[Review] Jay Chou Musical – The Secret《不能说的秘密》at Marina Bay Sands

Fans of mandopop legend, Jay Chou (周杰倫), would be delighted to know that a musical featuring some of his most popular hits is now showing at Marina Bay Sands.

THE SECRET 《不能说的秘密》is an adaptation of Jay Chou’s multi award-winning 2007 directorial debut of the same name. For those who have seen the movie, yes, it is more than a decade old! Nonetheless, good stories survive the test of time and this is one such example. The movie received six nominations at the 44th Golden Horse Awards and won Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year, Best Original Song for “Secret” (“不能說的祕密”) and Best Visual Effects in 2007. It was also nominated for Best Asian Film at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2008.

The storyline follows the romance between two music students, Xiaoyu and Xianglun in a time-traveling tale that revolves around a magical piano and a secret music score.

The show is created by a top Broadway team, including Tony Award-winning director John Rando and famous American scriptwriter Marc Acito. The musical features 25 of Jay Chou’s most famous songs – Clear Stars <<星晴>>, Listen to Mother’s Words <<听妈妈的话>>, Simple Love <<简单爱>>, The Tea Grandpa Makes <<爷爷泡的茶>>, Rooftop <<屋顶>>, The Fragrance of Rice <<稻香>>, Nocturnes <<夜曲>>, and Fine Day <<晴天>>, Dandelion’s Promise <<蒲公英的约定>> in addition to hilarious large scale production numbers of Sailors Afraid of Water <<水手怕>> and Cowboy is Very Busy <<牛仔很忙>>.

I attended the gala premiere last week and enjoyed the musical very much. The youthful, all Chinese cast put up a good show and there were enough humour peppered into the musical to keep the audience entertained. The singing and acting were good too.

If you look through the list of 25 songs, some songs like the ones about the cowboy and grandpa’s tea are not easy to weave into a romantic storyline. Nonetheless, this was accomplished with some humorous side plots and did not appear too forced or contrived. These were necessary to add colours to the musical. Otherwise, a whole show packed with sappy mandopop tunes will eventually bore the audience to death before the intermission.

Overall, it’s a light-hearted romantic musical that is bound to melt hearts and have you reminiscing about your own teenage romance of yesteryear to the tune of old Jay Chou love ballads. At least that was what it did to me – I went back and started adding a whole bunch of Jay Chou’s song to my KKBOX playlist all over again.

If you are looking to a reference point – the closest English musical that comes to mind in relations to THE SECRET was the GREASE musical, also staged at Marina Bay Sands, back in 2014.

THE SECRET is showing at Marina Bay Sands from 6 April to 15 April 2018. Tickets are available online via SISTIC.