Plays to Watch This July 2015: The Normal Heart and 33 Variations

I am so proud of our local theater actors as they have been brave enough to mount really good material for plays this year. I saw in an interview that Helen Mirren is still thinking of doing Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, but PETA already staged it earlier this year with Cherie Gil essaying the role that Helen Mirren wants.

I just learned that two really good plays are going to be staged here as well, this one, The Normal Heart, which was written in the 80s when AIDS was slowly decimating America's gay population and 33 Variations, the vehicle Jane Fonda to return to Broadway. Both plays are Tony awardees as well and were nominated for Best Play the year they were staged. Also, most of the roles in these two plays have been played by Hollywood A-listers so the material should be very good.

I am more interested though in 33 Variations since I want to see how they would stage Beethoven during his time and whoever plays Jane Fonda, in the present, knowing that the group staging it is known for minimalist stage props.

The last great material I saw about AIDS was HBO's Angels in America - which was very moving and I thought, no other material could possibly top this. Let's see where The Normal Heart is coming from.

Theatre Review: Cock by Mike Bartlett

Cock, the play written by Mike Bartlett presents what could happen when a gay man falls in love with a woman while he's still in a relationship with another gay man!  Talk about art mirroring real life! 

Buti na lang naka-move on na ako, when I watched this, otherwise, baka makasampal pa ako ng babae, chos!

Anyway, I didn't read the synopsis of the play before I went to watch, so ayun, Em just casually mentioned it in the car while we were going to Whitespace.  The play is very British in language and attitude - everything is witty, reserved and done with modicum, politeness and grace - even the sex sounds very British!  

If I wrote a Filipino version of a similar theme, which I could adapt from what happened in my own life, there would be fireworks, sampalan, sabunutan, sex in the car, lots of kissing, and a soundtrack that would include OneRepublic, Fall Out Boy and a dramatic scene during a Zedd concert. Chos! gawa na ang play sa utak ko haha!

Going back to Cock, I am really glad that Red Turnip is coming out with these provocative adult-themed plays and I was so happy to hear they sold out their last two playdates! Bravo to the cast and to the director Rem Zamora!  Sex sells talaga even if no one took their clothes off that day! ;) Filipino actors can really give justice to any material, wherever they may have come from!

Theatre Review: So Many Reasons To Love Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah - Ze Muzikal

I had so much fun tonight watching the musical Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah! I watched the movie - a MMFF entry a few Decembers back but man, the live musical is A HUNDRED TIMES better than the movie!! The movie does not even begin to capture all the quirky characters in this musical - and there are plenty of them!!

I actually didn't know that Eula Valdez can sing! She can sing live! Wow! She's so comfortable in the role and yeah, she's very sexy as the female version of Ada! You can't hide too many flabs in that costume! The oohs and aahhs soon as she came out were really justified! Pinky Amador, as usual, was a delight to watch! She was just flawless in with her English dialogue and she commanded the stage with so much confidence! The guy who plays Zsa Zsa's sidekick was a one-man tour de force - it was like watching a very raw Jon Santos! He just knew when to make the right jokes and adlibs!

I love my seat because I was four rows from the stage and on the left side. The reason is, all the shirtless scenes Rocky and some of the cute ensemble members were in front of me - at the same eye-level as the actors! Yum yum! It was like they were dancing - solely for me! And since this is a gay-themed musical - expect several dancing shirtless scenes!

However, if you are seated on the right side, make sure you get an aisle seat. There are many scenes in the musical where they pass right through here. You can actually reach out and touch them - but that would disturb the flow of the musical - and their concentration. Maybe in their exit in the end.

I also love the Amazonistas! I was very happy there were many Noranians in the audience! We all got the jokes on her!! Kay Vilma, di masyado. I think they should've used, "Si Val, si Val, si Val na walang malay...." or maybe that scene in Relasyon with Christopher de Leon. Everyone also had a great time poking fun on the amazona playing Sharon C. Yeah, the billboard joke always works! As for Wilma Doesnt who was Dina B, it was her singing that brought the house down!

Frankly, this is the most fun I've had in watching a musical since Mamma Mia ages ago in the West End! This musical has been remade several times, I've heard, but rest assured that it's updated with the times - as in all the jokes are now in the post-FB Twitter world - making it quite timeless! They even use "anakiss" here - from that "junakiss" comedian!!

And they all adlib very well! When some particles of the 'stone' which was cotton candy, fell to the floor, Ada, who had to eat 'the stone' just gamely picked up all the left overs on the floor - and ATE IT! "Sayang eh", he says - to the roaring approval of the audience. And in the intermission - the gayspeak is flawlessly funny - shades of bekimon's genius!

