The most hyped theatrical event of 2006 was probably the short October run of "West Side Story" at the Thailand Cultural Centre. The advertisements made some false claims, too, billing it as the first Broadway musical ever performed in Thailand and boasting of an all-New York cast.

They weren't all New Yorkers, and the tickets didn't all sell.

The touring production, which has never been to Broadway, drew a mixed response. Some wondered why the local producer didn't instead bring "My Fair Lady" by Britain's National Theatre, an Olivier Award-winning show playing Hong Kong and Singapore.

Advertising also did the trick for the revival of "Thawi Phop: The Musical", with variations. The exact number of shows was planned from the beginning, but only some were initially announced, then there was an "extension due to popular demand".

It's a clever approach, but how many times can they pull that off?

Meanwhile, Bangkok's primary professional theatre companies, Dream Box and Patravadi Theatre, were garnering less attention from the media and the public.

It was a relatively quiet year for both of them. Thanks to its gay jokes and all-star cast, Dream Box had a hit with "Wiwa Cabaret", an adaptation of "La Cage aux Folles".

Patravadi staged the year's best solo work, "Wanthong" by Manop Meejamrat, and opened a new performance space called Studio 9: Creative Arts Space and Technology for more experimental, smaller works.

Missing in action this past year, though, was Patravadi's Bangkok Fringe Festival.

Another noteworthy small space is the Chang Theatre, run by the Life Work Company. It hosted solo performance artists from other troupes in "On the Table", and later on Life Work performed in the Love Theatre Festival at 8X8 Corner, boding well for more such collaboration.

In fact, many small festivals sprang up this year. B-Floor Theatre held a physical-theatre workshop and performances at B-Fest, and later helped the Butoh Co-op organise Bangkok's second International Butoh Festival.

The Bangkok Theatre Network's Weekend Theatre in September and Festival of Health Promotion Plays in October both effectively prepped audiences for the highlight, the Bangkok Theatre Festival in November.

This festival's format and organisation seemed to solidify in this fifth edition. How the Bangkok Theatre Network will take it further - possibly expanding beyond Banglamphu, for example - remains to be seen.

In 2006 we also witnessed theatre guru Kamron Gunatilaka's return to the stage, and the Crescent Moon Theatre was once again rejuvenated.

Now, what's waiting in the wings for next year?

The most highly anticipated development is, without a doubt, the opening of the Ratchadalai Theatre at the Esplanade entertainment complex on Ratchadapisek Road.

A new musical, "Fa Charot Sai", is scheduled to inaugurate the venue in May. Then "Banlang Mek: The Musical" may soon after be revived there.

This fully equipped, Broadway-standard, 1,500-seat proscenium playhouse will wow audiences, but some may wonder how long its big-budget productions can last in a year and how many there will be.

While most newly built playhouses around the world have more than one stage, of different sizes and configurations, to facilitate a wide variety of theatre, the millionaires behind the Ratchadalai believe grander is better. Despite the name, Bangkok's Esplanade is quite different from the one in Singapore.

Meanwhile Patravadi Theatre's Manop Meechamrat is working on a new production, his re-interpretation of "Sang Thong", with puppets, and towards the end of the year the Bangkok Fringe Festival will return.

Dream Box will start the year with the biggest reunion of the cast members of "Sam Khon Onlaweng", a once-popular TV comedy series.

Then a Thai translation of West End long-running thriller "Woman in Black" will send thrills and chills through the Bangkok Theatre at Metropolis.

Soon afterwards "Koo Karma: The Musical" will be re-staged, and another musical adaptation from the popular novel "Nam Sai Chai Ching" is also in the making.

Certainly there will be the sixth Bangkok Theatre Festival in November, plus, hopefully, many other feasts of stagework, like the third International Butoh Festival.

The writer can be contacted via Pawit.M@ chula.ac.th.

Pawit Mahasarinand

The Nation