Weaving the popular band's songs into a jokey script takes a great deal of time.

True Fantasia and Work Point Entertainment, better known and more acclaimed for TV work than theatre, have together produced a stage musical with pricey tickets—Bt3,500 for the best seats, the highest among local theatre works. For another Bt500 you could see Chicago and MAMMA MIA!

The Legend of Re Khai Fun: Chaliang the Musical clocks in at three and a half hours, and there's a 20-minute intermission too. If you go to an evening show, you’ll probably get home the following day.

From their experience in Ngoen Ngoen Ngoen (2007) and Jo Jo San (2008), True Fantasia seems to have realised that not everyone from the cast of "Academy Fantasia" is made for a musical and has selected only those who can act, dance, sing, and fit a character. But as the AF die-hard fans are now less, is that a reason the ticket is so expensive? 

Work Point, however, is sticking to its old university student comedy format that proved a success among teenagers who paid Bt 200 a ticket, but not when blown up to a large-scale, supposedly professional, production like Chai Klang (2007).

We all know that this is a "jukebox musical"—the songs are all well-known hits. Success lies in how the songs are freely reinterpreted and plausibly laced into a dramatic story.

Unfortunately, success proves elusive in this show, which suffers from too many unnecessary gags and superfluous songs, the dialogue struggling to connect to Chaliang's lyrics, which in turn refuse to goose the script along. A few songs are even newly written for the show--and you can tell right away which ones they are.

The play keeps hovering around one major theme—that in order to live a fuller and happier life we need both scientific reasons and imagination; and a minor one—that we should not kill those who think differently from us. And, thanks to these amateurish playwrights’ good intention to make every detail clear and to keep repeating it like in a TV sitcom, after a few scenes, most audiences know where the play is leading anyway.

And when we look at the names of five writers, we’re not really surprised, as none can be called professional playwrights. Well, if they take out two of these, would the show be cut down to, more pleasant and standard, two and a half hours?

The director is also responsible for the pace and the length of the show. Just because Muang Takka citizens are emotionless doesn't mean some of them have to always take time in acting and full fronting the audience; likewise, just because Muang Ekkanek folks are merriful doesn't mean they need to repeat everything some of their friends say. These two faults are too reminiscent of "Lakhon Tapad", and so annoying that they have saved me Bt 200 for almost a decade now.

The cast is a mixed bag. The most outstanding performer is Mint AF3, who excels in both singing and acting, fuelled by sheer energy and charm. She is a spotless musical-theatre star and her musical numbers become her character's, not Mint AF3's.

With the hero's charisma, Boy AF2 shows why he's the most successful actor from the TV reality series.

Despite the script that gives away many hints of his character too early and too much, Tol AF4 shows he's a true villain with exemplary subtlety and sincerity.

There is credible acting from Lukpong AF4, Nat AF4 and Bow AF5, but when the music starts, they think they're putting on a concert, so they drop their dramatic characters and entertain us with the familiar voice and movements we already see on TV. Tee AF4 is never convincing in his role as a father and we know why he, instead of a good professional actor who may be not as famous, is chosen for this short scene--the reason lies in AF's first musical theatre.

Veteran actors Suprawat Pattamasoot (in one of his meatiest role on stage in our recent memory), Yanee Tramote and Pawanrat Naksuriya are all delights and solidify the overall performance.

The almost two-dimensional set and the vivid costume designs succeed in clearly differentiating the two worlds—Muang Takka and Muang Ekkanek.

But again, the designers assume that all of us are seated on the centre aisle and that we spend our days watching reality TV, game shows, and sitcoms, and thus never watch “The Flintstones”, Hayao Miyazaki’s animation films, “Star Wars”, and the Broadway musical Wicked. It’s such an irony here considering the fact that Chaliang, during the days when plagiarism ruled Thai music industry, has always been known for their creativity and originality.

Re Khai Fun is entertaining, sporadically, but you're better off enjoying Chaliang's music by simply listening to the CDs and waiting for their reunion concert.

A few more complaints from the audience: the media were invited to what the two producers called "press preview" on Thursday October 1 only to find that the show started 40 minutes late, just like "Lakon Tapad", and the only annoucement was "This is a dress rehearsal." Maybe that's why when Bow AF5's microphone had a problem at the start of Act 2, they solved this by turning off Boy AF2's, her scene partner, before they sang their duet. 

Lastly, the only other theatre in the world where the audience's wrist had to be stamped with poisonous ink was Muangthai Rachadalia Theatre. What professional playhouses around the globe do is to remind us to bring our tickets along or to give us "intermission passes", that must be returned upon re-entry, and if we want to give this to others who want to see only Act 2, and we only Act 1, that's our rights.

The Legend of Re Khai Fun: Chaliang the Musical continues at M Theatre every Friday through Sunday until October 18. Show time is 7:30pm and with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Tickets are Bt800 to Bt3,500, available at www.We-Booking.com  and True Shops. The show’s official website is www.ReKhaiFun.com.