Credits: Loretta Lee for 1st night review, Yan for initial story summary, and Chueng Chai for some of the purchased picture.
Page Contents: 1. SWL History
2. Sandy interview before performance
3. Review. What's in SWL and how did it go?
4. After Party for the first show: one Sandy didn't attend
5. Story summary of SWL
6. Farewell sequence of SWL
7. Photos of SWL
8. Recording of all SWL songs (with URL)
9. Mishaps of SWL
10. Total shows increased to 43. Sandy in all of them!
11. Sandy injured!
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History of SWL, and Sandy's involvement
Jacky Chueng's musical "Snow Wolf Lake" was one of the biggest event in HK, or at least in the music industry: for it represents the first big scaled musical in Hong Kong's history. At the very beginning, Jacky has said that he does not want to cast a big star into the role, and so Yim Wei was casted.
Not long before the musical opens, the are rumours there Yim Wei was simply receiving too much pressure, and cannot handle the situation properly. Since the female lead calls for dancing, acting and several songs with extreme high pitches, Jacky immediately thought of calling Sandy to help. However, Sandy was in US recording her English album at that time, so he turned his focus to Cass Peng in HK. While the HK press thought that the lead would indeed be changed to Cass, another rumour leaked out: the role would go to Sandy. That is because Cass has a contract for a concert later that year, and cannot resolved that. Jacky personally called Sandy and asked for her help. Sandy was in the US recording her Mandarin album at this time, but she told him she will be back to help if it's really an emergency.
That was at the beginning of March. Approaching mid-March, Sandy returns to HK and took the role, for her friendship with Jacky, and for her love for music. That means abandoning her Mandarin album, a great loss to Rock, her record company. However, they support and respect Sandy's decision. And now, Sandy's playing at least the first ten shows of SWL, but everyone hopes she can make all 38, including Mrs Chan.
Sandy Interview before performance
Sandy has finally talked to reported in HK concerning SWL. According to a report in Singtao Electronic Daily (25/3), Sandy was touched by the fact that reporters crowded outside the stadium for her in cold wind, and so went out and took interviews.
Sandy indicated that she's a little nervous, but pressure is virtually non-existence. She said that she has been busy rehersing with the group for the entire time back in HK. When asked about her feelings for the musical, Sandy said that at the moment she hasn't got any feelings concerning SWL yet, but would have after the show opens.
Even though she cannot say how many shows she will be doing (especially considering the fact that she has a lot of work to do for her Mandarin album), she's working in harmony with all the other staff, and they frequently asked whether she would be performing in all 38 shows. "She's wonderful!" they all claimed.
During the interview Sandy was asked whether she considers this her career peak, and she answered: "No. I am only hoping that we have fun doing the show; I have not thought about creating peaks for my career. This time I'm willing to perform, mainly because of Jacky, but also because this is Hong Kong's first musical, and because of my love in music generally."
The original article can be viewed here:
http://www.singtao.com/news/tue/0325fo06.html
Review of 1st Night's Performance
A first hand report from Loretta. According to her, Sandy did a great job in the 1st night SWL, singing 9 songs in total: 2 solo, 4 duet and 3 with the whole company. According to the photos available from various papers, all of Sandy's dresses were red, and in noble style.
The show was devided into two parts. The first part features Sandy to a great extent, with her appearing nearly the entire time. The second part, however, only features 2 songs from Sandy. The pitch of the songs were said to be really high! Loretta said Sandy handled them with ease, which is not surprising. Sandy also danced well. A little glitch in the first night however: during one of the fast dances, Sandy's dress button went lose and the dress sliped down. But since Sandy's used to big shows and life performances, she immediately held up the dress, went to the back row and fixed it up.
In Loretta's point of view, Sandy's singing and dancing was great, but she couldn't get used to Sandy's acting. One possible reason suggested was because the role of Sandy is a young little girl. Also, in this show, we can see sandy wearing the kind of dresses we can rarely saw it before, it make her looks an 18 years old girl.
Sandy was not included in the brochure, as suggested by Mrs Chan in an earlier report, but her name has been included in an added leaflet included in the booklet as a guess actress. The leaflet has also a brief history of Sandy's career (but in my opinion not very complete, stopping in 1992). Loretta has scanned it and put it in her homepage.
http://logic.csc.cuhk.edu.hk/~s956385/sandy/leaflet.jpg
Full report on first day's performance available from Apple Daily:
http://www.appledaily.com.hk/apple.cgi?docid=ent/970329
After Party for the first show: one Sandy didn't attendIn the party, Mrs Chan said she felt that Sandy had performed very well, and that she thought the decision to ask Sandy to play was very wise. She said Sandy will at least play the first ten performances. Though, she said, "frankly, I would like her to do all 38".
