Wednesday September 21, 2005
Sisters in love
The three lead actors of Snow.Wolf.Lake talk to MICHAEL CHEANG about their involvement in the Chinese musical that will be staged in Kuala Lumpur in November.
I’VE been using this exact same pose for almost 20 years now,” quipped Jacky Cheung as he snapped into a familiar stance at the photographer’s request.
Indeed, it seems as though Cheung has been around forever. More than two decades after the 44-year-old ‘Heavenly King’ made his debut, his star is still shining brightly, especially judging from the response to his appearance in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
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Jacky Cheung |
Now into its eighth year of production, SWL is Hong Kong’s first large-scale musical production, and is one of the biggest Chinese stage musicals ever produced, spawning a Mandarin version which opened last December.
Snow.Wolf.Lake is the tragic love story of Wolf (Cheung), a poor gardener who falls in love with Snow (Evonne Hsu) who hails from a rich family. Nadia Chan plays Phoenix, Snow’s sister, who is also in love with Wolf.
According to Cheung, the main difference between SWL and western musicals is that the latter tend to focus more on the big picture story and the ensemble while SWL plays up the individual characters more.
“Our production focuses on the details of each character, so it has a very individualistic feel to it,” Cheung said.
While he has played Wolf these eight years, he has been looking for someone to take over the role, but has found no one suitable so far. He is considering retiring from the show next year.
“It would be a shame to discontinue the show, because it would be like killing the life of a musical. I’ve always wanted SWL to last a long time, like some Broadway musicals, which can last for 10 to 20 years.”
On his search for a replacement, he said: “The popularity of the actor is inconsequential. We need to find someone who can sing, dance and act at the same time.”
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Evonne Hsu |
“Different actors will give each character a different feel. After all, the female leads have been played by so many actresses before and each one has brought something different to the roles.”
Evonne Hsu
The ever cheerful Evonne Hsu has replaced Hong Kong singer-actress Sandy Lam as the character Snow for the Mandarin production of SWL.
Speaking in fluent English, the American-born Taiwanese singer-actress, 23, admitted that the prospect of stepping into the shoes of an accomplished star like Lam was daunting at first.
“During my first show, I was so nervous that I was shaking from smiling too much. I was so afraid I might forget my lines, or miss a dance step and spoil the whole show. Thankfully, it went better than I expected.”
She has improved in leaps and bounds since then. She cited the shows in Shanghai as the best she had.
“There was one show then when everything went right for me. I was extremely comfortable with the dances, I remembered all my lyrics, and I was really into the whole thing,’” she recalled.
The shows in China also served up some strange experiences. “It was very strange doing the shows in China, because we had to perform outdoors sometimes because the halls were not big enough for our stage.
“At one point, we had bugs crawling up our legs and mosquitoes biting us. The worse part was, I couldn’t even scratch during the show, so I had to bear with it, she said with a laugh.
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Nadia Chan |
Dressed in a pretty floral dress is Nadia Chan, 34, who has been a prominent personality in the Hong Kong TV industry for almost 20 years now.
She replaces Kit Chan as the character Phoenix. She once replaced Sandy Lam for the role of Snow in the Cantonese version.
“For me, taking part in the production is good enough, no matter which role I play,” said the pretty actress. “Sandy is one of my idols and I also like Kit very much, so to take over their roles was a great honour.
“In fact, I dream that one day there will be a super-big ‘family reunion’ show where everyone who has appeared on the show before will perform together.”
She added that Cheung was a huge inspiration during the show. “It’s very easy to get into the role when you’re performing next to Jacky. You can feel his emotion and concentration, and it helps me get into my character better,” she said. “When I see him cry, I would want to cry too. And when he rejects my character’s love by saying, ‘You are not Snow’, it breaks my heart and makes me cry.”
Presented by DiGi and organised by Galaxy Productions, Snow.Wolf.Lake will be held on Nov 25 and 26 at Putra Indoor Stadium in Kuala Lumpur. Tickets will be on sale from Oct 1 and are priced at RM138, RM238, RM388, RM488 and RM688. Seats are limited to 8,000 per show. For more details, call Galaxy Hotline (03-2282 2020) or visit www.galaxy.com.my.
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