. The balcony around the area was festooned with character banners from the show. I've never presided over a skating rink before.

Gugwana and I hanging out in the shopping mall

After Geo & Marylin visited Singapore, they headed off to see some of Australia. They must have had Lion King on the brain because they felt the need to snap this pic of questionable taxidermy.

Young Scar after a night on the town

I enjoyed dinner recently at one of my favourite spots in Singapore, Orgo.

Orgo with Singapore Flyer and MBS in the background

I was introduced to this spot by Louise Withers, my Australian friend who's company was instrumental in guiding our work-visa applications through the twists and turns of The Ministry of Manpower.

Orgo is one of those needle-in-a-haystack spots in Singapore. A peaceful, beautiful oasis of serenity in a desert of noisy, traffic-infused restaurants. It's hidden away on the roof of The Esplanade theatre complex, over-looking the lagoon and the financial district. On my first visit, Louise and I were introduced to Champagne Mojitos, and sat in the blissful silence, punctuated by the odd sigh as we gazed at the city skyline.

I love the martini glass of chilled grapes that automatically comes to your table

And speaking of restaurants...

There's a little place near my apartment, Zenso, that serves a Thai and Japanese menu. Simple, cheap, nearby and delicious. I stopped in for lunch yesterday and the waiter asked me if I wanted my "usual spot". I realized that, without meaning to, I'd become 'a regular'. Not surprising considering that I eat there at least once or twice a week. I go there mostly for the beautiful Thai curry, and on this day, the green curry with chicken was particularly yummy. Creamy with coconut milk, complex, fragrant and perfectly spicy.

My favourite lunch...
Green curry chicken with baby kai lan in oyster sauce and fried shallots
(Oh yes, ... comes with rice !)

And speaking of food...
I'm sure that many of you know the movie "Under The Tuscan Sun". You may not know that the woman who wrote the book on which the movie is based, Frances Mayes, has written several other books, a few of which focus on her true-life story of living in Tuscany. Our Supper At Summerfield group in Niagara is passionately devoted to her books and have devoured them like we have devoured her recipes.

Before I left Canada, we had a Frances Mayes Tribute dinner, using recipes or inspirations from her books. I, of course, blogged about it and sent a link for the blog entry to Frances via her blog. To my surprise, she responded. To my greater surprise, she asked for my mailing address and said that she would send some olive oil pressed from the olives grown on Bramasole, her Tuscany estate. I sent her the address, and several months later...

...three cans of this precious, delicious stuff arrived at the house in Niagara. I insisted that Michael send one to me in Singapore. I'm certain that the rest of it will be savoured by anyone lucky enough to be there to share it.

LION KING SG TURNS 100 !

On Saturday night, June 4th, we gave our 100th performance. We have also now broken an unofficial record in terms of Singapore entertainment because no show has ever played here for longer than 3 months.
June 4th also meant that I have been in Singapore for 6 months already. Hard to believe ! Time flies when you're trapped in lion-shaped leather chaps.

Perhaps in celebration of our impending 100th, or perhaps because she was so jealous of Claudia's ipad, Rowena had to get herself ipad 2.

Though I haven't had the chance to have a "sit out" (where my cover goes on and I watch the show) I did watch the full-tech run-thru for the 2nd covers the other day. I was forced to sit in the very back row of the balcony because Lyall is my 2nd cover and he told me that he didn't want me to be there because it would make him too nervous to know that I was watching.

Tim accompanied me to the run-thru and, in order to not be seen by anyone, I bribed the security guards to let us in through the loading dock and take us directly to the balcony level in the elevator. Once there, we had to lie on the floor until the show started because the house lights were on. We also had to hide behind the seats for the opening number of Act II because there are cast members singing from all over the theatre. We spent a lot of time giggling at our espionage tactics.

Because I know which of Scar's scenes allow me to clearly see the balcony, I spent those scenes lying on the floor watching between the seat backs so that Lyall wouldn't catch a glimpse of me.
We nearly blew our cover after the run-thru because they didn't do a curtain call ! The house lights came up and the cast was still on stage so we dove for cover, listened to our resident director say a few words to the cast, and then made a dash for the fire escape once the cast dispersed to the dressing rooms. The added thrill of discovery made the whole thing pretty entertaining and even though it wasn't a "real" show, it was fantastic for me to be able to see it. All the covers did an admirable job. You could say we're "well covered".


Can I just say that I'm sick of rice. If I never see another plate of steamed, white rice again...
Order Chinese food, get rice, order Thai food, get rice, order Indian food, get rice, order Malay food, get rice. I can hear many of you saying, right now, "Oh, I quite like rice". Well, I used to as well. There was a time when I cooked rice fairly often at home but I think I'm over that particular phase.

