man of letters.. an adaptation of cyrano de bergerac.. inspired by from a doctor's diary.. and it was indeed, resembling much of cyrano de bergerac.. all the poetry.. the confession in the shadows by the balcony.. the death of the loved one in a revolution.. the saying of the last words, at last by the poet himself.. the realisation of the secret love all these years.. but minus the nose..

a wonderful piece by dick lee.. and i saw the man himself!! oh yeah, he was seated 3 rows behind me.. i'm not a 'singapore idol' hopeful, but just that i've been that fascinated with the man since the days of snow.wolf.lake.. but during the opening piece, you can truly identify the styles of the man.. it's just so distinct.. and there's a bit of everything in this musical.. from the lights and sounds of beauty world, to the tone of seriousness in forbidden city, to the wonders and fantasies of love from snow.wolf.lake..

and what a team he has put together to produce this entire musical.. with iskandar ismail as the music conductor.. talk about long-time collaboration.. and yes, the wonderful cast as well.. hmm, i'm equally charmed by robin goh, though he's vertically challenged.. but man, he is a man of talent.. ranging from chang and eng, to army daze, and now to man of letters.. and there's r j rosales, whom i am even more charmed with.. otherwise known as the other half of the chang and eng.. it's just a pity that he's only a cameo role in this production.. and there are other prominent ones like the husband-and-wife partnership: lim kay siu & neo swee lin.. and emma yong as well, whom somehow i kind of mixed up with pamela oei.. that which is really surprising is that, my old-time friend is part of the orchestra and my og junior is part of the ensemble..

what's really special about this production is that, it does not have a programme.. instead it has a programme printed in the form of a newspaper titled 'the undergrad'.. a really refreshing change from the usuals of a book that cost 20 bucks and will only be read once before archiving occurs.. not to mention that it's in commemoration of nus's centennial celebrations.. but nope, i wasn't part of the lucky bunch with the free preview tickets.. i purchased mine way before the university sent out that loud email screaming 'freebie!!!!'

as you can see, i can go on for ages about this production.. giving a complete breakdown of the entire musical.. but time does not permit this doing.. if i get ard doing it, tune in for more in the very near future..