Victor/Victoria

Caught this musical last night starring Laura Fygi, and well, I would say it wasn't too bad, though not exceedingly fantastic.

The story is about a woman (Victoria) who goes to Paris wanting to make it big as a singer. At the suggestion of an acquaintance-turned-friend, she masquerades as a man, masquerading as a woman (female impersonator), which makes him/her the toast of town as people thought she was a superb female impersonator. She falls in love with a man (King Marchan), who also falls in love with him/her (he's not gay, but was actually convinced she was not a man though he had his doubts at 1 point), but she couldn't exactly reveal herself to be a woman due to her career. She had to choose between that or true love. She chose true love in the end...anyway she was exposed eventually.

I would say the story was rather interesting. There were quite a number of funny parts. After all, it was meant to be a comedy. I particularly liked the scene when the King sneaked into Victoria's apartment trying to find out if she was a man or woman, followed by his bodyguard looking for him. There was a whole lot of choreography such that no one gets discovered sneaking around while Victoria and her friend came back home (King & Victoria were staying in the next room to each other in a hotel with connecting doors). That was quite good coz the timing was crucial. However, I felt the "gay" theme was pretty much over-played although I think that's the gist of the whole story, almost everyone seemed gay, except the 2 main leads who were thought to be gay but actually were not. Well, "Gay Paris".

Music-wise, it didn't exactly enrapture me, though the songs were not too bad. I felt it didn't feel "musical" enough. Maybe the sound wasn't so good from where I sat, or the setting, or something. Ok, there were some songs that seemed more memorable like Le Jazz Hot, Almost A Love Song, If I Were A Man and Victor/Victoria. But nothing that is like the theme song.

How will I rate it? Maybe a 7 out of 10.