Well, apparently now, in musicals, they allow the cast members to pose with the audience after the show, so I wasted no time having pictures with most of the more famous members of the cast! They were all very accommodating and I took full advantage of it!

Well, they still have one more week to go so if you want to have a night of unadulterated laughter - this musical should really cheer you up!!

And yeah, we gave them a standing ovation in the end! The girl beside me was so vocal with her approval, she was hooting all throughout the show. She was shameless!! I wish were that shameless! But they deserved all the cheers they got from the audience tonight. I spoke to one of the ensemble girls and she said the audience tonight was really alive! Lucky me!!

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Theatre Review: Maliw

The second play that I saw for the currently running Eyeball: New Visions in Philippine Theater series is "Maliw", which, like Isang Araw Sa Karnabal, also involves searching, or in this case, waiting for a loved one.  This time, it's their younger daughter who is now a desaparecido and the ones waiting are two folks in the twilight of their years.  It's quite a poignant play since it shows how people cope with losing loved ones, especially in this case where they never found her body.  Their resiliency is already a display of their courage.  In "Maliw" though, the daughter "returns" and has a final interaction with her mother.  Frankly, I could always see Jonas Burgos Mom being that mother on the stage and it's sad that the ones who took her son don't even care to tell her the truth!  Such cowardice!

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Theatre Review: Isang Araw Sa Karnabal

I caught two plays from the currently running Eyeball: New Visions in Philippine Theater at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Sunday.  One of the plays was entitled "Isang Araw Sa Karnabal", written by Nicolas Pichay, a play which won the Palanca Award in the One Act Play category.


Sheenly Gener and Yul Servo served as the couple in this show that I caught and the play was quite interesting since it interposed a love story into a case of a daughter left by a desaparesido.  It was alternately funny and sad and there was never a dull moment as you slowly discover what this relationship is really about.  Sheenly's character has never found her father and because of that, she's now having issues about it, while Yul, plays her boyfriend, who, only appears to Sheenly now, after disappearing for a few months.  All these issues are discussed and acted out and you really feel that a denouement and a climax is reached in the end when both characters thresh those issues out.

It's a pity they had to play to a thin crowd.  More Filipinos should know about what the CCP is offering since their works are not only entertaining but thought-provoking too!

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"No Filipinos and dogs allowed"

Yes, that sign really existed in 1930's California, and you can just imagine how our "manongs" felt when they saw those - as they toiled under the bright California sky - helping a country who saw them no better than dogs.  Well, I do hope they bring the play "The Romance of Magno Rubio" here since it details those experiences of the first wave of Filipino immigrants to the US.  That sign is also the first scene from that play.  Kinda thought-provoking, don't you think? 

Theatre Review: Grief Cuts You Like A Knife in 'Next to Normal'

Well, I think this will be the last Atlantis Production I'll be watching this year. I'm not so sure about catching Little Mermaid since I'm not really into "kids material" although I love the songs of that movie.

Anyhow, it's not easy to watch Next to Normal, since it deals with death and grief and a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown! However, the cast led by Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo makes the grief so palpable, you'd hear sniffles around you especially in the last few dramatic scenes! Menchu, in my opinion, has given the best performance by an actress among all the musicals I've seen this year. Everyone in the cast was great! I didn't know The Dawn's Jett Pangan could act! Well, his singing was clear and full of emotion! The daughter, played by Bea Garcia is cute as a button and she did fine as well! My favorite theater actor, Felix Rivera is on top of his game here, as he always is, and since I was near the stage, I could really hear how nice and high his voice was since he did a lot of second voice and high notes! It was so beautiful to hear! Well, easily the cutest among an already goodlooking cast is Markki Stroem, and it didn't show that he was a neophyte in theater acting amidst a very talented cast! He could act and sing at the same time! I don't know why they don't give him more projects on that channel!

Anyhow, except for Jett Pangan, I got pictures again with the very affable cast! Aside from PETA, the Atlantis Production cast are the most approachable among the theater groups in the city. Well, include the Dulaang CCP also in that list! They were also quite kwela! It just makes theater watching more interesting since you get to interact with the cast just right after the play

Theatre Review: PETA Gives Shakespeare a Contemporary Voice in 'William'

Watching this play gave me memories of high school Shakespeare. It's funny that subjects that used to terrorize us before continues to do so on today's youth, 20 years after taking it!  I don't blame them.  I grappled through Shakespeare till second year college when we took it in Humanities 1!  That time, we even had to study his sonnets!  Que horror!

Anyhow, 'William' is a clever production from PETA (Philippine Educational Theatre Association), where they use rap and hip hop to defuse the fears of today's youth whenever they pick up that intimidating book containing the Bard's plays.  Through music and the use of contemporary plots (a wife working abroad, broken families, discovering one's homosexuality), the play was effective (at least on the day I saw it) in bringing to the very young audience, the complex yet relevant messages of Shakespeare! 

