Review: Anak Jaksel the Musical! is A Mishmash of Nostalgia, Friendship, and Missteps

Yasmara Creation & Boss Creator’s Anak Jaksel the Musical! ran for two shows on Saturday, March 9th, 2024 at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta. This is the showrunners’ comeback show after Sumpah 100 Tahun back in 2016. An original musical about “nostalgia, love, friendship, and social issues” and looking to educate youths about “air pollution in Jakarta, ecologically friendly lifestyle and mental health issues”, the show was unfortunately mired down by trying to tack on too many things.

The show is directed by Alexander Damara, with 14 original songs by Arsyadamar Budimasyah, Felicia Caroline, and Catherine Andrea. The iconic music band Ten2Five was also featured as a guest star.

Anak Jaksel the Musical! tells the story of Vanya (Ajeng Feni), a woman who’s betrothed to her fiance, Dimas Wardhana (Risky Yakob). As part of her wedding preparation, she’s looking for the right wedding gown designer. As luck would have it, she meets Adisya (Jane Elena), a famous designer who was also Vanya’s best friend in high school.

But their reunion is far from happy. It's awkward, and even cold, due to an incident in their past that broke their friendship. The story then goes back to the 2000’s, when Vanya and Adisya first met and became quick friends. It's eventually revealed that their friendship ended because Adisya was romantically involved with Radit (Yessa Kharisma), Vanya’s crush.

As Vanya and Adisya spend more time together, they begin to mend their friendship. The two even find their shared bucket list, where they had a list of things they would like to do together as friends. They continue to check off things from the list.

But all is not well, as Jacklyn (Praylli Goldian Haman), Vanya’s coworker, begins to plot against her. Vanya has rejected Jacklyn’s proposal for a project, as it would be environmentally destructive.

Taken over by jealousy and hatred (and, apparently, a bout of depression), Jacklyn pushes the project forward, claiming that Vanya has approved it. This enrages their environmentally-minded boss, and he fires Vanya.   

Not content with just ruining Vanya’s career, Jacklyn also cheats with Vanya’s soon-to-be-husband Dimas while framing Adisya. Vanya’s Gen Z sister, Debra (Debra Tamara Pontoh), shows a video showing Adisya and Dimas together, making Vanya break things up with not only her fiance, but also her best friend.

Surprisingly, Jacklyn confesses to Vanya that she’s the one behind all the misfortunes in her life. Vanya apologizes to Adisya. Three years later, Vanya marries Radit, who comforted her during her low moments, and Adisya is there by her side as one of the bridesmaids. Everyone celebrates with a dance party.

As a show, Anak Jaksel the Musical! has a lot of good moments. The rekindling of friendship between Vanya and Adisya is a really interesting plot point and, as someone in their thirties myself, something that I can relate to; there are friendships that have fallen to the wayside, although usually just due to life in general, and not due to anything dramatic.

The musical shines the most when Vanya and Adisya are reconnecting, and the performances of both Ajeng Feni and Jane Elena serve the story well. We can sense their initial awkwardness, budding reconciliation, and a renewed, mature friendship, throughout the show.

Additionally, the musical numbers are really fun. Particularly, the dance/party scenes are vigorous, colorful, and brimming with energy that make you want to smile – or join the dance. The guest performance of Ten2Five was a lovely crowd pleaser. The duet between Vanya and Adisya was also another high point, showcasing the bittersweet complexity of their friendship. And the most memorable moment of choreography for me was the almost dreamlike ballet sequence between young Vanya and Adisya. As a whole, the cast (including the ensemble) put on solid performances.

The production design has some highs as well. The costumes are delightful, with some show-stopping dresses and outfits, including some disco-inspired suits, bright and colorful street outfits, and Vanya’s eventual wedding gown. The lighting had some good moments, such as when Vanya takes her walk down the aisle – literally, as she walks down the theatre’s aisle, with Adisya at her side, between the agape audience members. However, the lighting and blocking sometimes lacked focus, especially when there were a lot of cast members on stage.

In the Sound Department, the balancing is often a little bit off, and it’s hard to hear what the cast is saying while there’s music playing. When they’re singing, however, it’s generally pretty decent. But one notable exception is the character of Dimas, who was not audible at all for the first act, due to mic problems (which fortunately got fixed by the time of the second act).

That being said, the biggest problem of this musical doesn’t lie with the performers nor the technical side; it is in the script.

