'That was an incredible time to be alive': Adrian Pang and Kit Chan on their favourite period in Singapore history

If you could go back in time to any era in Singapore’s history, what would you like to see? Would you like to go back to independence in 1965 or all the way to the discovery of Temasek by Sang Nila Utama?

Kit Chan’s favourite period in Singapore’s past is actually the 1970s during her childhood.

“I spent a lot of time in Chinatown during that time. I'm so glad I had that opportunity when you still had all the original stalls out there and everything was just so fun,” she told AsiaOne in a recent interview.

She’s also glad she got to see the city transform from third world to first.

“I had a really happy childhood and then saw the whole city transform,” the 49-year-old singer and actress reminisced. “Then we called it ‘newly industrialised’. I find that not many people can say you witnessed all that growth in one lifetime.

“And I’m not even done with this life yet!”

Adrian Pang, however, picked the 1980s because of all the crazy fashion trends of the time, because, as the 56-year-old theatre veteran joked, he wasn’t born yet in the 1970s.

“I was just gonna say the ‘80s because of the fashion, and you come up with something deep like that,” he retorted to Kit. “Looking back now, the fashion in the ‘80s was absolutely ridiculous, and I was a victim of the trends myself at that time.”

He’s glad those trends are making a comeback. “My sons who are in their 20s are dressing up like I used to, so I should have kept all my baggy jeans,” he added.

On a serious note, Adrian agreed with Kit about the 1970s and ‘80s being a pivotal point in Singapore history.

“I think that period of Singapore's history was of such tremendous growth, development and evolution. I don't think we've witnessed that kind of rapid growth as we did back then,” he said. “So that was an incredible time to be alive.”

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Adrian and Kit are bringing us further back in the history of modern Singapore, playing the late Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo in The LKY Musical. The theatre show covers over two decades of Singapore’s history, from the Japanese occupation, merger and riots, up until the independence of Singapore.

In the cast’s first rehearsal on Aug 3, we were treated to behind-the-scenes presentations and previews of many of the musical numbers, including So Simple, a duet between Adrian and Kit.

It’s a touching love song about Lee taking his wife’s behind-the-scenes support for granted and Adrian described it to AsiaOne as “a stolen look into their private life together”.

The musical run also coincides with two important milestones: Kit turns 50 on Sept 15 and Lee would have turned 99 on Sept 16. 

Previews for The LKY Musical start Sept 7 at Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands. Tickets can be purchased on the Singapore Repertory Theatre website. 

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drimac@asiaone.com