Jacintha, Dick Lee and the truth about their marriage
Upcoming theatre show looks at their past through layered storytelling and music
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[SINGAPORE] Jacintha Abisheganaden and Dick Lee are two of Singapore’s most recognisable cultural figures – artists whose music and personas once shaped the character of the city-state’s early arts scene.
Though Lee remains a visible presence, Abisheganaden has, in recent years, receded from the public eye.
An upcoming musical centred on her life, however, is set to bring her story back into focus – not as a glitzy tribute, but as a layered, unsentimental portrait of a life lived restlessly, and on her own terms.
Written and directed by Ong Keng Sen, Lush Life traces that arc through a mix of music and theatre, drawing on verbatim interviews to reconstruct the story of a woman who has never followed a straight line.
As Abisheganaden, 68, puts it: “It’s not a dissertation on unreal happiness. It is a narrative of real life, as I know it… And it’s not glossy – thank God.”
One marriage, two truths
For many older Singaporeans, it is impossible to think about Abisheganaden and Lee without recalling that they were once married.
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The two wed in 1992, at the height of their careers: Lee was riding a wave of regional success following his wildly popular album The Mad Chinaman, which drew the attention of Japanese paparazzi.
Abisheganaden, who sang on the album, had by then established herself as a jazz vocalist and theatre actress.
Their union fascinated the Singapore public and raised eyebrows. Was it romance, or something more strategic? A genuine partnership, or a pairing amplified by the spotlight they occupied?
Lush Life revisits this chapter by bringing both Abisheganaden and Lee on stage to present their versions of a marriage that ended in 1997. Ong says: “There are at least two truths – hers and his – which you will hear from them separately. And maybe there are more truths.
“One truth is that they really thought the marriage would give them more music. But in the end, they couldn’t hear it anymore. That’s when they had to go their separate ways… For Jacintha, that’s the only way forward – because music was the most important thing in her life.”
Abisheganaden, for her part, says: “I don’t fixate too much on loss and heartbreak. I move on.”
In search of music
Lush Life is not just about the famous marriage, but a woman’s lifelong search for music – not simply as a profession, but as a way of being.
Ong, who directed her in musicals such as Beauty World (1988) and Fried Rice Paradise (1991), says: “People often misunderstand her… But if you consider her musical background – the daughter of well-known guitarist Alex Abisheganaden and arts educator Eileen Wong – her choices start to make sense.
“I’m often reminded of Nina Simone’s song Wild Is the Wind – that sense of something wild in her that people don’t understand.”
The show features 15 songs about love, longing and break-ups, some of which were written by Lee decades ago but never produced. They’ll be sung by Abisheganaden and Lee, as well as Frances Lee, a younger singer-actress who plays Abisheganaden’s double.
Over several interviews, Abisheganaden and Lee opened up to Ong, who then shaped the script into four acts, loosely anchored to the three marriages and divorces that defined her life – first to American lawyer David Scheffer, then to Lee, and later to journalist Koh Boon Pin, with whom she has a son.
However, the connecting theme of the show isn’t romance but reinvention. After each divorce, Abisheganaden continued her musical pursuit – eventually pivoting away from pop and musicals into audiophile jazz, recording in Los Angeles and building an international following.
Some of her songs were featured in Hollywood productions, including the TV series Alias and the Woody Harrelson-Antonio Banderas film Play It To The Bone.
For Abisheganaden, that refusal to stay fixed – in a relationship, a genre, or even public memory – is simply instinct.
“I’ve always been unafraid of taking risks, I’m afraid,” she says. “In Lush Life, I just focus on telling my own story. And you go away with whatever you want to go away with.”
And that may be the most surprising thing about Lush Life, which debuts at the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2026 in May.
For all its famous names and high-profile history, it resists nostalgia. Instead, it promises something more elusive – a portrait of a life that defies neat definitions and tidy conclusions.
Lush Life, produced by T:>Works, runs in late May at the Victoria Theatre. Tickets from S$48 from sifa.sg
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