Love according to Next Fall

I am watching this tomorrow! I just hope it's entertaining, or at least, thought-provoking. It looks like it is! Anything that incorporates "religion" into the gay lifestyle is bound to encounter many land mines in it. I actually have stopped rationalizing my being gay from my religion (I'm Catholic, que horror!) I grew up in a generation where people tell me point blank that because I was gay, I will go to hell. Now, how is a 10-year old gay boy supposed to react to that?  Love according to 'Next Fall'

Repertory's The Graduate: God Bless You Please Mrs. Robinson!

I've heard a lot of nice things about the movie The Graduate but I haven't actually seen the movie yet - which is good really, because when I saw the play version of it done by our very own Repertory Philippines tonight, everything came to me fresh and funny and delightful and crazy. There's a term nowadays for women like Mrs. Robinson - a cougar, but don't expect the storyline to revolve around her. It's really a love story but I wouldn't want to give anything away, just watch the play! Everyone is amazing in it!! We were lucky to have talked to Reb Atadero after the play and surprisingly he told us he has never even seen the movie version - to think I told him I could see Dustin do those physical things he had to do last night. Pinky Marquez was even more amazing and incredibly sweet in person! How she played her character reminded me of the women in the Ang Lee movie, The Ice Storm, terribly bored middle class housewives, just clutching on whatever affection they can still get knowing that love has flown off their own marital beds. Even the supporting actors were great! It's amazing how a simple slump of the shoulder could change Joel Trinidad's countenance from bartender to shrink to hotel clerk! I'm really glad that the Rep does adult-themed plays from time to time. I know it's a big risk box-office wise so I really hope more people get to see it in it's last run this coming weekend.

Repertory Philippines: Boeing Boeing is Fun Fun

            I love the fact that the Repertory Philippines always chooses an adult-themed play as their first offering of the year.  Last year, they had Next Fall – which was a gay-themed play – and this year, it’s Boeing Boeing – a playful piece of theater where three gorgeous stewardesses have, well, one boyfriend!  What a cad! 

Anyway, trust the Rep actors to really give full on performances!  I mean, all the three stewardesses looked really gorgeous!!  I mean, if I were straight – I would’ve really enjoyed just watching these three vixens – played by Giannina Ocampo, Carla Dunareanu and Jennifer Blair Bianco play their roles to the hilt – which they did – and as an added treat – they even wore lingerie!  Wow!! That was fun to watch!!  So if you’re a red-blooded man, better head to Onstage at Greenbelt and watch this really funny play.  Yeah, there are some men in it, but it’s really the women who steal the show – and that includes the venerable Joy Virata who plays the, well, French maid!

Theatre Review: The Riot that is the Leading Ladies

with Gianina Ocampo, one of the cutest female actresses I've seen these past two years, and she's a very good actress! This is actually the first time I saw her in any production.

with Topper Fabregas, one of the "Leading Ladies". It's one thing to watch actors do drag in a movie, but to see it done in real time in a theatre where it's tick tock tick tock to do costume changes and voice inflections, I raise my hat to this guy!

with James Stacey, the other "leading lady". He looks fabulous in his dresses and he has this one incredible scene where he sashays onstage from a suit and then seconds later, in a fabulous purple gown - without skipping a beat in changing his voice and assuming the character.

Repertory's latest offering, 'Leading Ladies', is one riot of a play! The play is about two down-on-their-luck actors who stumble into a newspaper article about an old and dying woman who is searching desperately for her long-lost nieces, who she last saw as kids. She wants to bequeath 3 million dollars to them and wants to see them before she dies. Sensing this as their opportunity out of their miserable theatre gigs, the two actors dive in! What happens next? Well, you'd just have to watch the play because these guys and the rest of the cast do a fantastic job in keeping the hilarious play in motion. Frankly, you'd never notice the two hours pass by as scene after scene ups the ante in comedic errors - including a very funny seduction scene of mistaken identities!

I love Cris Villonco here. She's so Stepford Wives-ish here, from the way she talks to the way she sashays onstage in those fabulous clothes of hers. Gianina Ocampo is very cute and bubbly here and she plays the ditzy role to the hilt. The two "leading ladies", James Stacey and Topper Fabregas are topnotch! Unbelievable really! Cross-dressing men in movies are one thing, but to do it onstage, where the clock goes tick tock tick tock during costume changes - whew - they just pull it off so well! And they have to check their voices too to make sure they are in the character they are trying to pull off.

