Deborah Lau

Category: Overture

  • Cats Cats Cats Cats Cats!!!

    Cats is undeniably one of the all-time great 20th century musicals. Having run for a record breaking 21 years in London’s West End, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s translation of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats book to stage theatre is a must-see show for any musical theatre nut worth their playbills. So I was…

  • The Aptitude/Passion Disconnect – Being Good At Something You Don’t Like

    Many people spend their lives wishing they were good at something. They look at people who are good at that something and they envy them. And because of that, it is not socially acceptable for someone to dislike something they are good at, since they will inevitably cop a backlash of “How can you say…

  • [Catching up] NYC – Jan 20, 2008: Times Square, 42nd Street and Rent

    This is a repost of an old blog entry I made during my stay in New York City as an exchange student to New York University at the beginning of 2008. That single semester was the most incredible four months and has changed my life more than I could possibly imagine. Rent is a through-composed…

  • The “I Might As Well” Trap – Confusing Sunk Costs, Incremental Costs and Opportunity Costs

    If you’re a fairly easy-going person, chances are you’ve used the phrase “Oh, I might as well” before. Once or twice usually isn’t a problem. It becomes a problem when once or twice turns into every so often which inevitably becomes every time. “I might as well” is probably one of the reasons why I’m…

  • Andre Rieu’s “Romantic Night in Vienna”

    This is a repost of an old blog entry I made after my friend and I went to see Andre Rieu during his tour of Australia in the spring/summer of 2008. While he may not be to everyone’s tastes, I admire him for his showmanship and his ability to make a living doing what he…

  • The Phaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantom of the Opera is heerrrrre!!

    This is a repost of an old blog entry I made during my stay in New York City as an exchange student to New York University at the beginning of 2008. That single semester was the most incredible four months and has changed my life more than I could possibly imagine. The Phantom of the…

  • The Chinese Tradition Trap – Failure Is Not An Option

    It’s taken for granted that at least once in your life, you will do a whole lot of soul searching and wonder “Who am I and what am I doing here?” Sometimes this crisis happens very late in life (the “mid-life crisis”), sometimes people are really pro-active and start asking as soon as they can…

  • “What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?”

    It’s a question we get asked a lot as little kids, perhaps in kindergarten or even pre-school, not just by our friends, classmates or teachers but family, parents and the world at large. Answers vary from the “ordinary” (“I’m going to be a teacher/nurse/business person!”) to the exotic (“I’m going to be a firefighter/pilot/famous!”) and…

Search

Popular Posts

  • Jazz and Arancini

    This is a post where I discuss the story behind my solo piano work Jazz and Arancini which I premiered at the Composers Collective Spring 2015 concert. You can skip the reflection and go straight to the background on this piece, the audio and video recordings or program notes. April’s been a pretty emotional month…

  • Another Year, Another City

    I am seriously unstable. I can hear you thinking now, “Deb, there’s no way you’re unstable. You’re: a) married; b) you’ve been at the same job since high school; and c) you have this crazy twenty-year plan to boot.” I can see why you would be confused. Allow me to observe that I am twenty-eight…

  • A Tale of Two Generations

    Recently, Sarah and I have been working on the opening number to our show, which is tentatively titled Graduation Day. Planning to do our opening number tmr @MTFmusicals's Factory Salon tomorrow w/@AdamGwon – a fan since I saw Ordinary Days @darlotheatre! — Deborah Lau | Paper Tiger YouTube channel (@DeborahLau) March 26, 2015 We recently…

Categories

Archives

Tags

andrew lloyd webber (2) annotations (2) asian (1) balance (1) birthdays (1) broadway (4) career (7) cello (2) chinese culture (3) choices (4) composers collective (4) concert (4) dilemma (2) dreams (10) goals (2) growing old (2) happiness (2) instrumental (3) learning (3) life (3) love (4) marriage (3) moving (3) nyc (5) opportunity (4) passion (3) piano (3) review (3) school (3) shows (4) songwriting (10) stage fright (1) start up (1) stephen flaherty (2) stephen sondheim (2) study (3) sydney (1) too busy (1) valentine's day (1) validation (1) voice (1) waiting (1) wishes (1) work (5) [untitled musical] (3)