We've had lots of covers going on in the show lately. People out sick, or away. Some nights, the half-hour call and nightly cast change announcement is 5 minutes long because of all the replacements caused by the domino effect. Here's a picture of Gwen (who covers Banzai) with his nasty-hyena cohorts.

Gwenael, Lavina & Michael
(Banzai, Shenzi & Ed)

To add to the nightly list of replacements, we have a cast member who will be out of the show for at least several weeks because she was in a car accident. When the polite, but firm, automated voice in the taxi says, "Please fasten your seat belt", DO IT. Our sister-lion wasn't wearing hers and now has a fractured clavicle.

I decided that it was time for a little R 'n' R and returned to the Indonesian island of Bintan for a one night stay. It's so cheap and a mere 50 minute ferry ride away, it seems stupid not to take advantage. Tim, my Kiwi friend accompanied me, as did a half dozen other Lion Kingers who, apparently, also decided it was time to get away.

At the ferry terminal, we ran into Charlie (stage management) who was taking her mother, visiting from France, on a short getaway.
Unfortunately, we happened to be travelling during Singapore school break and there was a large, noisy group of children waiting to board the ferry as well....at 8:30 in the morning !!!
Fortunately, I had booked our ferry tickets for Empress Class and the adorable little kiddies were below, in steerage with the rest of lesser mortals.

A quick stop in the snack shop on arrival in Indonesia revealed this bit of appetizing marketing...Do you think thats 'on purpose', or is it more bad translation?

And, it's important to remember that things might not always work in the way that you're used to...


The great thing about having Monday's off is that the 'normals' all check out of the resort by noon and the place is virtually deserted.

Relaxing can be exhausting...

There is a popular seafood restaurant at the resort that sits out over the water on stilts. Though the food was good, it was a bit too big, crowded and noisy for me, especially when one is only spending one night and looking for tranquility. I did enjoy the chili crab though...
I ran into Charlie as I was reluctantly dragging myself out of the ocean on Tuesday morning, and she said to me, "You know, I don't know why I don't take this trip for myself once every month." I laughed out loud because, not 10 minutes earlier, I thought exactly the same thing as I was bobbing in the crystal-clear water emitting near X-rated sighs of relaxation.

COPING

As I've mentioned before, we have the heinous 'double-show-weekend' schedule here in Singapore. That's Friday night, two on Saturday and two on Sunday...5 shows in 50 hours. This means that the end of your work week is also the toughest and most draining part of the week. It's easy to be jealous of the Broadway and London casts who do a double-show Wednesday, a double-show Saturday, and then ONLY a matinee on Sundays, which means that their day off starts by 6 p.m. on a Sunday night. Luxury !

Because of this hard-labour sentence, my body usually starts to complain by the last day of the week. Following is a transcript of the conversation that takes place every Sunday morning...

ME: Time to get up.
BODY: Fuck you.
ME: Come on. Last day of the work week.
BODY: I hate you.
ME: No you don't you're just tired.
BODY: Damn right I'm tired. And I am NOT interested in doing two shows today.
ME: Do we have to go through this EVERY Sunday morning?
BODY: I can't get up. I think something is broken
ME: What's broken?
BODY: I don't know. Something. I'll think of something. Hell, I'll break something.
ME: Come on. After that first cup of coffee you'll feel better.... Hello? Are you listening to me?
BODY: Make me.
ME: *sigh* You know it's inevitable. The longer we argue, the less time there is to start moving and warming up the voice.
BODY: Hmpf !
ME: Ok, how about this, tomorrow it will be all about you. A massage, some time relaxing by the pool....? Come on, we can do this.
BODY: All right all ready ! But I won't like it.
ME: I know. Let's just get the coffee started, ok?
BODY: Fine ! ..... i still hate you.

Fortunately, when working with talented, creative people, there is always something entertaining to be found at the theatre that can lift the spirits and help get BODY and I through the day...

Someone found this picture of the real-life Timon & Pumbaa. It too is now posted on the dressing room door.



And this is Bob The Penguin. (I think his name is Bob?) He gets dressed as various characters from the show and passed around backstage for everyone's enjoyment. On the weekend,Veronique created a Scar costume for him and brought him to my dressing room.

His little leather chaps are a bit too long since he doesn't have any legs

But his mask goes up and down just like mine

And finally, more questionable translation ...

