Istana Budaya

Almost 2 year back, I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the official opening ceremony by the Agong for the artist Ken Yang Paris to Kuala Lumpur at the National Art Gallery. I remembered as a young girl having studied around Titiwangsa area to have always passed by the National Art Gallery but knew nothing about it.
This big building is located beside Titiwangsa Lake Garden — which is famous for its lake and it is the place for people to scroll for morning or evening walks. There are many local famous artist usually have their exhibition here.
So the official opening ceremony was done by His Majesty, the current Agong and I was extremely fortunate to have given this golden chance to meet him personally. Although it was a weekday and it was a night function, it didn’t deter my spirits and I was so enlightened to have met Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza there too :) — one of her portrait was exhibited there.
After the official ceremony, artist Ken Yang, a Malaysian but lived mostly in Paris and is famous for his oil painting skills brought His Majesty for a tour around the exhibition centre. Upon visiting the entire place, His Majesty then served dinner and we were served delicious Malay food. The ceremony ended around 10pm.
This place captivates me the most because of its unique concept. Yes, it is a National Gallery, it is also a place where you can have your performance here (any art related exhibitions, shows, musicals, concerts, theatres, etc). Overall, I was extremely impressed!

Istana Budaya at Kuala Lumpur is probably one of the world class theatre and they probably are. Throughout the year, Istana Budaya has held countless plays and musical from P. Ramlee The Musical to the latest Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza Unplugged.
I went to watch Jersey Boys at Istana Budaya last year and I bought the 2^nd row from the stage. It was amazing! Though the hall wasn’t huge but it was big enough. The lightings and sound system were good. However, I had a slight problem with the sittings. I noticed some of the chair were making squeaky noise, and this was very distracting.
Istana Budaya has ample parking space but if you are going for some popular shows, please be there earlier so you wouldn’t be parking too far. You can always grab some food from the food court at the Ground Floor. From the outside, it looked some buffet but they are actually selling food such as nasi lemak and mixed rice. The food wasn’t that great but it’s good enough to fill your stomach before the show.
There’s a dress code at Istana Budaya. No skirt above knee-​length, no sleeveless, no shorts and many others.

Istana Budaya is pretty much Kuala Lumpur’s centre for arts and performance. A lot of plays are held here such as Supermokh the musical and P. Ramlee the musical. Istana Budaya i said to be a world class theater and it seems to be so. It is gorgeous, and the sound is amazing, lighting is good too. The only thing I don’t like about Istana Budaya is the dress code. You can’t wear pretty dresses cause the dress code is so strict. No skirts above the knee, no shorts, no sleeveless tops etc. etc. annoying no? I mean I get the no shorts part but to limit the length of dresses, its quite annoying.
Besides that, the seats are nice, its not too cold nor too hot and the stage is easy to see no matter where you’re seated. I always get excited when there is a good musical showing here because i know that the venue will do the musical justice. Also parking here is quite ample, don’t come late cause then obviously it’ll be full especially if you’re attending a sold out show.