A week ago I was invited to the Kick-Ass 2 preview held at Golden Village- Grand at Great World City. Each invite entitled you to 2 cokes, a sweet popcorn to share and a photo opportunity at a Kick Ass 2 photo booth! It was free seating so the queue to enter was crazy long.
My friend doesn't like sweet popcorn so guess who had more popcorn to eat? Hahaha.
Movie goers were encouraged to come in their superhero or villian costume, but because I didn't have any outfits on hand, I dressed casually. Here's a photo of The Frying Pan Man.
Gotta give him some credits for trying, and the print out design he stuck to his shirt is just hilarious.
My superhero costume! Bunny ears to represent super hearing power? Hahaha. So I can hear evil from miles away :p
Hit Girl and Kick Ass were there too! With Colonel Stars and Stripes in the background.
It was my first
time watching a movie there because it's pretty far from my place, but
darn I was SO impressed by the screen and sound I'll definitely be back!
The hall I watched at had a ginormous screen,clean seats with no strange smells, and great surround sound that wasn't deafening!
Picking the winner for best costume who walked away with $100 cash!
After having been pleasantly surprised by the
colourful, fun-filled, action-packed treat that was Kick-Ass 1 three years ago, I approached the sequel with tempered expectations. Much of what
delighted audiences in the first installment was the journey of
discovering David’s (Kick Ass') latent courage and grit, the background of his ruined nerves and the novelty of the Hit Girl/Big Daddy pairing. Knowing that Kick-Ass and Hit Girl were the
city’s resident superheroes, I expected this movie to simply be the crime fighting duo beating up more bad guys. It was much more than that.
Kick-Ass 2 sees David maturing and developing as a teen, Mindy (Hit Girl) struggling with an ordinary life and Red Mist reborn as the Mother F$*ker, throwing money around just to have his way. An evil league is assembling and David decides to join a team of crime fighting superheroes led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) called Justice Forever to defend his turf and seek revenge.
The writers managed to inject a healthy
dose of sentimentality and even high-school drama by weaving in a side
story involving Mindy’s attempts to be a normal girly-girl; whilst ensuring that their unique brand of comedic violence
and gore was not compromised. The fight scenes, though not as epic as
the first one (recall the Big Daddy warehouse scene and the Hit Girl
rescue scene), were brilliantly choreographed, very entertaining, and
Chris D’Amico (Mother F@%ker) provided plenty of laughs as the bumbling yet heartless
villain.
What the movie suffered from perhaps, was an overly large cast of
characters which was barely given enough time to develop eg Night Bitch who looked completely unrecognizable without her costume mode on. All in all, Kick-Ass 2 was in many ways a different experience from the
first movie, but still provided plenty of amusement.
One of my favourite parts of the movie was checking out Aaron Taylor-Johnson aka David Lizewski / Kick-Ass's, ABS in the shirtless scenes. Here's the before and after for your viewing pleasure, and you're welcome.
In the midst of training. Kick Ass reminds me a little of Frodo from LOTR with his curly hair.
After. Who wouldn't be attracted to abs like that? I could do with less blood and wounds on the face though.
Kick-Ass 2 is rated M18 for violence and coarse
language, of course with a villian's name as the Mother F#*ker, you
can't expect any less! Be sure to check Kick-Ass 2 at Golden Village soon!
Thanks Janet, Alex, OMY and Golden Village for the tickets and Kangwen for contributing :)
I love watching musicals! The level of coordination between performers, lights and sound crew, the singing, acting, design of props, costumes, even make up all contribute to an astounding quality production, and The Phantom of the Opera is definitely one of my favourites to catch with famous songs like "The Phantom of the Opera”, “Music of the Night”, “Angel of Music” and “All I Ask of You”.
The first time the Phantom of the Opera came to Singapore was in 2007, and it was a sold-out success. I managed to get tickets to that because I booked early, and that left me hungry to watch even more musicals. Plus, I'm a huuuge fan of The Phantom of the Opera, I have their albums and also watched their movie when it came out in 2004. So when I was invited by Alvin to catch the Gala Premiere in Singapore on the 18th of July, I immediately said yes even though I wasn't in a Black tie, red carpet worthy outfit!
Apologies for the terrible resolution, these were shot on my phone!Here's a shot of Aaralyn and I, I'm in a Love and Bravery dress, red patent heels from HK and red lipstick from L'oreal ;)
A gorgeous shot of Brad Little and Claire Lyon from the Singapore main cast
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s critically acclaimed masterpiece is now enjoying its 27th year on the West End stage, and its 26th year on Broadway, and continues to play to full houses around the world.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA has been seen by over 130 million people worldwide, in more than 27 countries, has grossed more than US$5.6 billion and has won over 50 major theatre awards. Playing worldwide it has been translated into no fewer than 15 languages.
In January 2013, the Broadway production played its 10,000th performance, and their 25th Anniversary (video below), was so brilliant it gave me chills.
I tear when I watch this. It's just so beautiful.