And on an unrelated note, I was watching an episode of Glee while lying in bed one night. It was the episode where Kurt & Blaine have their first (gay) kiss. The actual kiss, however, was unceremoniously chopped out by the Singaporean censors so, as far as I could tell, Blaine leaned in to Kurt and whispered something in his ear that left them both smiling. Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore and the Wicked Witch is in charge.

VISITORS OUT...VISITORS IN...

Almost as soon as one set of guests flew off across the ocean, another set arrived, though not quite as planned. Geo and Marylin had a little trouble getting here thanks to a delayed departure and an unplanned over-night stay in Hong Kong. So they arrived, one day late, having found their lost luggage. In a way, it worked out well as it gave them a head start on recovering from the jet-lag.

Since they arrived on a Thursday, I had only a little time to tour them around before completely disappearing into the bowels of the theatre for our intense double-show-day-weekends. They did, however, manage to make it to our regular post-show Thirsty Thursday.

...with Veronique at T'irsty T'ursday

While I did my back-to-back shows on Saturday and Sunday, they took it upon themselves to do as many touristy things as humanly possible (Orchid Garden, Hop-on-hop-off bus, Orchard Road ...), biding their time until seeing the show on Sunday night. Monday was my day to drag them around to some of the places they might not otherwise see...

Beer break in Chinatown

Ganesha supervises photo ops in Little India


Chihuly glass at The Ritz Carlton

Full moon over Marina Bay

On Tuesday, they headed off to Australia where they'd have to make another adjustment to temperature since it's 'winter' there. I heard it was only +13 in Melbourne, a significant drop from the +38 or so they experienced here. By now, they should be lost somewhere in The Outback before heading off to Sydney for a few days.


And in other news...

More unfortunate translation



Have Lyall and I started to think alike ....?

MAKING OF...

The more appropriate title for this entry would be, "The Making Of A Tour Guide" since one set of visitors just left and another set are arriving tonight. Not that I'm complaining. You know that you're loved when people fly to the other side of the world to see you.

The broads enjoying Singapore at night
with my Kiwi friend, Tim


The view of Marina Bay Sands from
Altitude, the worlds highest outdoor bar.

Linda and Esther went off to Bintan (see previous post TECH SITZPROBE BINTAN TECH) for three days of flake 'n' bake. They loved it as much as I did, (Note to self: Get back there soon) and came back to Singapore suitably relaxed. Just as well since this whole city/country is one giant shopping marathon and they were EXHAUSTED ! They planned their Bintan getaway at the end of the trip so that they could fly home with Indonesian beach sand still clinging to their toes.

The shows continue to go well. Everyday is the same old/new mountain to climb. The only thing that really changes drastically are the backstage antics which keep us laughing and alive.

For instance, Andrew, or Johnathan, or Drew, or Johnathan Andrew, or Mr. Hume (depending on who is speaking of him) who plays Simba, is our resident i-guy. As in i-phone, i-pad, i-life. Claudia, in the make up room, said that she really wanted an ipad. So Andrew got her one.

(See previous post JELL-0 SUPREEZE to understand
why this entertains me so much)

And then there are the random, day-to-day things that don't happen in a 9 to 5 life that are so worth documenting...

Resting between shows

And finally, some brave soul has uploaded the offical "Making of..." video that the local TV station filmed throughout the rehearsal process. Don't know how long this will last on YouTube because I'm certain there's a copyright issue looming, so watch these links before they disappear.

FIRST VISITORS

A couple of milestones passed in the past week.

My first set of visitors have arrived, Esther & Linda, my mom and her sister. I got them tickets to the Sunday night show since, though the audience can sometimes be mushy, the cast can smell the day off just around the corner and usually pulls out all the stops for the last show of the week. The ladies, of course, loved the show and hooted and cheered appropriately. (Or inappropriately, depending on your point of view)

As my schedule to play tour guide is a little bit limited, and the heat and humidity can be wearing on those who aren't used to it, we've been having some short but intense outings together. A ride on The Singapore Flyer, shopping excursions to Little India and The Arab Quarter, lunches, dinners and even a little time by my pool with a bottle of pink champagne.





Another milestone for this past week was having our, one-hundred-thousandth ticket-holder see the show last night.

I'm going to assume that having 100,000 people see the show in 50-some performances is a good thing.




I decided that since the Internet is full of videos about putting on the complex Lion King make up, I would do a video showing the slightly less complex, though equally tedious process of taking it off after every show.




Oh, and P.S.....
Am I the only one that really doesn't give a rat's ass about the royal wedding?
Zasu (or as we call him, Tata Zaza) seemed fairly excited to be invited...even bought a new hat.

