Still slightly buzzing from watching FAME - The Musical last night. The energy. The enthusiasm. It's incredible.

Reminds me so much why I wanted to have a career in music theatre when I was young. Of course now, older and jaded, I don't believe that dream will ever, ever come true anymore. Should it ever materialise however, THAT'S the sort of musical I'd like to be in.

Back to FAME. Great voices and great dancing. Maria Mercedes's voice is just incredible. So powerful and rich. Besides her, I also like Simon Gleeson's voice. Dance wise, I like Deonne Zanotto aka Carmen Diaz. She can really dance! Wow!

I usually look among the supporting dancers in musicals such as these for that one person with that extra presence, that extra bounce that catches my eyes. Sometime I see it and sometimes I don't. This time, that person is Kane Bonke. He just seemed to have the extra bounce to his steps. My eyes were trained only at him from the moment I spotted him. Very arresting. Later, I saw him and some of the other dancers at the side exit while on my way to the car.

Darn! Where's my pen when I needed one?!

I might go back one day just to wait for them to come out so that they can sign my program. Hopefully will be able to catch Maria Mercedes and get her to sign my Chicago program. Just realised she played Mama Morton in the Chicago musical that I saw in Singapore two years ago. Oh! And Deonne Zanotto as well, she was one of the dancers in the Chicago production.

One of my friends asked me whether musicals with Malaysian cast will ever be at this standards. Pessimistically, I said no. If you'd just read the bios of the cast in the program, you'll see that these people have been dancing/acting/singing since they were practically toddles. Most performers in Malaysia seem to have cultivated an interest only when they are in their teenage years or adulthood. How can you compete with years and years of training? Dancers, maybe cause people do place their children in dance classes although they do not really encourage their children to grow up to become a dancer ... or maybe that was just my parents?