Why one Hong Kong choreographer thinks the city has mediocre musical performers

Taiwan is leaping ahead of Hong Kong in cultivating musical theatre talents by launching its first formal training programme in the popular performing arts form this month.

Initiated by Tsai Pao-chang, artistic director of theatre company Tainanren Ensemble, and supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, the month-long “Musical Theatre Training Project 2016” at the Taipei Performing Arts Centre (TPAC) sets out to bring Taiwanese performers in the genre up to international standards.

Led by Hong Kong-based choreographer and educator Mohamed Drissi, American composer Craig Bohmler and voice coach Harald Emgard from Sweden, participants of the intensive course will learn the five basic skills of musical theatre including body movement, singing, voice, dancing and acting.

While this city has taken the lead in staging musicals – and used to be an aspiration for artists in the region – the scene has been stagnated in recent years, especially when compared with that in Greater China.

“We see more musicals in Hong Kong ... but I don’t think we see better ones,” says the chairman of the Hong Kong Musical Theatre Federation and former senior lecturer at the Academy for Performing Arts.

“There’s always something lacking to make it an exciting musical performance. There are some professionals [in the performances], but they are not musical performers. They are either actor, dancer or singer.”

In musical theatre, there’s a term for those who can sing, act and dance: triple threat (think Hugh Jackman). And they are absolutely essential for a stellar performance as “the cast is the backbone of a musical” Drissi says.