In reviving his 1997 stage musical HOTPANTS, director Dick Lee celebrates his forty years in showbiz with an ode to the seventies. Referencing his debut foray into entainment, Dick Lee sets HOTPANTS against the backdrop of a school Talentime competition, unravelling three sets of mother-daughter relationships as the girls decide to enter the competition together. The new generation may not have lived through the era of bellbottoms, groovy hair and, indeed, hotpants; but they will certainly feel right at home with the young cast belting out tunes to the universal beat of teenage angst. The audience can certainly expect relatable Singaporean humour, energetic numbers and surprisingly risqué content!
Do not let the upbeat songs or saturated colours of HOTPANTS’ graphic backdrop and costumes fool you, the characters aren’t ingénue caricatures and life wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the seventies. HOTPANTS does infuse a healthy dose of darkness in its story; allowing characters to stew in disillusionment, unhappiness and destructive lust when needed. By featuring girls on the brink of the same womanhood their mothers can barely cope with, the theme of frightening upheaval is allowed to emerge. The writing is especially savvy as it incites us to both celebrate and lament how far we have come from the seventies alongside characters singing odes and requiems for their waning youth.
The ensemble cast features familiar faces including Denise Tan, Nikki Muller, and former Singapore Idol contestants Tabitha Nauser and Joakim Gomez. HOTPANTS does not shy away from giving the non-musician members of its cast their moment in the spotlight. They do pull off their numbers nicely, though some are obviously less natural dancers. Everyone in the line-up contributes at least a few laughs, even if some characters – the men in particular – remain underutilised.
The production is fleshy in terms of length and content. It does ultimately gloss over some of its darker issues in favour of tidy resolutions. But in doing so, the crowd-pleasing vehicle is never allowed a wrong turn into depression. HOTPANTS the musical is one to catch if you are looking for more than a few good laughs and catchy tunes.
Image credit: Alfred Phang