Tun Dr Ismail: The Last Days - A Musical Journey.

Last Saturday night was fabulous! My family booked 5 tickets to watch the Tun Dr Ismail’s musical at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre @ KLPAC which begins at approximately 8.30pm. We leave home by 6pm and reached there around 7.30pm. Arriving at the KLPAC, we met Unc. Muthanna & his family having some bite at the café. If the opening night were attended mostly by VIPs, that Saturday night was the night for Ismail & Neno’s nephew & grandnephew & grandnieces instead! The theater was performed at Pentas 1 upstairs. There were some memorabilia of the musical & some related books regarding the late Tun were selling there. My sis bought me the programme book which I find quite interesting reading it.

(L-R: Neno, Gopal, Ismail, Delia, Razak)

I remember about 3-4 months ago, KLPAC were having an audition on the Tun Dr Ismail musical. It was a small article printed on The Star / NST. I thought I could give it a shot until my dad deny me & told me to concentrate on my studies. (Sigh) Oh well, I could only hope for the best back then that the musical would really be something that I should be looking forward to once it’s ready to show to the public.

(Making ourselves comfortable before the show begins)

In this musical for the main characters were Malik Taufiq who plays as Tun Dr. Ismail; Tisha Zarina Zainal as Toh Puan Norashikin @ Neno; Tunku Alizakri Alias as Tun Abdul Razak; Lim Soon Heng as Frederick (Though I think it should have been Robert Kuok); Belinda Richardson as Delia (TDI’s crush at Aussie); Ari Ratos as Gopal (TDI’s butler?). The ensemble of the musical were not bad either, most of them have the experience in the stage performing previously. Credits & many claps to the Orchestra team who really blows the surround sound effect at us with a THX cinema quality performance!

(Ismail explaining to Neno his duty for the country)

The musical was something not to be missed, even for a nanosecond! I find Act 1 i.e. the first part of the musical very much to my liking. The scene of this part takes place at the Heroes Mausoleum at Masjid Negara KL; A street in KL; The Queen’s College JCR; and at the Frederick’s Party. The songs in this Act 1 include 1. Overtures 2. Come Out, You Cowards! 3. Today 4. Dream of Tomorrow 5.Come Out, Come Out! –Reprise 6. Do You Remember? (My fav. English song in this musical) 7. Kekasih 8. Paradise 9. Ish The Son Of Abdul 10. I Cant Go On 11. Party 12. Sahabatku 13. My Love (I love this song too!).

(Neno & Razak at the final part during Ismail's funeral)

The second part of the musical i.e. Act 2 were set in the darker times of the late Tun. Some of the scenes including A Street in KL; Ismail’s House (I’m going to miss this place ;-p); The Queen’s College; The Sultan Sulaiman Club; and the Heroes Mausoleum again where he was buried which marks the last part of the musical. The songs in Act 2 were not bad either, these includes 1. Entr’acte; 2. A New Beginning 3. Which Way Now? 4. Pak Uteh (The only Malay song that I love in this musical) 5. The Choice 6. He Loves Me / She Loves Me 7. Delia’s Vision 8. Kekuatan Jiwa (I think this was the edited part where the GPMS should hold responsible for causing TDI’s heart attack?) 9. Last Request 10. Finale.

(Ismail & Neno with their grandnephews & grandnieces)

At the end of the musical, my family had the honour of meeting Malik Taufiq & Tisha Zarina who plays the character of Ismail & Neno respectfully in person. Malik told us that they rehearse for 3 straight months to make the musical successful. We were told that he’s working in the F&B at The Curve in KL and theater is only his part time job! Tisha on the other hand gets a lot of complements from our relatives telling her that she has the uncanny resemblance with Tok Neno herself! Generally, I enjoyed watching this musical. It is so good that I might possibly go for a second-round!

