Tempura's Song Lyrics — Adrift In Macao

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

• A character number for Tempura, the nightclub pianist who keeps smiling while the story sharpens its knives.
• Appears early in the running order, just after the first two character stamps and before the plot starts layering reveals.
• Built as a list-song rant: quick enumerations, clipped turns, and a punchy button rather than a belted finish.
• On the 2008 cast album it is track 4, performed by Orville Mendoza.
• The song is part satire, part misdirection - it lets the audience laugh while the show plants plot information in plain sight.

Adrift in Macao (2007) - stage musical - non-diegetic. The number plays like a spotlight that pretends to be filler. Tempura steps forward and gives you a compact lecture in manners and appetites, but the craft is theatrical, not culinary - the song tells you how this world judges outsiders, then it pivots to reveal how slippery the judging voice can be.

What I like here is the authors’ discipline. They do not pause the show for a big aria. They write a tight, slightly acidic burst that can be staged with a piano, a look, and a performer who understands rhythm as comedy. In a noir spoof, that is the right currency - attitude, timing, and a grin that may not mean what it seems to mean.

Creation History

Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick built the show as a film noir parody set in 1952 Macao, and the off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters in January 2007 locked in its small-cast, quick-change engine. The cast recording followed on May 13, 2008, with Melnick and Joel Moss producing. A track like this benefits from that provenance: it is written to land in a room, not drift in studio polish.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

By the time this number arrives, the show has introduced its drifters and its nightclub ecosystem. Tempura has been present as a polite fixture, a worker who seems to know more than he says. The song lets him take the microphone, and that shift matters. In a story that treats identity as costume, giving this character a pointed solo is a way to signal: pay attention to who gets to narrate the room.

Song Meaning

The meaning sits in the contrast between the surface and the function. On the surface it is a complaint-song, a comedic scolding aimed at American habits. Underneath, it is a control move: Tempura defines the rules of the space and the terms of belonging. Later, when the show reveals how performative identity can be, the number reads as early evidence that the character has been acting all along.

Annotations

"Chin's operatic background makes 'Tempura's Song' even funnier."

According to Westside Theatre Reviews, the humor increases when the voice is unexpectedly strong. That is the trick: the text can be sharp and silly, but the sound has to stay authoritative, almost grand, so the joke lands as contrast rather than mugging.

"Tempura ... smiles incessantly and makes everyone's business his own."

According to TheaterMania, that constant smile is part of the character’s power. In performance, the song can lean on that mask - the nicer the face, the stranger the control underneath it.

"This album is a re-recording in the original show key and show tempo."

TalkinBroadway notes the recording aims to preserve stage conditions. For a short list song, that matters: comic pace is the arrangement, and the performer’s breath plan is part of the orchestration.

Genre, rhythm, and the show’s ethics

Because the musical spoofs old Hollywood, it knowingly plays with dated caricature. Modern productions often handle that with clear framing: the song is not an invitation to laugh at a group, it is a lamp aimed at the stereotypes. The best stagings make the target obvious - the genre and its habits - while letting the performer keep the number musically tight and theatrically clean.

Emotional arc

This is not a journey from pain to healing. It is a turn from observation to dominance. Tempura starts as commentator and ends as the person who seems to own the room’s temperature, at least for the length of the number.

Technical Information (Quick Facts)

• Artist: Orville Mendoza
• Featured: None listed
• Composer: Peter Melnick
• Producer: Peter Melnick; Joel Moss
• Release Date: May 13, 2008
• Genre: Musical theatre, comedy list song
• Instruments: Piano-conductor; reeds; drums; synthesizer; bass
• Label: LML Music (release); Melnikov Music (phonogram credit on major platforms)
• Mood: Sardonic, fast, controlled
• Length: 1:54
• Track #: 4
• Language: English
• Album (if any): Adrift in Macao - The New Musical
• Music style: Classic Broadway pastiche with noir tint
• Poetic meter: Conversational stress with repeated list-patterns (varies for comic emphasis)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who performs the number on the cast album?

Orville Mendoza performs it on the 2008 cast recording.

Which character sings it in the story?

Tempura sings it as a featured character moment in the nightclub setting.

Where does it fall in the usual running order?

It is listed as the third scored song after the opening and Mitch’s early stamp, and it appears as track 4 on the album.

What kind of song is it musically?

A short comedy list song: quick items, tight phrasing, and a pointed ending rather than a long refrain.

Is the number meant to be staged big?

Not necessarily. It can land with minimal staging if the actor commits to the rhythm and the text.

Does the song carry plot information?

Yes, it contributes to how the audience reads Tempura’s authority in the room, which matters later when identities shift.

Is the recording designed to match stage pacing?

Commentary on the album release notes it was recorded in the show’s original key and tempo, which supports stage-like timing.

What is a practical performance pitfall?

Overplaying the punchlines. The number lands better when it sounds confident, almost formal, and lets the jokes arrive by contrast.

How do productions handle the show’s old-Hollywood stereotype lens?

Many stagings frame the satire clearly, aiming the joke at genre habits and letting the character remain musically grounded.

Is there a longer media adaptation where this track appears?

Reliable listings treat it as a stage-and-cast-album track rather than a film or television tie-in.

Awards and Chart Positions

There is no dependable evidence of mainstream pop-chart placement for the cast album track. The show itself, however, picked up notable New York nominations in 2007, including a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music and a featured acting nomination tied to the Tempura performance.

How to Sing Tempura's Song

Some audition notices list the role’s range as bari-tenor C2 to G4, with licensing notes describing the vocal demands as easy. That combination points to the real challenge: not pitch, but pace, articulation, and comic authority.

1. Tempo and placement - Treat the number like spoken theatre on rails. Keep the beat steady so the list structure stays readable.
2. Diction - Put consonants on the front of the beat. Many laughs depend on clarity, not volume.
3. Breath plan - Mark the list breaks as breath points. Do not wait for panic-breathing at the end of a long sentence.
4. Flow and rhythm - Aim for a clean, even patter, then let the button land with a deliberate slowdown or held look, depending on staging.
5. Accents and character color - Avoid lazy caricature. Play status instead: a worker who knows the room, and enjoys controlling it.
6. Ensemble awareness - If the band is small (as many productions are), you must lead without rushing. Let the pianist be your metronome.
7. Mic and space - In a club-style staging, use proximity: lean in for the sharpest lines, step back for the broader list items.
8. Common pitfalls - Pushing the voice to sell jokes. The number reads funnier when sung with calm authority and clean phrasing.

Additional Info

Tempura is one of the show’s most carefully engineered jokes, because the character is both commentary and mechanism. A good staging lets the song work on two tracks: the audience laughs at the list-song scolding, while the story quietly shows who is watching whom. In that sense, the number is less a detour than a small hinge.

One production review singled out the comic power of a strong voice in the role, which is a useful lesson for casting: a polished sound can make satire sharper. If the performer sings the number like a real nightclub turn, the material reads as theatrical play rather than a wink that begs for approval.

Key Contributors

Sources

Sources: Concord Theatricals show listing, Apple Music track listing, Playbill cast recording announcement, Ovrtur musical numbers listing, TheaterMania review, TalkinBroadway Sound Advice, Westside Theatre Reviews, BroadwayWorld awards page, Walpole Footlighters audition notice