Ismail The Last Days

Eversince Esther committed herself with the musical theatre audition and trainings, we were so excited to watch her very first stageshow. Idayu the planner has everything arranged yesterday. At around 6pm, we packed our stuffs and went to OneUtama (Akhi lapar laa!). I had chicken wings, Ayu and Chloe ate paitee + popiah, and Akhi had chicken rice for dinner. Around 7pm, we carpooled to KLPac. 7 of us: Idayu, Chloe, Akhilesh, Brandon, Anne Marie, Joe Peter and me.

Well, I am too bad in summarizing, thus I copied the synopsis from KakiSeni

Synopsis: He was known to those dear to him as 'The Tango King', to others, Doc Ismail; and his trade-mark pipe was always within reach, no matter what the occasion.

This 'third man' of Malaysian politics, Tun Dr. Ismail was a true nation builder, committed to bridging the gulf of ethnicity and religion in this country.

A love story about one man's love for the people in his life and his country, this presentation uses original writing and musical composition, and incorporates the remarkably beautiful poetry of fellow Johorian and National Laureate Dato’ Usman Awang.

Essentially a dramatisation of real events in the history of Malaysia, the musical does not in any way seek to present its material as historical fact. It seeks to, at the very least, remain true to the spirit of Tun Dr Ismail and his time.

Written by U-En Ng, with the poetry of Dato' Usman Awang, music by Dato' Johari Salleh, musical direction by Mervyn Peters and choreography by A. Aris Kadir.

Directed by Joe Hasham and starring Malik Taufiq, Tunku Alizakri, Tisha Zarina Zainal, Ari Ratos, Lim Soon Heng and Belinda Richardson.

Special Thanks to Dato' Faridah Merican and charming husband Joe Hasham for allowing us to learn more on Tun Dr. Ismail (IBM building used to be in TTDI, friends...)