'Fame' & fortune

Dreambox's current show "Fame: The Musical" is a fine production that's as entertaining as it is important. The highlights are the unified energy of the whole cast and deft staging by veteran director Suwandee Jakravoravudh.But go beyond the surface and you're left begging for a whole lot more - something that's all too common in musical theatre productions here.

Depicting the life - in and out of school - of a group of students at New York City's High School of Performing Arts, "Fame" shows that it takes much more than pretty faces, good bodies and talent to study performing arts. This Thai production is true to the original book by Jose Fernandez and also conveys this important message. Unfortunately most of the cast members are living examples of the opposite.

Thailand's most prolific playฌwright Daraka Wongsiri "literally" translated the book and the lyrics, by Jacques Levy, and herein lies another problem. With Daraka trying to keep all the meanings from the original lyrics, many performers have a hard time getting the words out clearly. And when they do, as in the case of professional singers Maneenuch Samerasut (the tough homeroom teacher Miss Sherman) and Teeranai na Nongkai Nammon (the kind dance teacher Miss Bell), they're too fast for the audience to comprehend.

Also, while the original play shows the multiethnic nature of these students, the Thai audience doesn't know, for example, that Tyrone, the dance student who is unable to read, is African American until he says so. It's not only the physical appearance of Krittin Kiatmetha, the Thai performer and professional dancer, portraying this role, but also the diction and tone of his language.

A more crucial problem though is that that most of the young lead cast members are forฌmer contestants of "Academy Fantasia" and the KPN Awards. Although that's probably why tickets are selling fast, their acting, dancing and singing on stage here also proves that these artistic crafts cannot be mastered in a few months while living under the eye of a TV camera.

Even though Somruthai "Prink AF5" Prommachan and Ratchapol "Music AF4" Yamsaeng give memorable performances as lambฌchops and Goodman, thanks to their commendable characterisation work, a nonAF fan like myself had a difficult time differentiating the characters of Nick and schlomo - as portrayed by "Academy Fantasia" winners Nat Sakdatorn and Nat thewphaingam.

Wasuthida Punwattana portrays drama major Serena, who has a crush on Nick. She recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in singing and her voice is heavenly, so she steals the show from Nat.

For me, the most troublesome scene is when dance students Iris (Elizabeth "Rose KPN" Sitthicharoenyos) and Tyrone (Krittin) practise classical ballet, and the former complains. It's blatantly obvious it should be the opposite: She can't even go en pointe. With more than a few perฌformers in the dance ensemble clearly able to dance much better than Elizabeth, the audience is left wondering why she was cast as a young ballerina. No doubt, it had something to do with being a KPN alumnus.

A scene that's thoughtprovoking for me is when Miss Sherman teaches all the students, drama, dance and music majors together, Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman".

It's also noteworthy that the term "performing arts" in the play, as in anywhere else in the world, refers to dance, music and theatre. In this country, it frequently refers to dance and theatre only - and this fault includes an official category in the Culture Ministry's awards.

Perhaps that's why I can't think of any performing arts schools in Thailand where dance, music and drama students not only share the same general studies classes but also take classes in different fields from their majors, and collaborate on their school works. This is despite a trend in contemporary arts that encourage interdisciplinary collaboration.

At the end of the press preview of "Fame" last Thursday, I felt like quitting my teaching job at the country's oldest theatre department. In the past, our best graduates in acting moved on from school to professional stage productions and then to television and movies. Of course, they've always had to compete with those with prettier faces or better bodies who took crash courses in acting.

Nowadays, there's a high interest in musical theatre, despite the lack of performers who are equally well trained in acting, dancing and singing. Many graduates from dance, music and theatre departments who excel in one skill and not the other two are overlooked by producers and directors who would rather cast wellknown faces from reality TV shows or others who can sing - believing that training of acting and dancing takes less time. Instead, these performingarts graduates end up working in other careers - flight attendant is a current favourite.

While the students in "Fame" work very hard to make their dream of becoming professional artists come true, their reallife counterparts, and their producers, seem to be more concerned about how many SMS votes they get weekly in order to become famous and make money from their fame.  

 live forever

- "Fame" continues today to Sunday and from September 23 to 25 at M Theatre on New Phetchaburi Road, between Ekamai and Thonglor.

- Show times are at 7.30 on Friday and Saturday and 2 on Sunday.

- Tickets are Bt800 to Bt2,000 at www.BananaBooking.com.

- The show is in Thai - no English surtitles.