Post Chelsea Samsung Asia Tour friendly vs Malaysia

The match between Malaysia vs. Chelsea yesterday kicks-off at approximately 8.45pm. I parked my car at the Tesco hypermarket not far from the stadium. It just takes me & my sis less than 15mins to walk to the stadium but its worth escaping the massive traffic jam & double parking at the parking lot near the sidewalk by the roadside.

(With my sis at the Shah Alam Stadium that night)

For the 1st time I’ve experience having being surrounded by 45,000 Blues fans gathering at one time at the same place. Not bad at all. Compared to their visits in 2003 where there’s only about 5,000 – 10,000 Blues fans attended the FAPL Asia Cup at Bukit Jalil in July 2003. The Blues have definitely established & expanded their Asian fans here & I’m damn proud of it.

(Malaysia's Amirulhadi dribbles past John Terry)

Malaysia played well yesterday eventhough we lost 2-0 to the English giant. It’s a match known to many as the David vs. Goliath when Malaysia currently ranked 166th according to the FIFA statistics (June 2008) while Chelsea FC ended runner-up in English Premier League 07/08, UEFA Champions League & English League Cup last season.

(Anelka high-fived Terry after scoring the 1st goal for Chelsea)

Chelsea’s (No.39) French striker Nicolas Anelka breaking the deadlock by scoring at the 26th minute during the 1st half passing by defender Norhafiz Zamani & goalkeeper Mohd Helmi while their English Defender (No.3) Ashley Cole scored in the 54th minute on the 2nd half. However, I must say that Malaysia defended their half very well to avoid more damage being done to their side. I guess they’re being motivated by ‘do anything to prevent conceded’ attitude. After all losing 2-0 is not that bad compared to our last meeting when we lost 4-1 to them. We even lost 2-0 to Arsenal during their visit in 1999 and a whooping 6-0 with Man Utd in 2001, and 4-0 to Birmingham City in 2003.

(Ashley Cole reacts after scoring the 2nd goal for Chelsea)

At the end of the game, it was announced that (No.8) Frank Lampard won the Man of the Match (MOM) award. I saw at cardboard held by Frank that the MOM award-winner will get the latest Samsung handphone PDA like? Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that’s what I saw. With regard to the MOM award, I think the ones that deserve it should have been the Malaysian goalkeeper Mohd Helmi Eliza Elias because he manage to block & save crucial shot by Deco’s volley, Anelka’s, Essien’s & Terry’s shot-on-target. Maybe the award was to make Chelsea’s ‘fan-favourite’ to stay longer at Stamford Bridge? Remember this, when we held the pro-beach soccer at Batu Buruk, Terrengganu last time Eric Cantona won the MOM award w/out even laying 1 goal on the opposition’s net!

(In front of the Chelsea-Adidas official merchandise booth)

After the match ended, I decided to pay a visit to the Chelsea FC official booth which sells all sorts of merchandise. There were lots of people who wanted to buy the merchandise but there were only about 3 staffs attended to the throng of customers there. (2 at the counter 1 checking the stocks) While I was waiting patiently queuing up to be serve…there were some Malaysians who take the opportunity to steal some merchandise including the keychains & 1 white training CFC jersey. There was nothing that I can do, it all happens so fast. But I can tell that those snatchers look like some desperate uneducated & unethical mat-pit of mat-rempits who takes an advantage on the sellers. I waited there for 15mins and since none the staffs were able to entertain me, I decide to walk off the jammed-packed area w/out buying anything.

(Celebrating with other Chelsea FC fans right after the game)

Anyway, I really enjoyed the night. Although I missed the opportunity to go to Pavillion’s Adidas store at Kuala Lumpur the day earlier to meet the players. Seeing them on field is enough to satisfy my Chelsea footy enthusiasm. I wish I’ll get to go to Stamford Bridge in the near future…hopefully during my brother’s graduation sometime in 2010 Insyallah @ God’s willing.

Thank you Chelsea FC for your memorable visit of the pre-season friendly match & congratulations to the Malaysia Team for yesterdays’ best effort against The Blues. All the best for the next month’s Merdeka Cup @ Pestabola Merdeka football competition!