GOODBYE YOUNG SIMBA

And so, we have said goodbye to a cast member for the first time. One of our Young Simbas has had to leave the show. The problem with casting the kids in the show, especially the boys, is that they have to be around the age when 'changes' start to happen. Young Leon, who turned 13 while he was with us, started to grow like a radioactive weed (I swear he'd grow an inch in two days) and his voice started to break, making it very difficult for him to sing his song.

It was heart-warming/heart-breaking to witness his farewell speech as his boyish self struggled with the emerging young man. While the young man made a very eloquent, mature speech, saying that he'd learned so much from each one of us and that he'll never forget the experience, the boy cried uncontrollably.

I admit that I also got a bit teary-eyed, as I did when I saw his Facebook status one night which said, "Don't be sad that it's over, be happy that it happend."

Goodbye Leon

Previous to Leon's departure, a new Young Simba, Nicholas, was hired. The first Singaporean in the cast. He rehearsed in the afternoons for a few weeks and, as of last night, has now completed his second performance with us. He's done an admirable job for one so young. I could tell that he was nervous, but he knows his stuff and with a few more shows under his belt, he'll look like an old pro.


Here's a sample of the kind of antics Lyall and I get up to to amuse ourselves in the dressing room...




The daily weather forecast in Singapore is pretty much the same all the time. In fact, our physiotherapist told me that at one point, she thought the weatherman had died and they were just running an old recording every day..."Hot, humid, partly cloudy with rain on some parts of the island." We did have a couple of weeks, however, when you could set your watch by the afternoon monsoon. It never lasts for very long, but it's definatley not your long-walks-in-the-rain kind of rain. I caught this video from my apartment window one lazy afternoon at home.

...SO HOW EXPENSIVE IS IT?

I just came back from a small, very small, shopping excursion. You know, just picking up a few of those things that one needs to run one's daily life. I should know better by now, but I am continually surprised every single time the cashier tells me the total.
Here's what I bought at grocery store:

-fresh flowers
-bottle of (cheap) wine
-razor blades
-dental floss
-can of tuna
-box of crackers
-cheddar cheese (xtra old)

Total cost, S$ 73.82. That's CDN $56.27 by today's exchange rate. Oh, and just so you know, the cheapest thing I got was the fresh flowers,....cut orchids. S$ 5.60 (CDN 4.26) for eight stems. Ridiculously cheap, I know, but they are so common here that even the saddest little public planter box is full of them.

The layout of the grocery stores (and pharmacies for that matter) continue to elude me. Nothing is laid out in any real, recognizable pattern. In the pharmacy, the shelf space tends to be divided by brand name, not product type. So you can't always just stand and look at all your options for, say, shampoo. You have to wander all over the store. I remember my mother used to make her grocery lists in the same order as the aisles of the grocery store. All the produce in one column, the tinned goods in another, frozen in another. Well, doesn't really work here. At my local Cold Storage (local chain), some kinds of cheese are in the dairy case, others are in another case with the cured meats. All things pickled are on the top of a refrigerated unit that displays fresh vegetables. Razor blades are not with the rest of the health/beauty items, but at the front of the store. Cookies and crackers are intermingled on the shelf and the dizzying array of sauces, marinades & dips seems to be crammed in which ever way they fit. Even a quick trip to pick up a loaf of bread can be an adventure!

Really, the continued lesson here is that it is much cheaper, and much easier to eat out...like the Singaporeans do. Given that rents are extremely high, it's nice that food is so plentiful and cheap.



I admit that I've started to covet some of the Lion King merchandise in the lobby shop. So far, I've only purchased a t-shirt for myself, but I was also given one of the dolls, a small likeness of ....well, me.

And here's a pic that had Veronique, who dressed Scar in Paris, in stitches. I was listening to some music during intermission and, of course, had to put my reading glasses on in order to see the play list on my phone.

She kept repeating, and giggling, "Scar lunettes, Scar lunettes." Actually, I think I look a bit like a crazed Princess Leia.

Singapore has a massive campaign against Dengue Fever going on at the moment. Makes sense really, what with this being a rainy, tropical country, it's a perfect breeding ground for the little mozzies. I discovered this add at the bus stop across the street from my apartment.
It was the huge, 3D mosquito that caught my eye, bearing in mind that this is one of the few cities in the world that can get away with something like that on street level since vandalism and graffiti are virtually non-existent here.

In the entire time I've been here, I don't think I've seen a single mosquito. In fact, it's rare that I see any insects at all. The odd cockroach in a street garbage can perhaps, a dragon-fly now and then, but pest-control and fogging are rampant. Singaporean don't care for the bugs.