The Singapore "Ah Beng" to me is a very iconic type of person in Singapore. Often being stereotyped as being loud and flashy, he is also very fond of speaking up his mind, regardless whether you're comfortable with it or not.
This figure has been brought onto stage in a form of a standup musical comedy "Broadway Beng" and it's sequel "Broadway Beng Returns", both featuring local singer-actor Sebastian Tan. In fact, I've just returned from "Broadway Beng Returns", and I'm happy that I managed to catch it on it's last day at Drama Centre. As like other standup comedies, there isn't really much of a plot, just an Ah Beng (based rather, rather loosely on Seb himself) rattling (in Singlish and "Singapore Hokkien) about the latest going-ons in Singapore like the IR, The Phantom of the Opera musical and such, and making parodies out of them. This is my first time watching performance of such genre, and I quite like it. In the show, the "Seb Beng" (Sebastian the Ah Beng) was exceptionally funny, even funnier than his record keeper role in "The Forbidden City" or miscelleneous roles in "Titoudao". It was as if this role was specially designed for him (or perhaps it really is!). Seb Beng sang quite a number of songs, ranging from Broadway musical songs to Chinese oldies and Hokkien pop songs, and it was very entertaining seeing his Chio Buus (Denise Tan, Jackie Pereira and Leigh Mcdonald) dancing to his singing behind him in Ge-tai style. It was even more hilarious when he done a reprise of the same song, but in English interpretation. Of course, his translation was far from perfect, and everyone in the audience were laughing uncontrollably at the funny lyrics. Sebastian was really a good comedian, unexpectedly, and so are his Chio Buus. "Broadway Beng Returns" is a really entertaining performance, and if there's anything negative I got to dig out about the show, well, is that Sebastian need to brush up abit on his (Singapore) Hokkien!
Hopefully there'll be a sequel to this "Broadway Beng" series in planning; I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
This figure has been brought onto stage in a form of a standup musical comedy "Broadway Beng" and it's sequel "Broadway Beng Returns", both featuring local singer-actor Sebastian Tan. In fact, I've just returned from "Broadway Beng Returns", and I'm happy that I managed to catch it on it's last day at Drama Centre. As like other standup comedies, there isn't really much of a plot, just an Ah Beng (based rather, rather loosely on Seb himself) rattling (in Singlish and "Singapore Hokkien) about the latest going-ons in Singapore like the IR, The Phantom of the Opera musical and such, and making parodies out of them. This is my first time watching performance of such genre, and I quite like it. In the show, the "Seb Beng" (Sebastian the Ah Beng) was exceptionally funny, even funnier than his record keeper role in "The Forbidden City" or miscelleneous roles in "Titoudao". It was as if this role was specially designed for him (or perhaps it really is!). Seb Beng sang quite a number of songs, ranging from Broadway musical songs to Chinese oldies and Hokkien pop songs, and it was very entertaining seeing his Chio Buus (Denise Tan, Jackie Pereira and Leigh Mcdonald) dancing to his singing behind him in Ge-tai style. It was even more hilarious when he done a reprise of the same song, but in English interpretation. Of course, his translation was far from perfect, and everyone in the audience were laughing uncontrollably at the funny lyrics. Sebastian was really a good comedian, unexpectedly, and so are his Chio Buus. "Broadway Beng Returns" is a really entertaining performance, and if there's anything negative I got to dig out about the show, well, is that Sebastian need to brush up abit on his (Singapore) Hokkien!Hopefully there'll be a sequel to this "Broadway Beng" series in planning; I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
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