Broadway in Bangkok

I’m currently in Bangkok for a six-week internship over school vacation, and as I took the subway every morning I stared enviously at this gigantic poster for Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast. My roommate and I decided to indulge a little bit while we are in Bangkok and have the chance, as this is likely our only opportunity to see a play until we are home next year.

We bought the ticket online, looked up where to go, and discovered upon arrival (much to our amusement) that the theatre was on the top floor of a shopping mall. We have discovered that just about every shopping mall in Bangkok (and there are many!) has a movie theatre on the top floor. Movie theatres clearly haven’t hit the same financial problems as the US. Sure enough, the Broadway-equivalent theatre has found its home on the top floor of a mall as well.

After picking up our tickets we noticed how much effort had been put in for a travelling show. They set up the entire lobby for photo-ops. You could pose with the rose or take you picture with any number of the posters from the play that were framed around the entry way. A big difference from the standard poster out front on a NYC sidewalk with which it is customary to take your picture.

Everyone taking their pictures before the play. It was a madhouse after the show...

Apparently a Thai architect worked on Broadway for many years and returned to Thailand with the vision of a theatre of similar standards for Bangkok. He build the Mueng Thai Rachadalai Theatre that you can see below so that Thailand can participate in the world of theatre with its own productions as well as housing international tours like Beauty and the Beast. In fact, one of Thailand’s productions will find its way to Broadway next year.

(Photo from www.rachadali.com)

We were also shocked that the event appealed more widely to Thais than foreigners. We expected, as the play is English (and set in France making this even odder), there wouldn’t be as much local interest. As we settled into our seats we noticed large flat-screens in the corners of the theatre and deduced that the play has been subtitled in Thai.

Having taken a translation course before, I know the challenges this poor person faced when trying to subtitle the production. Particularly in a play like Beauty and the Beast, the songs and a lot of the humor involves puns with both the French and English language, idiomatic expressions, and cultural references that simply don’t translate well. When attempting to do so, the translator typically tries to find similar puns, expressions, and references in the host language but I imagine over an entire play there are many jokes lost. 

We had noticed, as the only foreigners within a certain diameter of our seats, that we were the only ones laughing at jokes that truly depended on the language. Clearly some things didn’t get translated. For example, Lumière was giving a tour of the castle and ended with “I always say, if it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it!” I know the joke is a bit old, but I don't think that's why we were the only two laughing.

We were very happy with the night, both to indulge in our love of theatre which has been absent from our Thai lives, as well as an unexpected cultural moment. I will definitely be looking forward to a trip or two to Broadway when I get home next year though!