Wondered why you don't hear about Sandy's credits? Ivan Chan heard a radio segment interviewing Jacky on the morning of 30th March. According to Ivan, when the interviewer asked Jacky about Sandy's performance, Jacky said there is no need to say cos all of the working team & audience already known she did a really great job. Jacky quoted the comments about Sandy form all his working team & friends also. The common comment is: "Did Sandy really only had one week to prepare this big project? She is really really a talented artist!"
Jacky also praised Sandy on the show for her sophisticated singing & dancing skills which made the show running smoothly. Finally, like Mrs Chan, he also hoped that Sandy can help him finish this 38-night project.
Also Concerning Sandy's performance, we see MingPao Daily's report (Sunday), claiming that even though Sandy has just a few weeks, from her experience and skills, both her singing and acting were extremely well.
Original articles concerning the party:
http://www.mingpao.com/newspaper/970330/ma709.htm and
http://www.singtao.com/news/sun/0330fo01.html ("Sandy's Disappearance Act")
Story summary of SWLCasting and General Plot
The role allocations of SWL: Sandy Lam as "Ling Zhen She" (aka Ah Snow), Jacky Chueng as "Wu Long" (aka Ah Wolf), and Kit Chan as "Yuk Fung" (aka Ah Fung), Ah Snow (Sandy)'s elder sister. Michael Tsz plays the part of the richman who loves Ah Snow very much (name unconfirmed, called Michael here).
A modern day Romeo and Juliet, with a Love Triangle. The basic break down: Snow loves Wolf, but cannot marry him because of her family. Wolf wanted to find Snow, while Fung's in love with him without him realising.
Act One
Snow in the musical is described as a very kindhearted girl. She met Wolf in a party helf by her own wealthy family, while Wolf is a gardener working there.
When the party ended,Snow's mother made a cut on Wolf's hand, so Snow gave Wolf a little piece of her cloth to bandaid and protect his hand.
Next time when they meet, Snow is carrying a violin because she loves playing the volin and she wanted to study volin in Vienna, when she told her wish to Wolf in the garden the audience could observe a young girl in love, with Snow's facial expressions suggesting that she has fallen in love with Wolf, and loves him very much.
Yet alas, good things don't last in fairy tales, and Snow's family has fallen from their financial position to have become poor. And for that reason, Snow's mother wanted Snow to be married to Michael, so the family can once again enjoy the rich lifestyle.However Snow Loves Wolf very much, so what they did, the family lie to Snow and told her that Wolf had died. Losing all hope, Snow got married and live together with Michael in Vienna.
Act Two
While Snow and Michael are living in Vienna, Wolf was taken into prision. But because of Wolf's personality there was great hostility between the police and him, resulting in Wolf being hurt by the police. They also informed Wolf, when he was in jail, that Snow has married Michael. Poor Wolf was extremely depressed upon hearing this. At the point, a mysterious old man appears (much like the common man in Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons), telling Wolf that if he has love in his heart, anything is possible for him to achieve.
Fung (Snow's sister) enters, and we could tell that she loves Wolf, but Wolf didn't understand her love, for he heart is already wholly devoted to Snow.
For a living, Fung and Wolf sell flowers in the market: and one day, when Snow's mother had become poor again (despite Snow's marriage), she met Fung andWolf. Snow's mother was extremely angry, and blamed Wolf for making Snow an unfaithful wife. She told them that while Snow is now married to Michael, she had not been happy and did not for once smile. Snow's mother said that the sole reason for her sending Snow abroad was because of Wolf, and now, he's hitting on her other daughter, Fung! The mother hated Wolf really much.
Snow was thinking of Wolf all time in Vienna.Wolf had this dream that snow had been taken by some monster; and So, decided to go and find Snow. When he arrived in Vienna,he looked everywhere, and finally he found Snow performing the volin, and said" Ah Snow". She heard him but she ran away. After that, Wolf could no longer locate Snow, until suddenly, a newspaper boy claim that "a famous volin lady Snow had been killed by her husband." The news broke Wolf's heart. It is here when the mysterious old man appears again, and he magically help wolf to rewind the time back to the past, before Snow was killed.
The scene changs to Snow's home, to a time before she was killed. She ask her husband why he lied to her and told her that Wolf had die. Michael was very angry that snow thinking of wolf, and he start hitting her! Michael said to her. " If I can't have you, I won't let Wolf have you either", and he wanted to kill Snow with his bare hands. Wolf has arrived at this crucial moment, and they began to fight.
Michael take out a gun, and shot Snow.
After killing the only person he loves, he realised what he has done... "Why? Why did I kill the only love in my life?" After that he ran out of the house and disappearedy.
