The sold-out magic show in the UK will have a Singapore run from March 10-19 at the Kallang Theatre.
Impossible Live In Singapore 2017 promises to take the audience through the history of magic by tracing its origins in the 16th Century to the present day.
The show’s executive producer, Mr Marcus O’Donovan, 33, told The New Paper it will involve “more story-telling rather than a variety show performance”.
He said: “Many magic shows involve just one magician who brings his act. This is more a combination of different acts.”
The six acts are Magical Bones, the street magician; Chris Cox, the mind reader; Sabine Van Diemen, the conjurer; Josephine Lee, the grand illusionist; Ben Hart, the boundary breaking magician; and Jonathan Goodwin, the daredevil escapologist.
The production company, Jamie Hendry Productions, initially spent £1.1 million (S$1.95 million) to produce the show.
Mr O’Donovan said: “We had a very good first run, so we were able to make most of that money back and then we have spent more money as we go.
WORTH THE RISK
“It is expensive to produce a show on this scale, but it is worth the risk. It has been a good journey.”
Since the show premiered in London’s West End in July 2015, it has sold more than a quarter of a million tickets, he said.
“We played four weeks in the West End, then we did a UK tour, then we did eight weeks in London again and we took it to Beirut and then to Dubai.”
Mr O’Donovan then wanted to bring the show to an Asian audience and Singapore will be the first to hold it in the region.
He said of the Republic: “Very mixed culture, a variety of people from all over the world – that seems like a good place to start to introduce it.”
He spent two years working on the magic show – a first for the production company.
Said Mr O’Donovan: “We spent a long time figuring out how to put it together and bring it to life. A lot of rehearsals, a lot of rewriting and finding the right people.
“It is not like creating a play or a musical, something we have done before. You can always change the performers because there’s always another actor or singer.
“With this, these skills are their own skills. We don’t know how they do some of the magic.”
That is, except for the big illusions, which require a lot of rehearsing, machinery and purpose-built structures.
He said: “We have to build things specifically to make it work. Some of (the magic tricks) – we don’t know how they are done. But some we do. And we would never tell anyone.
“We have to keep it that way because we have to have the respect for the magicians as it is their trick, their craft, their living. We have to allow them that privacy.
“It’s magic, remember.”
FYI
WHAT: Impossible Live in Singapore 2017
WHERE: Kallang Theatre
WHEN: March 10 to March 19, 7.30pm on Friday and Saturday, 2pm on Saturday and Sunday
TICKETS: $38 to $168 from Sistic (6348-5555 or www.sistic.com.sg). This month, enjoy a 28 per cent discount off regular ticket prices when you purchase a minimum of three and up to eight Cat 1 or 2 matinee tickets in a single transaction.
This article was first published on MONTH DAY, 2017.
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