A play with a song, not a musical!

Meritorious Artist Ca Le Hong believes that for a purely Vietnamese musical, the script must be a Vietnamese literary work, the music must be composed by Vietnamese people, and the play must be directed, cast, and created by Vietnamese people.

Looking back at the past few years, many purely Vietnamese musicals such as: "The Adventures of Men the Cricket" (Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera), "Tien Nga" (IDECAF Drama Stage), "Snow in Saigon", "Tam Cam", "Thuy Tinh - The 101st Child" (Buffalo Drama Group, Ho Chi Minh City), "Ha Noi Past and Present", "I Read the Newspaper This Morning" (Thang Long Music and Dance Theater), "Trai Hoa Vang" and "Song" (Tuoi Tre Theater) have attracted attention.

Scene from the play “Thang Long Love Story”. (Photo: THANH HIEP)

The play "The Love Story of Thang Long" just performed at Ben Thanh Theater cannot be called a musical but a play with "inserted" songs. Similar to the play "Bong Canh Co" by Hong Van Drama Theater, exploiting the direction by putting the song of musician Bac Son into dramatic situations, this is not a musical, although the production team aspires to stage this type of experiment with folk music.

According to People's Artist Tran Minh Ngoc, a purely Vietnamese musical script requires the author (screenwriter) and the musician (lyricist) to be consistent throughout each scene, so that the character's lines can also be turned into songs, logically and convincingly. The music of a musical is very important, because if the music is not good and does not touch the hearts of the people, it is difficult to achieve the artistic effect of a musical.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/kich-chem-bai-ca-khong-phai-la-nhac-kich-196240220214427998.htm