河國榮, An Aussie in Hong Kong

Back in July of last year, I was pondering whether to go to L.A. and study singing with Miss Peisha McPhee. During this time, I received a phone call from a local director who explained that he wanted to produce a pet project that he had dreamed of for many years. It was an English language stage musical and he wanted me to star in it! I was surprised, slightly stunned and ecstatic. At the time though, that phone call was confirmation to me that I should go to L.A. and work with Peisha which is exactly what I did.

The name of the play is They're Playing Our Song, written by Neil Simon in 1979. The music was written by Marvin Hamlisch and the lyrics were written by Carole Bayer Sager.

We've been working on "They're Playing Our Song" for more than two weeks now. It's a lot of hard work because there are only two actors; Sompor (蘇芯寶) and myself; which means the two of us have to know the whole play from start to finish with no breaks, and we have to sing and dance as well. Yes, I said dance! If you come to the play, you'll actually get to see me dance. That by itself will justify the cost of the ticket ;-)

Dreams don't come cheap. They require sacrifices. It's up to you whether your dream justifies the sacrifices.

"They're Playing Our Song" is definitely a big part of my evolving dream. Stage musicals, although a very small part of my early school life where I was invariably a chorus member, were never part of my goal in life. Singing was first, and acting came second, although more accidentally than intentionally; TVB was an accident, a happy lucky one.

Through the years, my preferences for acting and music have changed, and now I find myself yearning for the satisfaction that can come from a well crafted stage musical, such as "They're Playing Our Song". In recent years, I've participated in three stage productions. I danced in 「上海之夜」 (Magic is the Moonlight) and sang in 「鄧麗君，但願人長久」 (Teresa Tang Forever), but except for 「香水」 (Perfume), I was always a rather large extra in the story. Perfume was my first role as a co-star, working with three other respected professionals, none of whom thought of themselves as better than any other. In fact, in this respect, I have again been fortunate. In none of the stage productions that I have worked with have there been any actors or actresses who thought they were above everyone else, including Cass 彭羚, a world class singer who because of the Teresa Tang musical became a personal friend of mine.

And now I get a starring role. It only took 20 years to get here.

The benefits of this play are many.

After completing part two of an interview with 大公報 at lunch time, and filming 奸人堅 today at TVB in the afternoon, and having 'dinner' at Starbucks this evening, I returned home with a goal in mind, one which I wasn't really sure I would actually complete. I often have goals in mind, and more often than not, they evaporate. This one actually happened: weight-lifting!

It has been years since I weight-lifted, but my dance routines in the play will look better if my tummy is flatter and stronger, and certain steps involving lifting Sompor 蘇芯寶 will be better performed if my muscles are tuned. I don't need nor desire big muscles. I simply need muscles adapted to and ready for rapid and strong movement.

Tickets go on sale today!

You can buy tickets at any Urbtix outlet. (direct link to show listing)

Remember. The McAulay Studio is a small theatre. It only seats 90 people and we're only doing 10 shows, so if you want to see the show, don't wait too long to buy your tickets.

Note. The play is in English with Chinese subtitles.

Show times:
March 16-23 nightly at 8.00pm
March 17,18 extra matinée shows at 3.00pm

Seven days to go!

After rehearsing almost every day for nine weeks, we are finally approaching the finish line. We're still rehearsing. We're still making adjustments to our blocking and our behaviour. We're still making adjustments to our dance routines. We're still working hard, actually harder than we've worked for most of the nine weeks. We're now averaging nine hours a day. If you thought this was just a hobby for us, think again. It's been the equivalent of going to a nine-to-five job except without wages.

We've had a few interviews.

I'm tired, very tired.

I've suddenly found myself with much more responsibility than I'd foreseen.

A few weeks ago, we realised that tickets were not selling as well as we'd like. Our marketing was not working. In some areas, it was simply non-existent. At least one good friend of mine didn't know about the play until I called them.

We had done a few interviews with newspapers and magazines but the affect on ticket sales was not ideal. We had to do more, and I decided to fund the design and publishing of our ads, the ones I showed you in my previous article. Those ads worked but we're still not doing well enough to sit back and relax.

