DREAMERS

Dear Editor, Taisiderata Blog City:

I know I am in the minority here when I state that I really liked the
musical "Dreamers," but to be honest, I watched the show on TV the
night it was performed in Taichung, and I loved
every minute of it.

Call me sentimental, call me romantic, call me late for dinner, but I loved the show and found myself laughing in some parts and
tearing
up in other parts and even standing up in my living room at home at
the end and applauding. I don't understand why so many critics from
both the green camp and the blue
camp wrote such scathing reviews in newspapers and magazines. It seems
some members of the DPP hated the show for their own reasons, and it
seems that some members of the KMT
also hated the show for other reasons. I don't understand what all the
fuss is all about. I watched a powerful musical drama unfold that
night and I was touched. Sometimes art trumps
politics, not always, but sometimes. In this case, I give "Dreamers" a
thumbs up, two thumbs up!

I came to the show on television as a non-Taiwanese man wanting to
know more about
Taiwan history, and I feel the show delivered the goods and gave me my
money's worth. By juxtaposing two stories and interweaving
the ideas of the old generation and young people in one rousing
musical show, I felt Stan Lai did a very good job. The music was
superb, the sets were eye-catching, the songs were lovely (even if a
bit
sentimental) and the drama going on on stage was very easy to follow
with the extremely well-written English subtitles that appeared on my
TV screen. Whoever wrote the subtitles in English deserves a round of
applause as well.

Okay, I am in the minority here, but I, for one, was captivated. For
me, the touching melodies and the plot that mixed history and family
dramas into a moving two-hour show gave me a nice sentimental feeling.
Sometimes sentiment is okay.

I didn't watch the show from the point of view of any political party,
and I had no idea at the time about the shady finances or the
backstage dealings involved. I came to show
as a non-Taiwanese TV viewer and stood up and applauded at home when
it was over. It was that good. I was that touched by the finale and
the entire show. Bravo, Stan Lai!

By portraying how young people of two different generations in Taiwan
pursued their dreams, the musical worked for me. Was I the only one
who applauded? Did I see the
same show the critics saw? Maybe not.

Sincerely,

Art Fann,
Kenting
US expat in Taiwan