The Story Begins...

Laskar Pelangi has been one of my favourite Indonesian movies. The movie portrays the importance of education and the beauty of friendship in a very rural setting in Belitung, Indonesia. Last week, my good buddies and me went to Singapore just to catch the musical version of the film. All I can say is it was worth every dollar we paid.



When I first saw the play in Indo's event listings last year, I wanted to go but I couldn't afford to go to Jakarta. I felt glad that the play is staged in Esplanade, Singapore. At least I could go for a daytrip.

Laskar Pelangi Musical is directed by Riri Riza. Hats off to the man for pulling a wonderful production like this. It is no surprise when people called the play as the revival of Indonesia theater industry. On the music side, Erwin Gutawa composed beautiful melody for 18 scenes over the three-hour show. Brilliant man, I must say.

I have two personal favourite scenes from the show; when Ikal first met Aling and the part where Lintang's father didn't come home. It was so beautiful that it touches everyone's heart. Eventhough Ikal's character seems too young to understand love, he pulled it well presenting how love at first sight feels like. On the other hand, Lintang did show a good emotion through the song 'Menanti Ayah, Menanti Lintang' which he sang with Ikal. It is also my favourite song of the whole show.

I can't really tell the flaw of the show because I don't know much about theaters. But what I realised, the show didn't have a lot of dialogue. However, it is still good. We are hoping to see the production in Kuala Lumpur in the future. Riri Reza, if you read this, we - Malaysians - want to see your show at Istana Budaya!


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