The skinny on the Fat

In a year that has seen a record number of original Thai musicals, it seems that even a radio station feels it is qualified to stage such a production.

Popular airwave Fat Radio premiered “Rak 5-6 Sao”, which translates as “Love Pentagon-Hexagon” and attempts to play with the classic love triangle, at M Theatre last Friday.

A note in the programme from the producer states that the musical was born for no other reason than that “it would be cool and fun to see these hip singers and bands in a musical”. He also admits to working in a rush, finishing the script late in July and leaving just a month for rehearsals.

So it came as little surprise that “Rak 5-6 Sao” was one of my most painful musical experiences. In fact, the producer was probably aware of his stage experiment’s fate as he saw fit to tag a question mark on the “Fat the Musical” subtitle.

Even acclaimed film director Komgrit Triwimol, excused his stage debut, saying cryptically that his work on this musical was a necessary “adventure outside of the house on unfamiliar paths”.

I admire their honesty and warnings but wonder why, if they were so unsure of the quality and knew they had too little time to polish it, they chose to stage it now rather than hold off a few months until their stars could again make time to rehearse. 

Inspired by the ’80’s film “Peggy Sue Got Married”, the musical centres on the relationship between successful PR lady Joy (Natthaweeranuch “VJ Ja” Thongmee) and her husband Lek (Anusorn “Yong Armchair” Amornthet), an aspiring musician whose dream is to make songs for Bangkok bus stops. 

Lek wants to ease the stress of people waiting for their bus home, but Joy thinks he’s being too idealistic and immature. She asks him to instead sell the love songs he composed for her to progress in his career, but he refuses and that sparks a fight. 

Feeling upset, Joy has too much to drink at her reunion party and blacks out. She wakes up realising she has travelled back 20 years in time to the year she and Lek started dating. With other potential boyfriends around, all of whom she knows will make it big in life, she starts having serious doubts about getting together with Lek, though eventually comes to understand what love really means. 

The story, while cute, isn’t only unoriginal, but also unnecessarily long. Too much time is spent introducing each of Joy’s admirers and most of the scenes lack the humour needed to carry them off. The show murders the silvery voiced Trai “Boy Friday” Bhumiratna in the role of sweet potato millionaire, Sia Mhee, by making him sing about how much he loves sweet potatoes to the entire score of “Go West”. Luckily, much-loved Thai tunes like Armchair’s “Rak Tae” and Scrubb’s “Took Yang” sung by the original singers go some way towards saving the show.

I wasn’t expecting much from VJ Ja’s vocal talents and assumed she was chosen for her acting skills to compensate for the cast of singers with no drama training. But Yong Armchair stole the show, proving himself a star in both his singing and acting roles.

Tul Waitoonkiat of Apartment Khunpa and Thawatpon “Muey Scrubb” Wongboonsiri also acquitted themselves well, acting naturally on stage and, unlike VJ Ja, remembering not to face the audience straight on every time they had something to say.

Fans of any of the performers will, of course, love the musical. If you are very easily amused, even by jokes that fall flat, you’ll also enjoy it. If not, my advice would be to save the four hours for something else.

 

If you must

“Rak 5-6 Sao: Fat the Musical?” continues at M Theatre from tonight through Sunday at 7.30pm, with 2pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

Seats cost Bt300, 600, 900, 1,200 and 1,500 at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com

Find out more at (02) 641 5234 or check out the Fatradio page on Facebook.