The Secret Life Of Nora

[OMG! I was looking through list of my posts and look what I found! Nearly a year old draft! Kalau mempelam memang busuk semerbak sebab dah lama sangat terperam]

The start of the musical. Guess who's sitting on the chair?

I consider myself a fan of anything staged. Be it a musical, play, or even a recital. I think hubs knew this little fact all along and tried to surprise me on my birthday few weeks ago [OMG again because it would be my birthday again in 3 weeks! Yikes!].

However, things took a little U-turn when I asked him so that we could pop up to my mom’s den that weekend. Whether he likes it or not he had just to blow his own surprise and told me he already booked 2 tickets for The Secret Life Of Nora (cue: awwww... So schweeet!).

Of course I would love to watch the musical so we came to a decision to go back to my hometown after we catch the show. So off we went to KL all the way from Ipoh!

We had dinner at R&R Sungai Buloh, afterwards arriving about half an hour before the musical started. Thanks to hubs perfect timing, we had no trouble finding parking space at Istana Budaya. It was my first time there and I am actually impressed we have such a grand facility for things like this. If only it will be available locally in Ipoh...

We entered the building and quickly collected our tickets at the counter before the line gets too long (a pity they can't send it via post. My experience in the UK when purchasing tickets online, you can either choose to have it delivered or self-collect). Luckily we were amongst the first ones so we had the time to fool around taking pictures left and right.

Shaky picture of us that night. Hubs was holding the program book. Haha!

At my request, hubs purchased the program book much to my delight. Thanks sweetheart! Shortly after we make our way to Level 3 where our seats were located 15 minutes before the show started and met with a wonderful surprise.

Because the musical run just started that week, there weren't so many people watching yet so the lower seat were empty and we got the chance to sit there! I was excited of course because it means closer to the stage. But hubs was a bit disappointed because he had chosen two seats at the balcony. I told hubs if ada rezeki we will come back for the balcony and he smiled (melts).

Before the show started we sneakily took out our camera and posed (taking pictures were actually not allowed once you are inside the theatre. But it's all for memories and mind you we were too occupied enjoying the show to even try to record it!).

That was the first time I saw Datin Tiara live, so are Adibah Noor, Tony Eusoff, and Aznil Nawawi. It is a little strange seeing them outside the TV but the stranger thing is, we spotted our senior from college as one of the casts! Not such a big surprise since almost everybody know he loves to perform but the last news of him that we remember, he was doing medics! I wonder how juggled between the two different worlds.

Back to the musical, the story follows Nora, who is an aspiring singer who would love to make it big in the showbiz. She was accompanied by her manager-cum-bestie Kak Tijah (played by Adibah Noor) but ended up being a spy and had to train under Agent Roger (Ryan Silverman) with help from Agent Farouk (Tony Eusoff). Together they tried to put a stop to Mr. J’s (Aznil Nawawi) illegal business and successfully do so with help of every body! Yeay~!

During the break we bumped into another senior from college with his heavily pregnant wife. It was a 'micro' reunion since there were only the three of us. There's a lot to catch up, so little time since the break only last for 20 minutes but apparently, Iedil Putra (my senior on the musical) had decided to enter the showbiz instead of doing medicine. Such a major decision there but best of luck for him! [His recent gig includes upcoming film, Ngorat which will be released in October. Do catch it!]

The musical ended at such a high note after two whimsical hours. Hubs and I enjoyed every minutes of it that we continued to hum the song while driving back to Ipoh. The songs, the choreography, the set, the costumes, the dancers, the casts, all were mesmerizing and memorable, more so on they are performing on my birthday! ^^

Before going back home, we get a real close up of the casts as they appeared at the lounge for autograph. Ryan was such a darling! He kept saying 'terima kasih' in his Canadian accented Malay. Pak Nil was in his eccentric mood, but boy wasn't he entertaining! Adibah Noor is so charming in real life, very down to earth and very sporting too!

They did a 180 degree turn for us to take picture, as per Adibah suggestion. Clever!

I would love to have their autograph but the line was getting too long and we are running late. I asked hubs to take a picture of the casts and off we go. I was so sleepy while travelling home, tired even. Pregnancy started to be in charge I think, hehe [can't believe I am at 5 months mark at the time I was writing this! Haifa was already 6 months two weeks ago. o_O ].

We arrived safely in Ipoh almost midnight so we dived straight to bed. Hubs just grinned from ear to ear as I said thank you for the surprise...

Cik Atun: Would love to catch another show at Istana Budaya sometime near future!