The Adventures Of The Mad Chinaman

Esplanade Recital Studio/Tuesday

The title of home-grown singer-songwriter Dick Lee’s solo revue is taken from his 2004 autobiography. The show, as he jokingly told the full- house crowd, is for those who cannot read. Tickets for all three performances have been snapped up.

But even those who can read will enjoy this intimate evening of music and reminiscing which takes the audience from Lee’s childhood right up to 1989, the year in which the seminal album The Mad Chinaman was released and which made his reputation. The record, which gleefully fused Eastern and Western musical influences and featured a polyglot of languages, was a breakthrough effort and won him fans in the region as far afield as Japan.

The 54-year-old looked dapper in a pale pink suit in the transformed Esplanade Recital Studio. The usually bare staging area looked like a cosy living room, complete with a piano. Lee proved to be an engaging story-teller and often a self-deprecating and humorous one.

There was a running gag over his age and his announcement that he was born in “nineteen fifty-...” trailed off into a volley of coughs as he explained that he was allergic to his year of birth. He delved into family history and shared anecdotes about his father Lee Kip Lee, 90, and mother Elizabeth Lee, 77, who were in the audience on Tuesday night.

In between stories of his rascally shenanigans, Lee would take to the piano. He sang the nostalgia-laden Return To Beauty World from the 1985 album of the same name, the jaunty Wo Wo Ni Ni (literally, Me Me You You) from The Mad Chinaman and also paid tribute to his key influences – Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Elton John.

A highlight of the revue was when he performed a medley of stinkers, “a bunch of songs I can’t stand and I hope you hate them too”. They included “horrible song” Ballade Pour Adeline, the well-known piano piece popularised by Richard Clayderman, and an exaggeratedly twangy performance of the John Denver song Country Roads.

To the audience’s delight, Lee went on to parody the recent General Election to the tune of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and Rihanna’s Umbrella. Sample lyric: “Vivian B, tell us, was it all an error error?”

Another crowd-pleaser was a segment on hilarious television clips from the 1980s, complete with Lee’s running commentary as he gamely made fun of his hairstyles and fashion faux pas. There were poignant moments in the show as well. Some might still remember the controversial Pope outfit he wore for his 50th birthday bash, but there is a sad story about a family tragedy that explains his fabulous themed birthday parties.

There was also a glimpse of the entertainer’s serious side when he explained why his album was called The Mad Chinaman. It came about because he was confused about his cultural identity and also because of his anger, as a Chinese, over the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989.

The final song of the evening was Home, the first National Day song written by a Singaporean, as Lee proudly pointed out. His mellifluous singing might not be as polished as, say, Kit Chan’s, but there was real emotion in his delivery and the crowd responded with a standing ovation.

Listening to Lee’s distinctively Singaporean songs, particularly those from his lesser-known albums in the 1980s, one cannot help but think that he was ahead of his time. The records might have bombed then but there is clearly an appreciative audience for them today.

(ST)