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WITH HAPPINESS SUPPOSEDLY returning to Thais after a few years of political tension that saw many producers shy away from stage, the market is now wide open and many new producers are scheduled to tap into it this year.
One of these is Guts Entertainment, a TV producer trying its hand at the stage musical with the first major production in Thai of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic “The Sound of Music”. Guts has also set a new record high for ticket prices of a Thai musical play production – Bt 4,500 – and the many empty seats in that section last Friday evening showed clearly that the audience was unhappy.
Renowned TV soap opera director Yuthana Lorphanpaibul is making his debut with a musical play and his production is so by-the-book that one wonders what kind of artistic freedom a director is allowed when he’s staging a 50-year-old work.
Of course, it’s fruitful for the audience to finally watch the all-too-familiar play as if it’s their own, as it’s now spoken and sung in our mother tongue. But when you consider that Japanese and Korean producers, who not only purchase the rights of a new Broadway musical but also hire the original creative team to work with local cast and crew, one can only wonder if we are 50 years behind or that we love to watch, and pay for, only what we’re familiar with?
The play’s translator Narin Prasoppakdee, who seems to have mastered both languages and the music, is able to maintain the meaning of the source language and find the right words in the target language which, with five tones, is no easy task of course. It’s the first time I’ve watched a Thai translation of a foreign musical where all the syllables with the musical notes still sound like the Thai language. The house programme notes that he’s already translated a few other musicals and I’m sure they’ll be brought to full production soon.
Music is obviously the focus of this production and almost all the songs are delivered pitch-perfect just like in a concert thanks in part to the work of musical director and conductor Piti Kayoonpan.
As Maria Rainer, Dhanundhorn Neerasingh –better known as Fang of the trio “Faye Fang Kaew” – shows that the pop music industry is under-using her talents. Thanaporn Waekprayoon immerses herself in the character of the Mother Abbess and is almost unrecognisable in her garb. Pijika Jittaputta’s Elsa Shrader and Tanee Poonsuwan’s Max Detweiler both have a strong presence. These four are professional singers and the audience can only wish they could act as well as sing. For example, the Detweiler character is portrayed in such a cartoonish way that his integrity is watered down, and Shrader brings to mind the kind of love triangle we see on TV. The young singers who perform the seven Von Trapp kids, too, can learn to enjoy acting as much as singing and dancing – and with Yuthana being such a seasoned director, the audience has the right to expect more from his cast.
With all professional and aspiring singers around him, Chatayodom Hiranyatithi’s Captain Georg Von Trapp probably wishes he didn’t have to sing in this play. He is convincing as a father of seven children and he doesn’t try to do too much in order to show his love for them.
With the help from the house company Scenario’s design team, the set design for the Nonnberg Abbey is majestic and sets the right tone at the beginning while those for the Austrian mountainside and the Von Trapp’s villa don’t look as carefully thought out and crafted.
The performance last Friday, the second in the musical’s run, had a few lighting and set change hiccups.
 CLIMB EV’RY MOUNTAIN
 n “The Sound of Music” continues from April 16 to 19 and April 23 to 26 at the Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre. Shows are at 7.30 nightly and at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday
n It’s in Thai – no English translation. Tickets are from Bt1,000 to Bt4,500 at ThaiTicketMajor.
n For more details, visit www.Facebook.com/Rachadalai