I'm sure all of you know Beyonce's video for "Get Me Bodied". Remember the fantastic choreography of that song? I do. I remember the first time I saw it, I was just really blown away by its "originality". Turned out the whole choreography in that video was inspired (frame by frame) by a dance sequence in the musical I watched tonight, Sweet Charity - thanks to the legendary choreographer Bob Fosse (who also choreographed Chicago). How did our local cast fare? Well, they did every single move right! From the swaying of the hips to the "Egyptian style" of walking - they nailed it! They wore white though, while in the original, they were all in black. And yes, they smoked!!
Soon as the dancers came out to do the Rich Man's Frug, the oohhs and ahhhs just came and the audience clapped lustily after that lengthy number. They did clap in almost all the songs as this great cast headed by Nikki Gil just really shows we are at par with what Broadway or the West End can offer. It just really amazes me how talented Filipinos are as musical artists! And yes, they did have a live orchestra tonight, which really made the proceedings much much more enjoyable. The sound of a live trumpet is just so different if they just taped the music.
All the classices were well done, "Big Spender", "If They Could See Me Now" and "The Rhythm of Life". Interestingly, I now understand the context of the song The Rhythm of Life. This musical was set in the 60s and hippie religion was the rage. Though the message of the song is really positive, with the rampant drug use that went with hippie religion, the song gets a more full-bodied meaning!
Well, the only celebrities I failed to get a picture of tonight was with Vice Ganda and Jon Avila. Since the normally snooty theatre crowd rarely warms up to them, nahiya na rin me to ask for pictures. Anyhow, the cast was warm enough to pose for pics - and that's what I really like about theater - you really get to say congratulations and thank you to the performers after the show. Instant gratification for them! And instant facebook posting for me! Billy Crawford was of course there to support Nikki Gil. Ciarra Sotto can actually sing and perform! Also, Kris Lawrence who played Nikki's love interest was so different onstage, I only learned now that it was him who did the part! Sayang! Iya who was there to support fellow VJ Nikki, was nice enough to pose for pics too. Sheree Bautista, who played support among the dancers, was also great too! I am not very familiar with the group that staged this show and I heard they did Rent and Legally Blonde last year. Incidentally, one of their support staff is my gym mate in hip hop class, so at least now, she can tell me if they're staging another show.
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