My favorite scene was when one of the actors did Shylock's monologue from The Merchant of Venice.  It was exactly the same monologue I did for English class almost 25 years ago!  Of course with less dramatic flair than what the actor did.  It was great that the writer chose several famous monologues of the Bard and infused it into the lives of each of the characters.  At least it would make it less intimidating for the students and it would transcend their usual choice of Romeo and Juliet.  Mind you, each of the main characters did their own respective monologues!  Hmmm....I'm sure the writer also did that in his own English class in high school!

Interestingly, I might watch one of Shakespeare's most violent plays this weekend in UP - Titus Andronicus.  That would be a totally different experience I'm sure.  And I think it's going to be in Filipino - patay!

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Theatre Review: "In The Heights" Not So Farfetched from the Pinoy American Dream!

I didn't know that I would put my Spanish language skills into use while watching In the Heights - a Tony award winning play whose main characters are immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I think 20% of the musical was either sung or spoken in Spanish. Even the voice over during the break and before the show began, was in Spanish! "Descanso por quinze minutos!" "Que calor" "Amame, besame, llamame" - anyone with a basic working knowledge of Spanish would certainly appreciate the musical and now I know I can confidently interact with Latinos based in New York - although as the musical states - even Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish have major differences! My friends who work in Spanish language call centers would know that best.

Anyhow, it was great to see Jackie Lou Blanco and Calvin Millado on stage again! They both did wonderful turns as a couple whose daughter was undergoing a personal crisis. Also, it was a welcome sight to see Nyoy Volante rap - and he can rap really well! He's a natural! So don't be fooled by all the acoustic music he has limited himself on doing. He can actually do much more than sing a forlorn love song! And he can act too - since he's actually played Usnavi, the lead character of the musical.

Felix Rivera and Ima Castro are wonderful and excellent as always. However, the revelation in the musical for me is the girl who played Nina and her name is K-La Rivera. It's the first time I've seen her in any of the local musicals and she's quite refreshing to watch - a pretty face with a damn pretty voice too!

My favorite sequences was the part where they dance the salsa and the merengue, what else! Nothing like energetic Latin dancing to celebrate life!

A Fantastic Night With the Cast of Sweet Charity

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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Theater Review: Floy Quintos' "Fake"

I just watched my tenth theatre play or musical of the year, this afternoon, and this time, I decided to hit the universities - this time, choosing UP Playwrights Theatre's "Fake", which is on an extended run this weekend, according to the group's marketing team.  Actually, I read an article about the play in Inquirer, and I decided to check it out since there are big names behind it, like Leo Rialp, Ces Quesada and Tony Mabesa.

Well, it is a thought-provoking play!  It delves with stuff that we've taken as truth and the play has exposed them as fakes (although of course, we know already that they were fakes).  That includes an apparition of the Virgin Mary, the Tasadays, and the veracity of the Code of Kalantiao. 

I especially like the second part of the play where Joel Lamangan, who plays the guy who claims to have discovered the Code of Kalantiao, delivers a tour de force performance along with Alya Honasan.  The kid there, Ross Pesigan, is a revelation and Gerard Pizarras as well, who appears in both acts.

I try not to analyze the play too much since I really just watch this for entertainment, but it makes you think about how easy and gullible we are too accept as truth, those which are actually just fabricated lies.  I remember studying the Code of Kalantiao and the Tasaday tribe in grade school!! And they turned out to be both fakes!! Que horror!!  Where are our historians when you need them?  Anyhow, I think we live in a more meticulous age since everything is eyed with more care due to the advances in technology and the speed of transmission of data. It would be interesting to know if another "fake" event or information comes into our national consciousness - and we accept them as fact - because we really need to - during a moment of collective national weakness!

Theater Review: If Their Voices were the Costumes, 'Aida' Is Surely Pure Gold!

Ok, ok!  I wanted to watch the musical because I wanted to see the costumes and the sets!  It's set in Egypt after all and Cleopatra and Nefertiti were Egyptian queens known for their beauty and dazzling wardrobe!  But anyhow, since the most expensive ticket would only come to about 30 pounds, I would understand why they could not approximate a West End set or costumes.  Because an Aida in West End would normally cost five times that price for a front seat ticket, so I guess they have more budget for those things. 

Anyhow, the cast dazzled in the area that mattered most, and that is their vocal interpretation of the musical's music - which in itself is so moving already!  The revelation of the night was that cute guy Josh Santana!  I think he stole the show from the three leads - Myke Salomon, Ima Castro and Rachel Alejandro - who were all very good already!  Veteran Hajji Alejandro also gets a role and he still has a strong voice, even after all these years!