Wolf sits at the side of Snow, dying. He looks into his lover's eyes, as she begins to depart this world. The two of them held eachother. Snow said with her last breath:
"Let me remember this second forever..."
Others who has correction to make on any information provided on this page, or has more details, please email me at yanson@cheerful.com and let us all know what it's about!
Farewell Sequence of SWLAccording to C.H. Mak, there was no second "thank you scene" (Jie Mok), because the show was simply too long. First, they have the supporting cast (Yan Wei now included) all dressed in white and sing "Love is Forever" for the 4th time, then Jacky comes out and sing it AGAIN. Then, they introduced the main characters in the following order: The prison guards (simply aweful), the mother, Michael Tze, Kit Chan, Sandy Lam, and then Jacky again. As these people come out, the orchestra plays their themes too.
The whole thing lasts for at least 10 minutes. They also stand there waving and thanking for like 3 minutes, so there's really nobody interested to clap anymore after 10 minutes of clapping.
Photos of SWLBefore the opening of the musical, it was announced that photography is prohibited, both for the press and for normal audiences. However, the first night of SWL was still photographed by a lot of people, including bootleggers who was so efficient, that they had photos for sell immediately after the first night of the performance.
Lee Kai Chueng had purchased some of these photos, and would like to share it with us on his page: http://www.ie.cuhk.edu.hk/~kclee2/Sandy
More new photos scanned in by C. Y. Tang, and is available in the following URL:
http://hp735c.csc.cuhk.edu.hk/~yin/sandy/gallery/swl.html
Recording of all SWL songsGood news. A devoted lover of SWL has created a web site full of nice photos of the show, but a soundclip for every song sang! They are loud and comparatively clear.
Visit the SWL site at: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/8298/
Some songs are available thanks to an anonymous individual. These soundclips, including songs sang by Sandy in SWL, and duets of Sandy and Jacky, are provided for your evaluation purposes only. No commercial use is allowed and all rights of the songs belong to Pologram Records.
Download them at: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6933/swl.html
Other sound clips: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6909/sclips.html (94 mini concert)
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/9791/index.html (CR2)According to East Week, Sandy is now under physiotherapy for her leg's old lesion. Oh well, I'm certain that Sandy will recover. Get well soon!
Following the accident which occured on the 5th night of SWL, where a dancer falls from a 3 feet platform, the press' attention again focused on the musical. Luckily, the dancer is fine now, and no one in the audience realised that occured. This is reported in the Apple Daily on 3rd April, and SingTao Daily the day before that.
The article we recommend to read:
http://www.singtao.com/news/thu/0403fo01.html
Sandy in all 43 shows of SWL, breaks records.On a press conference Thursday 17th April, SWL officials announced an addition 5 shows making the total 43, breaking a record for the numbers of consecutive shows being shown in the HK coliseum. Sandy is also confirmed to be with the production until the very end.
Original article: http://www.singtao.com/news/fri/0418fo01.html
It was also reported that, since Sandy doesn't want to delay the releasing of her Mandarin album she would be recording and concurrently doing SWL at the same time.
The original articles can be found at:
http://www.appledaily.com.hk/pages/970407/entr203_r.htm
Attention: Sandy injured!Here's an urgent message from Janet:
" Important ...... my contact just came back after watching SWL on the 7.04.97 , (though its been 1 week ) , she told me that Sandy is almost "dry" due to SWL thus the hoarse voice which you guys mentioned about .
Accordingly , when she visited her backstage to help us send Sandy some flowers, birthday wishings etc, Sandy was too weak & tired already, that she could have breakdown anytime .
Besides, ....... you won't believe it ; only ppl behind stage can verify this ..... Sandy SUFFERED BRUISES & INJURIES ALL OVER HER BODY ESPECIALLY ON HER LIMBS, ( I sincerely felt so sorry for her, I think you folks will too .) coz of the part being beat up, pushed ill-treated etc. by Michael's character, SHE LOOKED VERY PATHETIC WITH THE INJURIES
BUT audience just cannot see it on stage . Her role is really no easy task compared to Kit's, thus I felt unjust for Sandy while the media did not give her enough credits/coverage even for the reporters & Dj of S'pore who had just been to the show ! Her leg is severely hurt due to the vigorous actions involved but well camourflage on stage .
Can fans who are attending SWL in the following nights send all our regards & best wishes to her , pls get as much of fresh fruits( baskets if possible ) / strawberries (her favourite ) as well as bottles of Evian Mineral Water to her if possible instead of flowers , I think it will be more constructive coz fruits contains alot of vitamin C which she need most NOW !!!
I will definitely get all these to her if I am not tied down by the exams, no joke abt that !!!
Pls can anyone just do the favor for us & our beloved Sandy !!!!"
