Reaching out to Reya

The finely textured music, composed by maestro Somtow Sucharitkul in a style that fits the era of the story and rendered by the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra under the commanding baton of Trisdee na Patalung, is the true star of “Reya: The Musical” now playing at the Aksra Theatre.
Even the orchestra pit is raised higher. And no, that isn’t a seahorse the audience can see dancing in one corner of the pit, it’s the top part of the double bass.
Maestro Somtow also wrote the lyrics, but in English, and then his mother Taitao, who penned the novel “Dok Som Si Thong”, translated them into Thai. The family collaboration is fruitful in the solos and duets but some words in the chorus numbers fail to fit the notes, making them difficult to understand. Taitao, who has never written a play, also wrote the script, putting together extracts of key sensational moments from her novel. Unfortunately, the adaptation of a novel to a play isn’t quite that simple and the dialogue serves just to remind us of what we already know from reading the book, watching the TV soap or scanning the synopsis in the programme.
TV superstar Araya Alberta “Chompoo” Hargate reprises her soap opera role that won her both awards and popular acclaim. She effortlessly portrays the title character – now one of the most famous minor wives in popular Thai literature – a young woman who speaks her mind and fights for what she wants, just as her mother taught her to do.
She proves that she can sing and handle Somtow’s compositions – ones that are less challenging than those performed by other cast members, of course. But the fact that she’s not assigned to sing so many songs shows that her singing prowess is not yet up to the level of professional musical theatre performers, or those whose CDs we would buy without hesitation. She is also dressed in nine stunning costumes designed especially for the musical by couturier Somchai Kaewtong of Kai Boutique. Sadly, these are so sensational compared to the costumes of the other cast members that the stage occasionally resembles a fashion catwalk, especially during her last entrance in the finale.
Most of the other cast members are professional singers. And while they are highly commendable in their singing, the script only allows them to show their emotion in song but rarely to develop their characters fully and credibly.
To put it simply, cohesion is the main flaw of this musical play, a composite art that can never succeed without a happy marriage of all the elements. With so many stars on the pitch, it feels like the director doesn’t have the complete control or final say – imagine Real Madrid without Jose Mourinho.
If you like the novel and its TV soap opera adaptation, the music in “Reya: The Musical” will make you enjoy it even more. I don’t – and so this is not my cup of tea. In this day and age, Broadway musicals are presenting both familiar stories and tunes – in the forms of adaptations of popular movies and jukebox musicals – as well as less familiar stories and experimental styles. The Thai audience will decide in which direction they would like to see contemporary theatre go forward, or backward – and whether it should merely be entertainment, just like TV soap operas that can be watched from the couch.
And with this musical, the Nation Broadcasting Corporation and NBC’s Mango TV have joined Index and Fat Radio in venturing into a new territory of professional stage musicals, a field well established by Dreambox and Scenario. I’m sure this is neither the last company nor this company’s last musical. I’m also sure that Chompoo is not the last TV superstar who will accept the challenge of a stage musical.

STARS ON STAGE
“Reya: The Musical” runs every Friday to Sunday until October 7 at the Aksra Theatre in the King Power Complex on Soi Rangnam.
Shows are at 7.30 nightly plus 2pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets cost Bt1,000 to Bt3,000 at ThaiTicketMajor.
Seven shows have already sold out. Visit www.Reya|TheMusical.com for more details.
 

Seduction set to songs
The Nation

After its overwhelming success as a TV soap last year, Taitao Sucharitkul’s novel “Dok Som Si Thong” gets another life as “Reya: The Musical”, which opens tonight at the King Power Complex’s Aksra Theatre with actress Araya Alberta “Chompoo” Hargate reprising her role as the seductive title character.
Prior to rehearsals, Chompoo’s singing talent was cause for concern. But after months of rehearsal and training with vocal coach Suruj Tipakora Seni, Chompoo has proved that she can sing and that no one can play Reya better than she.
“It’s very a tough role for Chompoo as she has to carry the whole story throughout the two-hour performance and Somtow is mean to her as he’s written songs that are 10 times much more difficult than those for the other characters,” says the play’s director Kriengsak “Victor” Silakong.
“The team told me to write songs that would be easy to sing for her but I refused. Surprisingly she can sing very well so I wrote more songs for her,” adds Somtow Sucharikul, who composed the music and wrote the lyrics.
Somtow’s mother Taitao condensed the story into a two-hour performance and promises that the musical is truer to the book than the TV drama. She also translated the lyrics of the songs, originally written in English, into Thai.
The composer originally wrote 12 songs for the musical but later added another five “to fill the gaps,” he says.
Somtow’s own Siam Philharmonic Orchestra is performing the music, adding even more atmosphere to the musical.
“You will hear the true symphony orchestra sound rather than a rock band with string instruments, which is common to most musicals,” says Trisadee na Pattalung, who arranged the music and conducts the orchestra.
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.