Everyone else in the cast is funny and superb as well! Each of their characters have their own quirks which keeps everything interesting.

The set drew an ooh of an approval from the mostly student audience and it does look great! The sound effects help create the ambience needed and the costumes are outrageous and stylish as well, depending on who's wearing them.

It was great to see an almost full audience today (the theater looked 80% occupied), since almost 80% of the audience were students. It was certainly an enjoyable way to spend one's Sunday!

The play runs for one more week so better catch it before it finishes its run.

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The Foxy Kalila Aguilos in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I rarely write about women in theater but I just have to write about Kalila Aguilos because this is the first time I've noticed her and it's very rare for a theater actress to be as sexy and foxy as Sam Pinto but still have that voice that could rival our own theater gem, Lea Salonga. That's not common among theater actresses.

I also just love her voice! When she sang in Jekyll and Hyde this afternoon, it was as if a nightingale was singing as her voice wafted through the Onstage theater - to think that her role here was a hooker!

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Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo: Making the Local Theatre Experience More Exciting

with Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo

Mama with Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo

I actually sat near her last Saturday during the last show of 9Works Theatrical's You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.  I first saw Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo in Next to Normal last year, when I decided to experience local theater again, and just like thousands who saw her performance, we all came away from the theater holding our hankies - and of course, marveling at her exemplary performance!

I have learned since then that she has been the current guiding for for our local Repertory Company and I'm happy to say that the last three Repertory shows I've seen - 39 Steps, Next Fall and Leading Ladies, have been some of the best theater experiences I've had this past year!  I am actually excited and really looking forward to their current season.  I will be watching Jeckyll and Hyde two weeks from now.  The book is one of my all-time favorites, so I'm really curious how it turns out as a musical.  Well, under Menchu's careful guidance, I'm sure it's going to be another very entertaining show!

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Theatre Review: Next Fall Hits Close to the Heart

With the legendary Miguel Faustmann - god, he's such a good actor- y el es un hispanohablante tambien!

With Niccolo Manahan, a new discovery, at least for me, he's really cute in person and tall haha!

One of the stalwarts of local Philippine theater, Bart Guingona - this guy can play anything!

With co-theatre buff MM, whose season tickets allowed us to have center second row seats - lovett!! thanks MM!!

It's great to see a gay-themed play from time to time.  Well, it rarely happens here in Manila, but when I travel abroad, like in London, there are gay-themed plays everytime, especially during the summer.

So anyway, we have been quite lucky lately that the Repertory Philippines decided to stage the gay-themed play, Next Fall.  The play has a very New York feel to it - from the stage props to the way the characters talk (since the play was originally an off-Broadway play in 2009) - and the Rep did a great job in achieving both that look in both the stage and in the way the characters act.

I think I understand why the Rep brought the play here.  In a country which is predominantly Roman Catholic, it would be a good dinner conversation topic to find out how the local gay men deal with their own feelings towards reconciling their religion with their being gay.  And that is the theme which permeates this play - the very interesting relationship between a guy who has a deep Christian faith, and his lover, who maybe labeled an atheist, who does not really care about his lover's faith - or so he thinks.

Well, you'd have to watch the play to see how the whole thing pans out.  If you are homophobic or feel uneasy about two grown men being tender to each other (kissing, horsing around) - better steer clear of this. But if you want to experience how the other half lives, then be brave and watch this one!

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Michael Williams: Superb as Dr. Jekyll

I last saw him in last year's 39 Steps, where he was nominated for Best Actor in a Play for my PinkFoxPatrol Theater Awards for 2011 - and he was pretty funny in that play!  This year, though, he plays an even more challenging role as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  I know I already wrote about his acting in the review of this musical, but it's just that some performances stand out from the rest that it's worth writing aboutit in another blog article.  The theater season this year is still young (it's only the end of March) but most of the guys who would want to win the PinkFoxPatrol Best Actor in a Musical award for this year, may have a tough act to follow as Michael's performance here is the one to beat, as of yet, this year.

It's difficult to elicit fear in a live musical, but my friend and I were actually afraid of what he would do as his character killed and killed and killed with wanton evil. You would actually really hate Mr. Hyde here but of course, you'd realize, only one person is playing both, so to convey that feeling for a person was quite remarkable for me.

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