Mae Nak... Thai musicals...
I went to see two Thai musicals last week (yeah, like I have a lot of money to spare!!). Just can't help it. Oddly enough both of them are based out of the same folk tale. A woman (and her baby) who died during birth, while her husband was away at war. Through her love and attachment, her ghost-self kept hanging around for her husband, and lived with him after his return. Anyway, it's one of the most famous folk tale in Thailand. Many movies and TV shows were made about it.

It's great for the Thai to start making musicals- an art form that I love. It's disturbing that the two production almost happens side by side. In fact, both opens within a month of each other. This is the Thai way apparently. Everyone has similar ideas, but thinks they can do better than the other. Instead of collaborating and pooling resources, they put on two separate shows. (Heck, we do the same even in the science!!). Both have their own strength and weakness, and how I wish they'd combine both.

Watching them both I can't help but thinking. All this is like if Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim would each make a musical out of the same story. One with all the glossy flashy effects, straight forward plot, and a few catchy tunes repeated ad nauseum with ever swelling orchestra. The other with more complicated music, well developed characters, but suffer from the second act melt down. I clearly preferred one camp over the other (except perhaps the male lead whose singing leaves me wanting a bit more). There are several scenes that I think is genius- if they'd rework the second act (cut out a few songs), it'd be great!