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Jazz star Laura Fygi to hit Singapore stage
2009-04-03
SINGAPORE (AFP) - International jazz star Laura Fygi is all set for her acting debut in Singapore later this year when she stars in the local production of the hit musical "Victor/Victoria". The Dutch singer known for her soulful renditions of classic ballads said acting requires more discipline, but she found it difficult to turn down the opportunity to star in her favorite musical. In "Victor/Victoria", based on an Oscar-winning 1982 movie starring Julie Andrews that was later adapted as a Broadway musical, Fygi plays a struggling British singer pretending to be a female impersonator in a Parisian cabaret in the 1930s. All it took was three days for Fygi to say yes to Singapore-based Zebra Crossing Productions when they approached her last year via a surprise email asking if she was keen to star in the show. "I have been asked a few times to do a musical... they were not really musicals I like to play in," Fygi told AFP in an interview Wednesday during a visit to Singapore. "So when Zebra Crossings wrote me with Victor/Victoria, I thought 'this is it, this is really my favorite musical'," she said. Fygi and her family did research on the Internet to find out more about the Singaporean production house before starting negotiations and committing to the musical, which opens in November. "I understand that if you have a production like this, you need a long time to rehearse and I needed them to know that I cannot be away too long," said Fygi, who will turn 54 in August. "It's something I can't do." Will her fans be just as receptive seeing Fygi -- who has sold over one million albums including her biggest record "The Lady Wants To Know" -- acting in a musical? "I am going to sing with my own voice so that won't change," said Fygi. "They've got a few beautiful ballads and I really can relate to those beautiful ballads... I am going to sing them my way, the way Laura Fygi sings." How different is acting in a musical from being a solo performer on stage? "For me, it requires more discipline because I am not used to it," said Fygi. When performing solo onstage, Fygi said she can decide "when to start that song, what to say to the audience, whether I want to dance or not, whether I want to pick up a guy from the audience..." In a musical, she has to follow the script and work with an entire cast. "Now you are with a whole team, you have to work with each other and cannot just say something that comes up," said Fygi.
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