Taiwan has seen a string of musicals over the past month performed by local theater companies, most recently My Daughter's Wedding performed in Mandarin and Hakka and April Rain in Hoklo (Taiwanese) and Hakka. Beginning tomorrow night, LAN Creators' (嵐創作體) brings I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, an off-Broadway musical performed entirely in English (with Chinese subtitles) by a Taiwanese cast, to the stage.
A Taiwanese cast performing a musical in English may sound like a recipe for disaster, but if the rehearsal on Monday night was any indication, Taipei has a whole crew of actors capable of singing and acting in a second language.
Director Jackie Lin (林家億) is taking an innovative approach to mounting the show. Rather than having it run for the usual three or four days, Lin, who has seen the original off-Broadway production twice, is mounting the show for 24 days at the Crown Theater.
"Taipei has 5 million people - New York has only slightly more," Lin told the Taipei Times on Monday night before rehearsals. "We have to try to give audiences a different choice. We can't always think 'we can't sell tickets on Tuesday because nobody will see the show.' This is wrong. We have to try to change audiences habits and find a way to make them feel comfortable."
Lin's solution is to stage a musical that is both funny and easy to relate to. I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change has something for everyone; the characters' ages span five decades and the plot deals with relationships in humorous ways. I Love You's dialogue has been compared to that of Seinfeld.
This new approach is a test, Lin said, for audiences, to see if they are willing see the play on weekdays. But it is also a test for the actors as the long run will be a challenge.
Lin has arranged for two casts to perform the show on alternating nights.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
RSS