Critique Analysis: The Broken Bridges The Musical

Critique Analysis

The play “Broken Bridges The Musical” was initially staged in the year 2006, however due to the requests by their two writers, the production unanimously agreed to present the work to the public making this their sophomore appearance. The playwrights who are behind this work of art are these creative duos Lim Chuang Yik and Teng Ky-Gan. The play was directed by Joe Hasham. The fellow actors consists of Jon Chew Ming who played the protagonist Ming, Ho Soon Yoon as Leong who played as Ming’s best friend, Colin Kirton as Wong, Ming’s father, Monti as Chan, Anrie Too played the character Mei Ling, Ming’s love interest, Melissa Ong as Siew Yee, the girl that Ming supposedly married to, Nick Dorian as Ringo, Ming’s one and only cousin, Teoh Siew Thung as Cheong Soh, Tria Aziz as Mak Ton, Sani Zainal Abidin as Tai Soh, Priscila Wong as Leng Soh and Theresa Leahy as the teacher. The play was held in Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (klpac) organized by The Actors Studio on the 16th of May 2013. The play basically had a traditional cliché storyline of a rebellious son who has daddy issues who wants to pursue things that are against his father’s blessings. Its main theme revolves around familial ties, the relationship between the protagonist and his father. The play follows a plot that seems extremely predictable to anyone who owns a television.

The musical was segregated into two acts with a 15 minutes break in between. The plot made its way through its exposition by introducing the audience to the conventional daily lifestyle of the people in Ipoh Old Town in its first number. The rising action proceeded to a scene when two best friends, Ming and Leong casually talking about their plans after completing high school. Despite spending their time growing up together, they have different goals to pursue in life. Leong prefers to take over the family’s durian business and is content to stay at the place where he is now in Ipoh whereas Ming plans to experience the unknown, anywhere but in Ipoh. At the same time, Ming’s father uncle Wong had planned an arranged marriage for his son with Leong’s sister, Siew Yee, without him knowing. Ming had no idea of the arranged marriage and continued his dreams to go somewhere else. His cousin Ringo came to Ipoh to pay him a visit and tells Ming about the wonders that Singapore has to offer. The temptation of saying yes to a lifetime opportunity was so convincing and it just seemed right to go there. The conflict arises when Ming refused to follow his father’s plan of marrying Siew Yee and advanced with his plans to accept the job offer from Singapore that he had applied to before. He accused his father of not considering his thoughts and he remained firm with his decision to go to Singapore.

In the second act, the story begins with what Ipoh Old Town had progressed into after 10 years. Ming returns to Ipoh from Singapore.