Abstract:

This study suggests the role of live musical theatre performance as a method of docutainment in the transmission of musical, historical and cultural elements based on the case of Dama Orchestra. Through participant-observation since 2001, we discuss how Malaysia Dama Orchestra educates its audience through a series of live musical performances. At first glance productions by Dama may seem to commoditized musical performances, especially considering its change in performing context as a strategy to survive the economic crisis in 1997 when the concept of its performance depart from a Chinese orchestra concert to one re-contextualized as a musical theatre performance that has garnered success in both patronage and reception. By employing the concept of docutainment in its shidaiqu theatrical performances since 1997, from the popular musical performances emphasizing Malaysian history in In Perfect Harmony (2011), to the more recent rockutainment in Rocking Broadway (2019), Dama has employed an approach that includes a narrator, theatrical elements, and research, to present historicized musical culture of a docutainment nature.

Keywords:

Docutainment, musical theatre, learning tool, Dama Orchestra.