Coming Soon: “When Tan Meets Tan” by Sight Lines Entertainment

Event: “When Tan Meets Tan” (a musical revue)
Venue: Chamber @ The Arts House
Run: 19th Oct – 23rd Oct 2011

***LATEST UPDATE: SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE (Please contact admin@sightlines.com.sg for more information)***

Local theatre newcomer Sight Lines Entertainment brings us “When Tan Meets Tan”, an irreverent take on both the Presidential and General Elections, in the form of a musical comedy revue.

It so happens that musicals and comedy revues are right up my alley, so I’m really looking forward to this one.

While “Cooling Off Day” did a pretty good job covering the General Elections via verbatim theatre, “When Tan Meets Tan” goes the comedy revue route, a la the “Chestnuts” series.

It stars the likes of Tan Shou Chen, Karen Tan, Darius Tan and Jo Tan.

(You might sense a recurring theme here).

I recently had a chance to meet and speak with Derrick Chew, who is both the writer and director of this musical revue, to attempt to find out more about Sight Lines’ inaugural production.

What struck me most was Sight Lines’ interest in putting up mainly musicals, musical revues and concerts.

Definitely a company to watch out for in the near future.

Q: I noticed you had assembled a cast of 4 actors who all happen to have the surname “Tan” as well. Was this a deliberate move? And if so, why? Did you face any difficulty assembling your cast of four Tans?

Derrick: Yes, this was a deliberate move. The show is called “When Tan Meets Tan”, so quite literally, we do need 4 Tans because the show is all about them. Of course, part of the show is also about the Presidential Elections so it only makes sense that we get actors who have the surname “Tan”.

Well, believe it or not, we did not face any difficulty at all assembling the cast of Tans. There are really ALOT of Tans in Singapore – I mean what are the odds of having all four Presidential hopefuls be “Tans”? Clearly, Tans are everywhere! And just in the entertainment circle, there is alot of Tans – so assembling a cast of Tans is the easiest thing in putting this production together!

P.S. The TAN Clan should be very proud of themselves! Their surname is famous liao!

Q: Can you tell us a little bit more about this production? What can audiences expect from this musical revue? Anything interesting you would like to highlight?

Derrick: Well, a revue is a multi-act theatrical entertainment combining music, dance and sketches. So that is really what our audience can expect. And the show is not only about the Presidential Elections – it’s certainly more than that. Audiences can expect to be entertained, have a good laugh and have a ball of a time as we take them through a musical adventure weaving broadway hits and crowd-pleasers pop tunes like they’ve never heard them before!

Sometimes we take things too seriously – especially when bad things happen. So at “When Tan Meets Tan”, we invite our audiences to come laugh at ourselves and embrace our “uniqueness” as Singaporeans.

Q: How long did it take for you to write this show, and can you tell us a little bit more about the writing process, as well as some of the difficulties/challenges you faced while writing this show?

Derrick: We started conceptualising the show sometime in mid August (just before the elections) and it was writing (and re-writing) from then till now! As the show touches on current topics and issues, we are constantly churning new ideas and improvising them in rehearsals. When we find something that doesn’t work, or a new topic that could work – we go back to the whole writing process again.

The writing process starts with a meeting with my producers – Engie and Sylvia. We brainstorm on the broad topics that we wanna highlight in the show. Then we narrow down on what could possibly work and what about those topics we wanna touch on. Then it is going back and hiding in my room to thrash the script out. My computer screen will be flooded with many windows as I will be concurrently researching on the topic, searching for an appropriate song to parody on youtube and searching for the lyrics on google…it’s quite crazy but fun, to say the least….

I think the major challenge was really to find a good concept for each segment/topic. All the jokes about the PE/GE and all other topics that we are addressing have been said and done either online or in other theatre shows. The challenge for me was really to find a new fresh way/angle of addressing these topics that have never been done before. And I have to say I’m quite proud of the concept that we have come out with – I dare say that most of them are fresh and have not been done before.

So although, yes the topics are the same (because those are the events that happen, right?), the angle that we approach them is something that audiences have never seen before.

…

***LATEST UPDATE: SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE (Please contact admin@sightlines.com.sg for more information)***

“When Tan Meets Tan” runs from 19th October to 23rd October at the Chamber @ The Arts House.

To purchase tickets, please email ticketing@sightlines.com.sg or sms Sylvia Tan at 9173 3769.

More info (here).

Sight Lines Entertainment’s Facebook page (here).