Dare I say it and risk being condemned as unhip, corny and downright old-fashioned? Kindred Spirit Now, the production taken from television to stage, was surprisingly enjoyable. Sure, there were many corny parts but the producers and script writers knew who they were aiming it at: the average age of the audience and the cast was 50 if not more.
So there was a bit of everything: nostalgia from the '70s and '80s television heydays, comedy, drama, melodrama and a little Chinese opera skit to keep the even older demographic happy. There were some scary moments though, especially at the start when the whole cast appeared for an introductory song-and-dance dressed in what looked like the worst rejects of TVB's Enjoy Yourself Tonight wardrobes. But it soon picked up pace.
Those who might have been expecting further trials and tribulations of the Lee family - that built its following over the series' 1,000-episode run - would have been taken by surprise. Most of the original cast were on stage playing their real selves, but what unfolded was actually the intertwined stories of the two leading actresses, Louise Lee Sze-kei and Nancy Sit Kar-yin, during the time they worked on the series, and an honest look behind the scenes.
One of the things that made Kindred Spirit Now so appealing was that it pulled no punches. While one may appreciate that some parts of their lives would remain private, Lee and Sit, who produced the play, did not gloss over the hard parts of their painful divorces, backstage bickering and Lee's revelation of her battle with cancer and estrangement from her daughter.
Perhaps, for those reasons, the second act often descended into the maudlin, especially when Sit burst into a tearful song during a radio interview.
But the true joy of the night was watching the pros such as Lee, Sit, and the group of old-timers 'live' on stage. Emotions flowed and each teardrop that bubbled over was real.