Picture: Kevin O’Sullivan
Legendary continues at Friesian at Underbelly, Bristo Square until 31 August 2026 (except 17).
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
In a delightful false start, Cheeyang Ng welcomes us to the theatre and tells us they feel at home, and in that instant… so do we.
The thesaurus offers nine synonyms for ‘captivating’, and they all apply to Ng and their performance.
We’re introduced to Singaporean and Chinese myths, legends, and family life interwoven so seamlessly that Ng’s own life experience takes on the legendary status of the title. What influence do our ancestors and their ancestors have over our lives? We are, after all, a product of their lived experience. With particular reference to their mum, dad and a special auntie, Ng shares with us what it was like being different to all other family members in dreams, in ambition and in sexuality.
Ng’s music is, like the gods of the ancient myths, divine. When Jason Robert Brown describes Ng, as “extraordinary”, he’s right. And there are echoes of the plucked piano accompaniments of JRB’s own compositions, played with elegance, passion and dexterity by musical director Eric Fegan. Ng’s feather-light lyrical pop tenor voice brings us right to the heart of the emotion of every song and every story.
We’re not passive observers though. The audience is called upon to participate occasionally, with pedal chants and punctuating phrases. This could be clumsy in less dexterous hands, but Ng’s warmth and charm have us joining in willingly. We want to help. We want to be part of this extraordinary story.
At a moment of family crisis, Auntie asks: “isn’t it enough that your child is happy?” and it suddenly dawns on us that a world without judgement and prejudice, a world where we just let people be, would be a much better world to live in.
And if the gods can be legendary, why can’t we?
Well, Cheeyang Ng, sharing their life story with wit and grace and truth and heart, most certainly is… legendary.
Steven Wren
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