Review-My Queer Valentine-Rick Lau
14-9-13
By: Olivia Rosenman
The set: a stool, empty wine bottles and a glass. The accompaniment: Alan Chan on the grand piano. The leading role: The vocals and visuals of Rick Lau. The show was put together simply, but with passion, sending the audience on a journey of love, loss and isolation. In Rick’s words, it was “a sample of songs that deal specifically with the experience of being gay”.
Using nothing but his voice, facial expression, and the movement of his body, Lau was a real story-teller. By the end of the show, he’d built a strong rapport with the crowd, aided by the close and intimate setting of The Fringe Underground theatre.
Ok, so Fat As I Am, is not specific to being gay, but it did have best line I’ve heard in a while, “All of my sins, are not as numerous as all of my chins”.
The rest of the songs spanned a wide range of emotion, with a strength that left me exhausted. There were several standouts: Yard Sale by Tom Andersen, tells the story of the death of a gay man at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Lau’s face read tragedy, his movement unerringly evoked the setting, leaving me nostalgic for yard sales. (Do these exist in Hong Kong?) Dear Dad provided some much needed comic relief. I laughed and laughed through Lau’s depiction of a young man trying to write a letter to tell his dad he is gay.
There were also some misses. The Boy From Fire Island was slow and lacked energy and did not merit the tune of the bossa nova classic. Lau’s intonation suffered slightly during a lengthy song about gay animals on Noah’s Ark, but his vigorous animal action all but made up for it.
Alan Chan, who heads a 17 piece jazz orchestra in LA, provided a faultless accompaniment. His energy was palpable and he even had a couple of cute cameo lines.
My Queer Valentine plays at The Fringe Underground theatre until Saturday. For more information, please click here.
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