Your first crush. The one who left you on read. The one who got away. Whether you lived it yourself or cried through it in a Tamil film, chances are you’ve got a failed romance or two to your name.
That shared experience is the starting point for காதல் தோல்விகள் (The Failed Romances), a coming-of-age cabaret about love, romance and heartbreak, seen through the lens of Tamil cinema. Created by TerryandTheCuz and Adriano Cortese, it runs at the Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre (JCPAC) from 12 to 15 November 2026.
This production blends theatre, live music, movement and design to ask what those stories actually taught us about love, and what happens when real life refuses to follow the script. Expect deeply personal stories turned into a shared experience, with plenty of humour, memory and spectacle.
Powering it all is a live six-piece band, performing iconic and reimagined Tamil songs throughout. Onstage, Govin Ruben and Udaya Soundari navigate the messy, often contradictory terrain of the heart. Udaya is a Singaporean Indian television actress and presenter, and the first person in Singapore to win three awards in a single year at the Pradhana Vizha awards. The show also digs into the myths of masculinity, femininity, attraction and belonging shaped by decades of cinema and colonial legacy.
The work took years to develop, with collaborators across Malaysia and Australia. Ashwin Gobinath is music director, Sharmilla Ganesan is dramaturg and Harshini Sukumaran is choreographer.
Then it goes global. After its Malaysian run, the production heads to Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay in Singapore (21–22 November 2026), followed by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York (13 January 2027). That will make it the first Malaysian work ever presented at Lincoln Center, a milestone for Malaysian contemporary performance and a major international platform for a story rooted in Tamil cinema, Malaysian culture and the South Asian diaspora.
Event details
- Venue: Experimental Theatre (Black Box), JCPAC, 5th Floor, Sunway Square Mall, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
- Dates and times:
- Thu, 12 Nov: Preview, 9pm
- Fri, 13 Nov: Opening, 9pm
- Sat, 14 Nov: 3pm and 9pm
- Sun, 15 Nov: 3pm and 9pm
- Tickets: Preview: RM75 (Seating Bank), RM125 (Tables). Opening and subsequent shows: RM95 (Seating Bank), RM145 (Tables). Click HERE to purchase tickets.
- Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission. Doors open 15 minutes before each show.
- Languages: English, Tamil and Malay, with English subtitles
- Age guidance: 16+. Contains haze/smoke, strobe lighting, mature themes and strong language.
- Note: No photography or videography is permitted during the performance.
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