Nikki Gil Shines in The Last Five Years

Nikki Gil continues surprise me with each theater role that she does. Although her role here in The Last Five Years as Cathy, is not as flashy or funny as her earlier roles in Legally Blonde and Sweet Charity - I think she sang well tonight, even eliciting some laughs from the audience when she did the funny 'Cathy as the actress in a play' routine.

It's always great to see her do at least one major theater role each year!

And I love her hair last night! So Maria Makiling with the curls!

Best Actress - Musical 2011 Nominees: MyFABE Theater Awards

I started watching local theater, seriously again this year.  I saw thirteen different plays and musicals this year and from those, I have come out with my own MyFABE Theater Awards for 2011. 

I have mulled over this list for the past 11 months and in my opinion, these are the five best performances by an actress in a musical for 2011.

BEST ACTRESS MUSICAL

Ima Castro - Aida

Nikki Gil - Sweet Charity

Menchu Lauchengco - Next to Normal

K-la Rivera - In the Heights

Eula Valdez - Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah

The winner will be announced on December 31, 2011.

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Theatre Review: The Rousing 'You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown'

Me with Lorenz Martinez who played, well you guessed it, SNOOPY!

Me with Carla Guevara-Laforteze who played Lucy, Charlie Brown's sister

Me with local acting legend, Michael de Mesa

Me with Charlie Brown played by Robbie Guevara

Me with Franco Laurel

Me with Sweet Plantado who played Sally - she was definitely the wackiest among them all!

Me with Colleen Garcia and Gabe Valenciano

Mama with Nikki Gil and Iya Villania

I am actually not a fan of the comic strip but since I"m a fan of any musical, especially something done by a local theatre group, I still decided to watch the latest offering by 9Works Theatrical! And I was glad I did! Mama actually enjoyed it too - and like her - we were pretty impressed by everyone's performance!  There were funny sketches and interesting songs in the musical which made up for a great night of theater! The singing was particularly strong and it was great to hear a real live band backing them up.  Canned music doesn't really sound right.  I would still prefer live playing!  Anyway, I am looking forward to the group's next offering.  I didn't see anything that night that suggested it.

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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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