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‘Rara J’: Traditional folktale gets musical makeover for the internet generation
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Musical Rara J is a tale of old infused with modern influences, cranked up to eleven with tongue firmly in cheek.
What do you do when you want to present a traditional folktale familiar to most Indonesians, but at the same time highlight it in a way that is relevant to today’s technology-driven society?
Enter Rara J, Indonesia Kaya’s latest musical in its #MusikalDiRumahAja (#MusicalAtHome) series.
Combining both theater and film, Rara J is directed by theater directors Chriskevin Adefrid and Venytha Yoshiantini in collaboration with film director Naya Anindita. The musical numbers were composed by Ivan Tangkulung, who also worked with Titien Wattimena on the script.
Like its name may imply, the musical is adapted from the famous Javanese folktale Rara Jonggrang, which explains the origin myth of Prambanan Temple situated on the border between Yogyakarta and Central Java.
However, unlike the original story, Rara J does not portray the temple’s construction and the role of supernatural beings. As a modernized take, it is a tale of content creators and social media metrics.
To put it simply, Rara J is the logical conclusion of when you combine a tale dating back to the days of monarchy and the phrase “content is king”.
The eponymous character is no longer Rara Jonggrang the princess – instead, she is now Rara J (Neala Vangelin), a makeup and beauty blogger with a large following on YouTube.
The suitor, Bandung (Daniel Ongko), has also changed jobs to get with the times. While he used to be a prince from an opposing kingdom, Bandung is now a slightly dorky hopeless romantic programmer and Rara’s next-door neighbor in their boarding house.
Also changed is the original story’s trial to win Rara’s heart. As influencers are generally not in the business of building a thousand temples overnight, the challenge, so to speak, is now in cultivating an online milestone of 1,000 viewers within an hour of livestreaming.
To reach that number, Bandung must of course enlist the help of friends, but ghosts and goblins are not necessarily what you’d associate with the internet age, barring a few notable channels.
Now, Bandung gets his help from three friends: a fitness influencer (Damien Errol Jonathans), a mukbang influencer (Aldafi Adnan), and a K-pop dance cover influencer (Zaya Fadhillah).
Rara J also does not shy away from highlighting the cancel culture of the internet generation, particularly on Twitter, where netizens are the judge, jury and executioner who can ruin someone’s reputation for good.
On its surface, Rara J feels like it might have been a committee-driven modernization of a traditional tale; cram in everything related to internet culture and hope for the best.
However, as cheesy as the premise can be, adapting Rara Jonggrang into a tale about a social media star works wonderfully as a metaphor, again because of the phrase “content is king” in today’s media landscape.
In a press conference aired after the media preview, Venytha – also the stage manager and choreographer – said the decision to cast the characters as internet figures was for a metaphor.
“The original story is set in a kingdom, where Rara Jonggrang and Bandung Bondowoso are members of royalty. Our reasoning was that these internet figures can be considered to be the kings and queens of the internet, and social media their kingdom,” she said.
According to Venytha, the original story was steeped in layers, with different versions alluding to different characterizations. In this adaptation, she continued, the audience could judge the characters’ antics for themselves, like Bandung’s slightly stalkerish behavior.
Despite the blatant infusion of internet cultures, there are traces of the original tale’s origins through the lyrics, which comes in lines describing a tale of knightly struggles or one alluding to the thousand temples.
Even the shift to modern day sensibilities is not as forced as it sounds; there are minute details that one familiar with social media would immediately pick up, like Rara’s very much metropolitan mixture of English and Indonesian in her speech, or even the one person inexplicably peddling their wares right underneath a viral Twitter thread.
The absolute highlight of Rara J, however, is of course the musical numbers. The lyrics for the melancholic segments are poetic in a way that draws on the romanticism of knights and princesses, while the more upbeat parts in the beginning can provide a laugh or several.
In a way, Rara J is a modernized cautionary tale of not making promises you can’t keep and leading someone on that feels even more relevant in today’s age. After all, your digital footprints can and might get you canceled at some point.
Rara J is available on Indonesia Kaya’s YouTube account and is the third title out of six traditional folktales adapted into musicals. Premiering on Aug. 6, it will be available to view for one week, when it will be made private to make way for the latest title.
