SINGAPORE — Who knew Dick Lee had an inner geek underneath all that elegance?

I have to admit it’s a rather strange disconnect, finding out that the Cultural Medallion recipient behind Home and the songs of from couple of little musicals like Beauty World and Forbidden City actually likes science fiction.

“I grew up with comic books and sci-fi. I used to be crazy about them. You know Philip K Dick? Same name as me, that’s why,” he quipped.

So I guess him doing the songs for Resorts World Sentosa’s newest musical LightSeeker — which you can read more about at http://tdy.sg/lightseeker — isn’t really weird after all.

“I was crazy about science fiction during my teenage years lah,” he explained. “To have the opportunity to do this sort of reawakened all those things I used to love about it.”

He’s not the only geek in LightSeeker. The musical’s creative director, Andrea Teo, who basically concocted the whole story, is, too. “I enjoy all these things. What I love about all these fantasy, sci-fi worlds is that it takes you out of the world and yet it’s very relatable. That there are other planets and beings out there that are exactly like what we are here, but different enough. It’s very freeing in a way.”

She described it jokingly as “Avatar with songs” but actually, hor, I can sniff some Star Wars influence in there, too. It’s got an “Emperor” character, the main publicity image with the light streaming down (up?) looks a wee bit like Luke Skywalker holding his lightsabre in the original Star Wars movie poster. There’s talk about light source in the musical (the Force?) and, well, lightsabre, LightSeeker…

Plus, Star Wars was sort of called a “space opera” isn’t it?

Not that LightSeeker is an opera (erm, Star Wars wasn’t either, technically) but since Dick Lee was making songs for it, we had to ask: How does one make a sci-fi fantasy musical song?

“You don’t!” he laughed. “The scenes are universal. I think everybody is going to relate to the story. And the emotions are universal. A lullabye’s a lullabye. A song about power and greed is about exactly that. The emotions and feelings are the same wherever you set it. And I think my primary concern was to convey those emotions and feelings.”

There are, however, some differences, of course.

Said Lee: “To me the soundscape of it is quite different from everything I’ve ever done. That’s going to make it very, almost futuristic. (LightSeeker) is fun, but it’s edgy and there’s a dark aspect to it. There’s some rock elements to some of the songs too, which is also something I’ve not done. I’ve written my first rock song!”

What the…? A geek and a rocker?

(LightSeeker runs from Nov 24 to March 23 at Resorts World Sentosa Theatre. Tickets from S$48 to S$148 from Sistic, RWS ticketing counters and website from Sept 16. For more information, visit www.lightseeker.com.sg.)