“Pinocchio” The Musical

Event: “Pinocchio” The Musical by The Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Stage Two
Venue: DBS Arts Centre
Run: 4th Nov – 12th Dec 2010

New musicals with brand new songs are always eagerly anticipated by the two of us (or me at least).

I always make it a point to go catch brand new musicals in town, few as there may be, because it definitely is not easy to come up with music and songs to fill a full-length musical.

This particular musical is written by Jean Tay (“Everything But The Brain”) and directed by Darren Yap (“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”), with original music and songs provided by David Shrubsole.

The evergreen fable of “Pinocchio” seems like a very apt choice of material for a musical adaptation by the SRT’s Stage Two, considering the fact that timing of the production’s run and the way in which it was presented clearly hinted that it was mainly targetted at children.

There are enough intrinsic magical elements in the tale to enchant kids and keep them engrossed, and Darren Yap did justice to that fact by pulling off many special visual stage effects within the musical.

It was definitely the most “magic show” kind of musical which I ever watched, and I say this in the kindest and most positive possible way. (Hey, I’m a big fan of magic, y’know.)

I was certainly impressed with the way they managed to make Pinocchio’s nose grow magically longer every time he told a lie.

If my sense of judgement serves me correctly, his nose grew not just two feet long, but as much as two metres long!

There were many other delightful little magical effects thrown in throughout the musical, not least of which was the beautiful finale at the end when Pinocchio the wooden puppet finally transformed into a real live boy in the most magical possible way.

I particularly also liked the part where Pinocchio sat on the bird that literally flew across from the front to the rear of the theatre, right above our heads.

The songs were a mixed bag that traversed a few genres, but while they were highly functional, few melodies actually stood out for me.

Credit must go to all the cast members for having not only to act and sing, but to also be able to carry out their puppetry duties, which by the looks of things must have required hours and hours of practice, since I do not believe that many of them have had prior expertise in puppetry.

It must have been a huge challenge for the cast members to have to shoulder so many different tasks, but to their credit, they performed remarkably well.

All in all, even though I may have been a few decades older than the intended target audience for “Pinocchio The Musical”, I would shamelessly say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was mesmerised by the many magical effects that unfurled before my eyes.

Definitely a wonderful show to bring kids to.