Part of the challenge we face is that the play is in English. There have been many inquiries about tickets but as soon as many of those inquirers realise that the play is in English, they hang up. We have Chinese subtitles but people are still scared of English. Even three of my wife's relatives declined our complementary invitation to see the show because it's in English.

To help get the word out about our play, our marketing person arranged for me to have an interview with the 叱咤 903 radio station, but the interview is part of a program called 「有耳喱民」 in which they talk about weird behaviour and ghost stories. I was a little hesitant about it but the producers and hosts (亞喱, 詹志民 and 有耳非文) made me feel at home as soon as I arrived. Knowing 有耳非文 from way back in 1997 when we performed 「上海之夜」 together helped a lot too because I suddenly had a 'friend' with me, and so the interview turned out to be a very fun one.

The interview will be broadcast tonight at 12 midnight. If you don't have Hong Kong radio access, you can listen to it via their web link. I think you'll enjoy it ;-)

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Just in case some of you don't know or have forgotten, "They're Playing Our Song" is now performing at the McAulay Studio theatre in the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wanchai every night at 8pm until Friday night.

My first leading role with singing, dancing and acting. Even my parents are flying in tomorrow to see the show, the first time they will have seen me work since I arrived here in Hong Kong in 1987!

Don't miss out ;-)

Tonight's is the last show. I'm trying not to think about it. I have to control my emotions until after the play. It's not easy to do but I must do it. It has been an incredible ten weeks. I feel like Goku in Dragon Ball coming out of one of his training sessions. The lessons I've learned, the obstacles I've encountered, the victories we've produced, the friends I've made; it has been the greatest adventure of my life and it's almost over.

I've never considered myself lucky but I've never been so fortunate in all my life as I have been recently. Henry and Sompor are amazing people. Henry's an intelligent, forgiving, understanding and patient director. Sompor is an intelligent natural actress with unlimited potential and a personality to match. We encountered many obstacles during the last ten weeks, some of them extreme, but we came through and we produced a wonderful play.

"Sleep! I can't sleep". That opening line from Act 2 Scene 1 of "They're Playing Our Song" applies perfectly to my situation at this exact moment.

My brain has been working non-stop for the last ten weeks and even now that the show is over, it refuses to slow down. The melodies from the show are still in my head as are occasional excerpts from the scenes, but more and more, my brain is trying to plan my future direction.

"They're Playing Our Song" was the greatest thing I've done in my life.

During "They're Playing Our Song" rehearsals, Henry spent a lot of time talking to Sompor, explaining the character to her, extracting the acting talent from inside her and helping her to be the best she could be. It was worth the effort. Sompor was great on stage.

I'm eager to share a similar experience. If you're a director who sees potential in my acting abilities and would be willing to spend time working with me to help me be the best I can be for the production, please send me an email; <gregory at hokwokwing dot hk>. I'm interested as an actor and possibly co-investor in two areas: quality movies, and Broadway musical stage productions; English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

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This article will serve as the conclusion to what has been the adventure of my life, "They're Playing Our Song". For ten weeks, we rehearsed and performed the play and it'll always be a highlight in my life.

"They're Playing Our Song" has changed me. It has changed my life. I'm more confident now. I've taken one of the lead roles in a two-actor musical and successfully performed a two-hour show with singing, dancing and acting. I set out to prove to others that I could do it and I ended up proving to myself that I could do it. I think that result was more important than anything else I might have gained.

I loved the experience. I loved the play. I loved the music. I loved the singing and acting. I will be more proactive from here on. I will be sorting out more opportunities to work again in musical theatre and in movies. I will also be studying again (if the institutions will have me) because I want to be the best I can be. I have a few ideas. The future will show whether those ideas come to fruition or not. If you want to know what they are; sorry, you'll have to wait and see ;-)

I'm back ;-)

I apologise for being away so long. A lot has happened in the last two months (not London though; more on that later) and it can take me a while to 'recover' after a period of serious mind work (such as writing the new Blog Comment code).

My gift to you today is the 娛樂直播 interview that TVB graciously gave me on 19 March 2007. I hope you like the interview as much as I do. For one short time, I truly felt like a star. Thank you TVB.

娛樂直播 Interview Part 1   娛樂直播 Interview Part 2