Thailand Performances

Hey, Benji.

I really honestly have ZERO idea how far behind I am on blogging, and I intend on fully catching up and giving you all the love and attention you deserve-- once I find out how much that is :P

For now, I'm doing this blog as insurance. For the first week of my winter vacation, I flew of to Phuket, Thailand. Now, Mr. Moon predicted I would love it and he was RIGHT. Go figure :) The real reason I loved it so much was not the beach, or the cute boys, or even the new swimsuit I bought. The REAL reason I love Thailand was to be exposed to some brand new types of performances, and twists on some I'm already familiar with.

I'll go in order:

First, I was able to enjoy a few little musical revues done by the trusty entertainment staff at the Sunwing Resort. The first was "ABBA: Greatest Hits" and the second was "Greatest Hits From the 90's". Now before I get into how these shows ran, I should let you know that these shows were done by the same four people every night, each from a different Scandinavian country (this was a Swedish resort), though the shows were in English (Thank goodness!). 

The ABBA show was a great one to watch on our first night, the crowd was packed and very lively, as this was a trip down memory lane for all too many of the audience members (including my mom and dad). These four had excellent singing voices, and I was astounded by the sheer number of costume changes during the 45 minute spectacular. The choreography was often dizzying and over the top, sometimes too big for the small performance space they had. This problem worsened in the 90's show, as their re-enactments of hit boy bands took a turn for the worse with popping and locking and bleach white overalls. 

 

On Wednesdays at the Sunwing, these four dedicated employees get a well-deserved break and the hotel fills the slot with a local act, which I was very excited to see. I marveled at their costumes, the music they danced to, the "Specificity in their fingers" (As Mark Hill would say) when they performed with their extra long nails, making their hands look double jointed in more than a few places.

Following this performance, my father said how much he disliked it, and how he wanted to only see the Swedish people perform. This once again stuck out to me as an example of how a craft that takes much longer to perfect can be overshadowed by cheap musical numbers with brighter lights and faster movement. It also showed me how even when in a foreign place, not even a fourth of those at the ABBA show showed up to the local production, which featured fire breathing as well. Are they only coming to a foreign land to see shows they can see probably done much better back where they've come from?

Alas, Our family finally found a happy medium: Phuket Fantasea, the grandest Las Vegas style show about the most classic of Thai stories. I have no pictures, but I can tell you, this show knocked my socks right off into oblivion. Seeing 20 live elephants doing tricks on one stage, the next minute seeing trapeze artists in skintight white suits under florescent light are directly above you. This show had minimal words, so it appealed to all foreigners. They had more trained animals at this show than that of anything I had ever seen: Chickens, dogs, a tiger, doves, goats, oxen, and of course elephants galore! In addition to this menagerie, there were over a hundred dancers, all trained in multiple Traditional Thai dances.

Overall, it was a great vacation, but in many ways I felt I didn't see any of the REAL performances. I saw the shiny tourist-y shows, but I didn't see how the Thais really boogie, or jam, or sing. That's my one regret in this holiday.