The first and most dire problem is the villain of the piece, Jacklyn. As a show purporting to educate about mental health issues, it depicts Jacklyn as a truly heinous person doing evil things due to her mental condition.

While certain mental conditions can make people commit certain things that they might not otherwise want, it is a complex issue that requires sensitivity and even-handedness in portrayal. Meanwhile, Jacklyn comes off as a spiteful person who’s proud of destroying Vanya’s life and blames it on her condition. She also claims she’s sabotaging Vanya’s life because she’s jealous of it, and because she comes from a broken home. It is very messy, takes agency away from her, and might leave the audience with a bad taste in their mouth.

The script does pay lip service to the issue; Vanya mentions that Jacklyn should take her medications, and Dimas says that she should seek professional help as Jacklyn desperately clings to his legs. As a highly public show with a stated intent to highlight mental health issues, this writing is reductive and potentially even destructive. An impressionable person might leave the show thinking that people struggling with their mental health are dangerous threats who just need a slight trigger to ruin other people’s lives. Needless to say, this only reinforces the long lasting stigma against people with mental health struggles.

Ironically, this portrayal feels very outdated, just like the iPod and 2000s slangs written in the script. But rather than a feeling of nostalgia, it gives a horrifying sense of dread and injustice the more one thinks about it. Hopefully, this was merely an irresponsible misstep rather than a deliberate attack and dehumanization of an already vulnerable group.

Secondly, the show wants to do so many different things yet it only succeeds in making throwaway references and surface level observations. The aforementioned issue of “air pollution in Jakarta” only comes up in an early scene where one of Vanya’s coworkers complain that the pollution is bad on her commute, and another coworker chimes in saying that, yes, Jakarta has one of the highest air pollution levels in the word, and they should consider transportation options with lower carbon emissions.

These expository exchanges felt almost laughably basic, like something out of a school project. While it is admirable to try and put a spotlight on these pressing, relevant issues, making them merely throwaway lines really does a disservice to the art of writing and theater. The show makers have these tools at their disposal that can really dissect various societal issues, yet did close to nothing with it. For more cynical members of the audience, it might make them wonder if these are merely PR talking points looking to get a few more likes.

Thirdly, the generational divide between Millennials and Gen Zs was also unfairly harsh on the Gen Z representative, Debra. She's portrayed as an aloof social media influencer who champions mental health, but comes across as unbearable, saying that bosses should accommodate for someone grieving for their pet fish, played as a joke. She's obsessed with internet clout and follower numbers. Her activism is not shown as sincere nor important, but as an annoyance. She's also the one who's immediately fooled by the video framing Adisya as a homewrecker. Another character points out that Gen Zs have weak mental tenacity. The attacks against Gen Z felt relentless, personal, and hateful – even though many of the cast and crew members are themselves Gen Zs.

Next, there is a very jarring scene of Dimas (Vanya’s ex-fiance) singing about him regretting his tryst with Jacklyn, after he learns that Jacklyn does it to spite Vanya. We did not get to see his thought process, nor even a hint of unsureness, when he cheated on Vanya, but now he gets to say he regrets that his dreams are broken? 

Then, although minor, there is also wasted potential with the references to 2000 and Jaksel culture. Although they might make the target audience nod in acknowledgement, they’re not actually as relevant to the musical, compared to their prevalence in the marketing material. It would have been great to see the unique urbanite culture of Jaksel come to play more significantly, instead of being simplified to ‘speaking with a mix of Bahasa Indonesia and English’.

Overall, Anak Jaksel The Musical! has a very flawed script. But that is not to say there’s nothing good about it. Just the opposite – the core of the story, Vanya and Adisya trying to rebuild their friendship, was a strong enough hook that might have worked without all the gratuitous aspects tacked on onto it. If it focused on telling the story of adult friendships, childhood memories, and trying to make amends, it might have worked out better. Trim the fat, and keep the meat.

And most importantly, this version of Jacklyn is perhaps better left behind and forgotten (although it should be noted, it is not the fault of the actress playing it; I don’t think any actor can salvage the character). Office politics and adulterous lovers are already potent enough antagonistic forces that the story doesn’t need to blame them on a person with mental health issues.

I left Anak Jaksel the Musical! with mixed feelings. It was still a fun night out, and I’m positive the performers and the crew did the best that they could, but the more I thought about it, there were more things that I found highly troubling and unsavory.

But if there was one takeaway from the musical, it’s that it’s never too late to learn from one’s mistakes; never too late to make amends and be better. Hopefully, the same goes for the showrunners.

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