What exactly lies beneath the exterior of that cool, calm & composed soulman whom we know as Taufik Batisah? Check out the following sections to learn more about the man.
Taufik featured in Straits Times Home: 26 Apr 2010
Fried Rice Heats Up
Fried Rice Paradise, starring popular local singer Taufik Batisah, is a high-sheen, star-studded production commissioned by the People's Association (PA) to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
A REVIVAL of a Dick Lee musical has sold 12,000 tickets even before it has offically gone on sale on Sistic.
Fried Rice Paradise, starring popular local singer Taufik Batisah, is a high-sheen, star-studded production commissioned by the People's Association (PA) to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
The show, which is produced by the Singapore Repertory Theatre, runs at the Esplanade Theatre from Aug 20 for three weeks. So far, holders of the PAssion card can buy tickets.
Ticket sales for the public start on Saturday. There are more than 30,000 tickets left. Part of the production's draw is Taufik, who is making his theatrical debut in this play. He will play the role of Johan, a hardworking and helpful guy-next-door living in 1970s Jalan Calamansi, the fictional street where the musical is set.
The female lead is Denise Tan, who plays Bee Lean, who wants to revamp her father's (Lim Yu-Beng) noodle shop. Together with her friends Girly Danker (Candice Rozario) and Johan, she hopes to attract more customers with her mother's famous fried rice recipe. But their plans may be foiled by a sleazy nightclub operator and his son, who plan to transform Jalan Calamansi into an entertainment hub.
The rest of the multi-ethnic cast includes Broadway Beng Sebastian Tan, veteran singer Rahimah Rahim and jazz singer Alemay Fernandez.
Taufik, who was the first Singapore Idol in 2004, tells Life after a press conference yesterday,”I’m always game for something new. I’ve been in the entertainment industry six years now starting out with English songs and then going into the Malay market. Now I’m doing English musical. That’s pretty exciting.”
The 29-year-old may have no prior experience, but he is not too fazed about being in a cast of professional actors. “I used to watch Yu-Beng in Triple 9,”he says, referring to the long-running police serial on Channel 5 in 1990s. “I’m the baby in the cast. But I’m like a sponge absorbing everything.”
He will be transported back to the 1970s in the musical, which has been substantially overhauled by playwright Lee, who is also the artistic director of PA Talents, the cultural and musical arm of the grassroots organisation.
At the press conference, Lee 53, says Fried Rice Paradise started as a stand-alone song he wrote for Talentime in 1974. It was only in 1991 that he built a successful musical around it.
He has also changed the story for the new version; introducing new characters and fleshing out the plot. It used to be a simpler tale about how the owner of a fried rice empire tries to determine which of her two daughters will succeed her.
The music is also new. Only the title song, Fried Rice Paradise, is kept. He has also added two of his classic songs, Mustapha and Rasa Sayang.
On the revival, he says: “I’m very proud as a writer. You want your work to live on. In the 1980s, I felt that we have no folk songs. I wanted to write music that would become folk songs later.
“I feel that Fried Rice Paradise has become part of Singapore consciousness. Maybe 100 years later it will become an opera.” 
Back To Newspaper Articles
Copyright © 2010 TaufikBatisah.net All Rights Reserved.