It stars Karylle Tatlonghari and Christian Bautista, two popular singers in the Phillippines. Maddie (Ms. Tatlonghari) is fresh out of a Parisian culinary school and working as a sous chef at her father’s restaurant, while Daniel (Mr. Bautista) is her childhood friend and shoulder to cry on. Selena, played by Hong Kong model Rosemary Vandenbroucke, is the scheming sommelier with her eyes set on Alex, a perfectionist executive chef played by British actor Stephen Rahman-Hughes. Arthur Acuña plays Harry, the general manager.
Maddie, who believes the menu needs an overhaul, has to contend with her colleagues and learns she can’t always get her way by being daddy’s girl.
In the first episode, the cast covers “Maneater” by Nelly Furtado, “Unwell” by Matchbox 20 and “For Your Entertainment” by Adam Lambert. The show’s rendition of the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” forms its opening sequence.
The music-drama-food combo “homes in on Asia’s passion for the three,” said Christopher James, executive vice president of network development at the Group Entertainment, a Singapore company that produces “
The Kitchen Musical.”
The Group Entertainment’s founder and creative director, Cheah Chee Kong, also known as CheeK, is a former exec in charge of Chinese-language programming at Star TV. A kitchen-based musical is something new, particularly one “where the food also shares the limelight,” he said in an emailed response to queries.
Actors had to learn their lines as well as dancing and chopping skills, starting with a four-week boot camp that ranged from rehearsals to lessons on plating. Ms. Tatlonghari went as far as to start blogging about food with her sister last year, and has started a new blog called “Mad About Food,” in honor of Maddie, the character she plays.
Musicals on TV have gained traction among young Asian audiences, said Wolfgang Muench, dean of the media arts faculty at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore.
“It is timely and inevitable that such concepts would be reinterpreted for the Asian markets,” he said. “The Kitchen Musical has been aptly set in an environment where food is left, right and center, thus appealing to Singapore and the rest of Asia.”
Mr. James said the U.S. has expressed interest in the show, and that the company is working with Ben Silverman, the former NBC Entertainment co-chairman who brought “The Office” and “Ugly Betty” to American soil. Electus, Mr. Silverman’s studio, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
