70s/80s TVB fans take note! Those of you who miss TVB’s famous long-running flagship variety show “Enjoy Yourself Tonight” (known as E.Y.T for short), which ran for 27 years (from November 1967 to October 1994) are in for a treat – one of the most popular skits from the show is coming to a theater near you! Well, sort of….
Long time TVB fans may remember “The Shrimp Family (蝦仔爹哋)”, a hilarious skit within the E.Y.T. program that starred veteran comedic actor Lo Hoi Pang, comedic (and serious) actress Meg Lam, singer/actor Louie Castro, singer/actor Tam Bing Mun, and actresses Jamie Chik, Helena Law, and Sandra Ng (main cast) plus cameos from many famous HK stars throughout the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. The skit played out live in front of audiences every week (the E.Y.T. program aired every night, Monday to Friday, back then) and much of the dialogue was ad-libbed right on the spot by the actors and actresses (especially the immensely talented and funny Lo Hoi Pang) each time.
I pretty much grew up watching E.Y.T. and I remember laughing so hard at the skits (especially “The Shrimp Family”) that my insides would hurt afterwards! And it was definitely a lot of fun to see which famous celebrity would ‘guest star’ each time and also see how Lo Hoi Pang would make up dialogue on the spot and ‘trick’ the other artists, causing them to burst out laughing instead of saying their lines (that’s the beauty of doing the skit live!). The skit was definitely one of the highlights of E.Y.T. and will go down in HK entertainment history as one of the “classic” skits of all time.
As a treat for us ‘old-timer’ fans, the cast of “The Shrimp Family” will be re-uniting next this month (September 20th to 23rd) and the skit will be turned into a stage play, complete with musical numbers, singing, and dancing. And that’s not all – due to Louie Castro and Jamie Chik’s connections in the industry, they have invited many of their famous friends from within the HK entertainment industry to participate in the stage play, taking on cameo roles!
In addition to the regular cast consisting of Lo Hoi Pang, Meg, Jamie, and Louie, plus ‘newer generation’ artists Hanjin Tan, Jerry Lamb, and Oscar Leung, here’s just a partial list of some of the ‘guests’ who will also be participating (I’m sure that long-time TVB watchers will recognize most, if not all, the names): Dodo Cheng, Teresa Mo, Felix Wong, Michael Miu, Eric Tsang, Nat Chan, Susanna Kwan, Annie Liu, Elvina Kong, Michelle Yim, Yu Mo Lian, and Mak Jing Ting (formerly known as Mak Lai Hung). It was recently announced that a few famous singers will also join the cast with cameo roles, including Eason Chan, Miriam Yeung, and Sammi Cheng.
Wow such a stellar veteran cast and so many great guest stars, this will definitely be an awesome event! Just reading the cast list and seeing all of the ‘behind the scenes’ pictures (as well as reading all the articles and posts on Weibo) already made me feel as though I have been transported back to the ‘Golden Era’ of the 1980s and definitely brings back so many awesome memories! My only regret is that I don’t live in HK, so I won’t be able to watch the stage play live (darn!) – I guess all I can do is read up on it and also hope (more like pray hard) that they will end up doing a tour of sorts and perhaps come to the U.S. to perform (pretty please with a cherry on top?!?!?!). NOTE TO THOSE WHO LIVE IN HK: If you’re a long-time TVB fan and/or HK entertainment follower, you have to go watch this!
Anyway, here are a few pictures from the behind the scenes dress rehearsals and practices in preparation for the ‘main event’ in a few weeks (courtesy of Louie Castro’s Weibo).
There will definitely be more follow up posts to come on this...but in the meantime, enjoy!!
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All Photos credited as listed.
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