Titled Upin & Ipin PIN PIN POM!, the musical will be held from May 28 to June 6 in Jakarta, Bandung in West Java and Surabaya in East Java.

In Jakarta, Upin & Ipin PIN PIN POM! will be performed on May 30-31 at JIEXpo Kemayoran as part of the 2020 Jakarta Fair.

The musical will then head to the House Convention Hall in Bandung and the Grand City Convention and Exhibition in Surabaya. 

Created by Malaysia-based production house Les’ Copaque Production, Upin & Ipin PIN POM! follows the story of the twins as they discover a magical stone in their village.

The stone is owned by the wicked Nenek Kebayan, and the twins are tasked to defeat her with their magical power to save their village. 

In the musical, Upin and Ipin will be accompanied by their close friends, who regularly appear in the series, including the bossy Ehsan, the clever Mei, young entrepreneur Mail and their friends from Indonesia, Susanti. 

The show will also feature other characters, such as kindergarten teacher Miss Melati, the twins’ older sister Kak Ross, the twins’ wise and gentle grandmother Opah and their neighbor, Atok Dalang.

Nur Naquyah Burhanuddin, the production house’s creative content director, is one of the musical’s scriptwriters. He said the performance’s title originated from an episode where Upin and Ipin are heroes in a magical world. 

“Their chant [in the episode] is ‘Pin pin pom’, so we took it as the main theme for the musical,” Naquyah said during a press conference on Thursday in South Jakarta. “We don’t want it to be frightening for kids. We want it to be fun, entertaining and educational.”

Read also: New ‘Upin & Ipin’ movie is most expensive Malaysian film ever

Keith of Biz Entertainment (left), managing director of Les' Copaque Production Haji Burhanuddin Md Radzi (second left), executive producer of Les' Copaque Production Hajah Ainon Ariff (second right) and creative content director of Les' Copaque Production Nur Naquyah Burhanuddin (right) during a press conference for 'Upin & Ipin PIN PIN POM!' on March 12 in South Jakarta. (Courtesy of Les' Copaque Production/-)

This is the first time the 90-minute musical will be staged outside Malaysia. Burhanuddin said Indonesians were among the biggest audience of Upin & Ipin.

“This is our show of appreciation for our fans in Indonesia,” he said. 

During its Indonesian tour, the musical will also be staged in Yogyakarta, details of which will be announced soon. 

“We plan to use this moment as our world tour. We’re still looking for the possibility for the musical to be staged in Jeddah [Saudi Arabia] and London,” Burhanuddin said. 

Tickets for Upin & Ipin PIN PIN POM! are now available, with prices starting from Rp 550,000 (US$36.98) in Jakarta and Rp 350,000 in Bandung and Surabaya. 

Upin & Ipin is known as a spin-off from the Les’ Copaque Production’s first feature film Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula (Geng: The Beginning of the Adventure) in 2007.

At the time, Haji Burhanuddin and his wife, Hajah Ainon, had an idea to create a story about fasting during the Ramadan month and the twins were chosen as the main characters as they were “easy to model and animate”.

The series went on to gain fame, and the 3D animated film Upin & Ipin: The Lone Gibbon Kris (2019) was among the 32 animated series submitted for consideration at the 2019 Academy Awards for the Animated Feature category. 

In Indonesia, the series has aired at local TV station MNCTV since 2010. 

The 14^th season of Upin & Ipin is currently in production. (wng)

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Editor's note:

Paragraph two in this article has been corrected.