The veteran entertainer returns with The More Further Adventures of Dick Lee, a fundraising concert series in aid of the Singapore Repertory Theatre.
Like most musicians, the only entertaining Dick Lee did last year was virtually. He led thousands of Singapore residents in a singalong of Home in April and held the Dick Lee Life Story Online Live Concert in May, just to name a few.
So you can imagine how the veteran entertainer is raring to perform on stage in front of a live audience. “Having a live audience, seeing their faces (even though they will be wearing their masks) and hearing their response and applause—that just changes the whole game. When you do a virtual show, you’re playing at home by yourself and there’s no response at all—you don’t feel it. The thing about live performances is that the audience and performer feed off each other in terms of their emotion and energy—and that feeds my performance. It’s all about the feeling,” he says.
Lee makes a return to the stage this month with The More Further Adventures of Dick Lee, a fundraising concert series in aid of the Singapore Repertory Theatre. He shares how the past year has been for him, why he’s itching to get back on stage and how the time at home has rekindled his passion for songwriting.
Tell us more about The More Further Adventures of Dick Lee.
Dick Lee (DL) The More Further Adventures of Dick Lee is the sequel to my earlier show, The Adventures of the Mad Chinaman, which is based on my 1989 album, The Mad Chinaman. That album changed my life and identified me as a Singaporean musician working in Asia, so it’s very important to me. All my previous shows were about the journey that led to that album. This show continues that journey and what happened after the album came out, mainly in the 1990s.
What defined the 1990s for you?
DL One of the most defining moments for me as a Singaporean in the ’90s was when I wrote Home in 1997. That sense of being Singaporean became clearer to me after 20 years of searching.
You led thousands of Singapore residents in an online singalong of Home in April last year. What was the experience like?
DL It was a great moment of unity and so incredible the way Singaporeans came together to show their appreciation for our frontline workers. I could not have hoped for anything better than the fact that the song was chosen to represent our feelings and our gratitude not only to the frontliners but to Singapore as our home. Words cannot describe how I felt.
(Related: Singapore Theatre Directors Discuss the Changing Face of Live Productions in 2021)
