A MISTRESS WHO SINGS

After her overwhelming success as Reya in last year’s hit TV soap “Dok Som Si Thong”, actress Araya “Chompoo” Hargate is adapting her portrayal for “Reya the Musical”, which is set to be staged in September.
The creator of the character, novelist Taitao Sucharitkul, is writing the script. Her son, conductor Somtow Sucharitkul, has composed the songs and written the lyrics in English, which his mother is translating into Thai.
Despite decades of experience in opera, this is Somtow’s first musical. It also marks the stage debut for Nation Broadcasting Corporation, which is producing the show. NBC is spending Bt30 million on the production plus an additional Bt10 million for promotion.
Though the original story is long – the novel runs more than 400 pages – Taitao is condensing the story into a two-hour performance and vows that the musical will be truer to the book than the TV drama.
Reya is a social climber who will do anything to improve her lot in life. She becomes the mistress of married airline owner Sinthorn to land a job as a flight attendant then turns her affections to wealthy businessman Kongkiat, with whom she becomes pregnant in the hope he will divorce his wife and marry her. Her relationship with Kongkiat and young psychiatrist CK takes her back to the not-so-happy memories of her childhood as the daughter of a cook for a wealthy Chinese family.
“The dialogue and lyrics must be relevant to each other in the musical. We don’t use dialogue as the bridge between songs if it’s irrelevant to the story,” says Somtow, adding that a Broadway musical has both singing and dancing with various music styles like tango, waltz and cha cha cha.
Somtow’s score will be arranged and conducted by his prot