Student Blog: Please Pardon My Lack of Musical Theatre Knowledge!

Being a musical theatre student is not easy. On top of the singing, dancing, acting, theory and history classes, we are expected to know ALL the musicals (a little exaggerated). I do get overwhelmed by it and sometimes I get embarrassed when I do not know some musicals, even the common ones. I have to be honest, I have no clue what the plot for Wicked is (gasp!) but I know at least 5 of their songs, Defying Gravity (duh!), Popular, One Short Day (I learnt it in school), Sentimental Man (a friend of mine performed it) and... That's it. I lied, I only know 4 songs. I just did not have much opportunity to be exposed to them.

Being in Singapore, arts is not very accessible, let alone musicals and that is such a pity. There are only less than 5 musicals being put up in a year and there are no lottery tickets, so ticket prices are high, even for students. I only have the internet to help me garner the knowledge of musical theatre. YouTube really is a great place to listen to the music (I'm not on Spotify premium) and watch some videos put up by companies, and Google is a good place to read up on the plot and see production photos. That is why I am more familiar with musicals with proshots or movies available on mainstream streaming platforms. I really appreciate it when musicals are made into movies. I can finally watch them.

So what can I do? I guess I can work extra hard to catch up with them? But I feel like my circumstances should not undermine my passion I have for musical theatre. It all takes time. During my preparation for song repertoire classes or some of you may know it as acting through song masterclasses, I get to find out more about the plot of the musicals as part of character research. The best part about not having watched the productions or videos of the songs or musical, I get to discover the character myself like I am the original cast. It gives me a lot of freedom to not follow all the big stars. Honestly, I love the process of making characters from scratch.

One of the most bizarre moments was when I watched Waitress 2007 original film and paused on the moments when the musical number fits the plot, to listen to the original Broadway cast recording. That was quite an experience, imagining how the musical numbers are being performed. But I do wish to catch it live.

Of course my experience is personal because I know some of my peers were exposed to musicals from a young age. For those of you who do not live in a place where musical theatre is accessible or just a late bloomer into the world of musical theatre, I feel you. As of now, I can't expect myself to know every musical that was ever produced and their songs. So the next time you come across someone who lacks musical knowledge, cut them some slack, they may not be as privileged as others. One thing for sure is that we all love musicals no matter what.