Grooving to The Beat Of “Get On Your Feet”!
If we roll out a map, Broadway is technically more than 15,000km away from Malaysia (Or 9321 miles by Eagleland standards).
But on the night of 24th September, theatre fanatics would know that Broadway was happening right in the heart of KL, at the Universiti Malaya Experimental Theatre, with the Get On Your Feet charity musical lighting up the night with 2 full hours of glamour, colour and enchantment, all in the name of donating to cancer research.
As the clock struck half past 8, the ensemble wasted no time transporting the audience away from reality, and into the wondrous lands of theatre, starting with songs like Dancing Through Life from Wicked, Everything To Win from Anastasia, and Happy Talk from South Pacific. Audiences at the show would’ve remembered dancing along to the iconic Dancing Queen from Mamma Mia, as the performers taught the dance to the audience on the spot, and got them to wave along to the dance! Who could forget Johan Yusof’s heart-wrenching depiction of Evan Hansen in Waving Through a Window, or the bold and scintiliating performance by Yon Lynn in All That Jazz, another iconic piece from the musical Chicago!
My personal highlight of the night was undoubtedly vocal performances by Elvira Arul, as she took the audience’s breath away and had us in absolute awe with her renditions of New York, New York, and Simply The Best from The Tina Turner Musical. Her powerful and emotional vocals sent shivers down the audience’s spines (as well as mine!), and were met with well-deserved, thunderous applause. In my session, a member of the audience even stood up and started grooving along with her as she belted out her final verses, heartwarming, and delightful to see.
At half past 10, I unwillingly bid farewell to the stage that gripped me for the entirety of my time here. Even as I write this, almost a month after watching the show, the images of the graceful dancers, the adorably cute junior dancers, and the resoundingly memorable voices of the vocalists, continue to flash and ring through my mind. As the theatre nerd that I well and truly am, I can wholeheartedly say that the charity musical lived up to its name, as it had the audience on their feet for a standing ovation at the end of the night, and most definitely got every note right.
Bravo, and onwards to an even better, greater show!