Storyline
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is based upon the novel Le
Fantome De L’Opera by Gaston Leroux.
In short, a freaking awesome storyline, with an eye-opening exposure to musicals which were held at that time.
PSST! There's also a sequel also written by Andrew Lloyd Webber called 'Love Never Dies', and I managed to catch it two years ago in London! It's set in America, many years after The Phantom of the Opera and reveals so many secrets. All Phantom fans need to catch that as a grand finale!
Bumped into Yina, Sophie and Mel! It's so coincidental because Yina is in the Singapore Youth Choir conducted by Ms Tham, who was my secondary school choir conductor, and Sophie's my junior in SAJC (yes she's younger than me ~_~) and Mel's my classmate in upper secondary for Literature and Geog classes! Haha. They're dressed much more suited for the occasion than me oops.
With Adrian and Dennis. Poor Adrian had a back ache so he was walking stiffly the whole night. Get better soon Adrian!
The other photos I took were terribly grainy so I'm not uploading them here :(
Singapore cast
That night, our spectacular cast was:
The Phantom - Brad Little
Christine Daae - Claire Lyon
Raoul - Anthony Downing
Monsieur Firmin - John O'May
Monsieur Andre - Jason Ralph
Carlotta - Andrea Creighton
Madame Giry - Tina Walsh
Ubaldo - Thabiso Masemene
Meg Giry - Eleanor Waite
During the musical I noticed that Eleanor Waite (Meg Giry) looked very young and had a sweet voice, and found out later that she's only 20 years old! To be at that age but performing and touring internationally as one of the main roles is really tough, so be sure to look out for her!
Talk about detailed, exquisite, immaculate costume designs with matching intricate masks for the Masquerade!
After-party
Immediately after the show, invited guests were ushered to the mini after party to mingle at the foyer and were treated to canapes, wine and beer. Shortly after, Brad Little (Phantom), Claire Lyon (Christine Daae) and Anthony Downing (Raoul) came out to join us! Managed to grab pictures with them, but again sorry for the grainy pictures.
With Claire Lyon looking spectacular in a floral tube gown. Her voice is really powerful and she's really pretty too! She has a really wide range of notes and is graceful in all her actions, even off stage. Claire is also one of few actresses in the world to have been involved in both 'The Phantom of the Opera', and its sequel 'Love Never Dies' where she understudied and performed the same role of Christine in the Australian national tour in 2011 and 2012.
With Brad Little who is really tall and is here in Singapore performing as The Phantom for the second time! Really liked his baritone voice when he was singing the lower, deeper sections, and there were some parts when he had to shout to portray his anger and frustration, which he did really well! His acting was superb and really reflected the inner turmoil within the Phantom - very emotional and touching!
With Anthony Downing, who was really friendly and handsome! He was full of praise for the acoustics at MBS and because it's much bigger, the cast had to project their voice further. His role as Raoul was great and his voice is very earnest and trusting, exactly what I'd like my husband to have - hehe! He's also a Fleur du Cap nominee for best supporting lead in 2012 and is the Philippines BWW Awards winner for best featured actor both for his performance in The Phantom of the Opera!
One of my favourite songs and scenes, 'Past the Point of No Return' was beautifully done by the cast and the orchestra. It's sung at the point when Raoul turns up to save Christine, and at the gala premiere, the harmonies and melodies perfectly complemented each other and the build up was so immense! I just wished the sound could have been a bit louder for Raoul's section because he was quite soft at some parts and it was hard to hear him or to make out what he was singing, even though I knew all the words by heart.
TICKETING AND SHOW
INFORMATION
July 16 – September 1 2013
Day/Times
VIP
A Reserve
B Reserve
C Reserve
D
Reserve
E Reserve
Tue - Fri - 8pm
Sat – Sun 2pm & 8pm
$230
$165
$145
$125
$95
$55
•
Excludes the booking Fee of
SGD$3 per ticket
PSST! I would recommend getting better seats where you get a better view nearer to the stage because you get to see the facial expressions and admire the costumes much better up close! Plus, you never know when The Phantom of the Opera would be back again :O
Marina
Bay Sands Box Offices (Museum, Theaters, SkyPark, Retail Mall and Hotel Tower 1
and 3 Lobby). For
VIP, Hotel and Dining Packages visit www.showbizasia.com.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA’s season
in Singapore will be extended until the 1st September 2013 with an
additional 8 shows going on sale to the public on Monday 22 July. If you missed them the last time they were here, be sure to get your tickets early before they get sold out again!!
Thank you Amanda for the tickets!
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is produced in Singapore by Lunchbox Theatrical
Productions, David Atkins Enterprises, and Base Entertainment in association
with The Really Useful Group. Photo credits to Base Entertainment Asia
Claire.
loves exploring what life has to offer.
A personal lifestyle blog of all things captivating, alluring, enchanting, indulging, sophisticated and pretty.
Contact me at
Eternamente[at]gmail.com
