Music divas in a melodrama

Mai Chareonpura, Panadda Ruangwut, Radklao Amratisha and Pijika Jittaputta are four professional vocalists widely acclaimed for their singing voices. With their frequent performances in dramatic roles on stage and on screen, they should have effortlessly made a stage musical the talk-of-the-town. Why then is “Phaendin Khong Rao: The Musical” not a box office hit grabbing the attention of both the media and the public?
    The contrary is in fact true, as demonstrated by a YouTube clip that aims to help promote the show.
    Adapted from Malai Chuphinit’s novel of the same name, the musical suffers from the same problem as many other stage musical adaptations of novels – the scope of the story is too vast to be edited into a three-hour musical play. With many details, especially those related to the social context in a changing time period, either trimmed or cut, the play sounds and looks like a series of tragic events lined up chronologically yet frequently illogically as if to affect our emotions in the same way as a TV soap. Much of the dialogue sounds as if it’s been lifted from the novel and fails to take into account that a novel doesn’t comprise only dialogue.
    After the show, I found myself joking with my friends that the message I got from the play was that in Thailand at least, it was better to be born a man. If you have a choice, study law and become a lawyer like Naren, performed by Dom Hetrakul, then, whether rich or poor you can sleep with as many women and break as many hearts as you want – just wear a condom and don’t drink too much alcohol. I’m sure this is not what I’d get from reading the novel.
    To much critical acclaim, the novel was adapted into a TV drama series in 1996, and Mai, who was cast then as the free-spirited youngest daughter Phakkhini, loved it so much that she bought the stage rights. Almost two decades later, she is now not only co-producing it, but has also cast herself in the same role. I wasn’t the only member of the audience who wasn’t really convinced by her performance as a convent high school girl in the opening scene. We’re also asked to believe that she’s marrying Thamrong, performed by Saranyu Wongkrachang with some subtlety, a man supposed to be as old as her father Phra Woranatpranot, portrayed by veteran actor Suchao Pongwilai who’s always arresting.
    As the play progressed, Mai became more credible and the audience empathised more with the characters. Radklao and Panadda as her sisters Saisawan and Atchara were more understated and the audience was able to feel their woes. The song, and its reprisal, “Chankapo Ruang”, performed by Mai, Radklao and Panadda, was a highlight of the show as it proved both their singing and acting dexterity.
    Further evidence of the play’s improvement in the second act was demonstrated by a member of the media seated next to me. He’d been busy with his Line app throughout the first act but gave his full attention to the show in the second, even sobbing audibly towards the end. I forgot to ask which message he got from watching the musical.
    In a year when a new grand-scale stage musical is being presented every month, and salaries don’t allow most of us to see them all, the competition is tougher than before. Newcomers to the stage musical have probably realised this by now and planned better for their next stage production.

Last weekend
“Phaendin Khong Rao: The Musical” continues at Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre from tomorrow to Sunday at 7:30pm.
The Saturday show is already sold out.
It’s in Thai with no English translation.
Tickets cost from Bt1,000 to Bt3,500 at ThaiTicketMajor.