[Inquirer editorial, Dec. 25, 2010]
PERHAPS IT'S a carryover from the goodwill brought on by the change in administration early this year—an event which, barring poisonous controversies like the still unresolved “Hello, Garci,” always engenders hope that this time, finally, the government would get its act together and put the country on the right path.
Or perhaps it’s the Filipinos’ fabled—or notorious, depending on one’s point of view—capacity for resilience and optimism, which has seen the race endure more than its share of those proverbial slings and arrows of misfortune, with a smile on its face and a trademark joke or two to tide it through the grim times.
Whatever the reason, the new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations showing that nearly seven out of 10 Filipinos expect a happy Christmas this year—69 percent, up from last year’s 64 percent, and a marked improvement from the “flat” 62-64 percent range measured in the last six years—is a reassuring indication that the Pinoy spirit, continually battered though it may be, remains indestructible, stout-hearted—and hopeful.
One could look at that unyielding cheerfulness as a weakness—an impairment of character that has allowed the country to coast along on mediocrity, eventually forgiving everything, no matter how outrageous or heinous, with a shrug and a giggle. In less than a generation—way shorter than the time it took them to bring a once prosperous, even-keeled country to heel—the Marcoses have waltzed back into the scene, their crimes not even meriting a pesky footnote in the fluff pieces that have assiduously covered their political and social resurrections.
Similarly, just a year back, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the most despised political figure in the country, her administration mired in the blackest repute. These days, it’s a safe bet her and her minions’ misconduct in office is slowly fading from public memory, the outrage now supplanted by the show-biz controversy of the moment, or the latest faux pas by a new administration seemingly intent on making a cottage industry of baffling, small-bore incompetence—from the “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” fiasco to the error-filled new currency that, among other puzzlements, rewrote the map of the archipelago.
However, in that pathological penchant for seeing the glass as half-full, one might also see something different: a survival gene. That indomitable character trait could be a gift—an extra strain that provides emotional stability and good-naturedness even in the bleakest of situations. An anchor, in effect, that becomes a crucial tool for continued sanity. In which case, harnessed properly, that sturdy sense of hope could not only keep this nation afloat, it could also nudge it into catching the right wind toward its rightful destination.
The more heartening part of the SWS survey, in fact, is not so much that so many Filipinos still keep faith in the notion that their country will eventually right itself. It is that their values, for all the crass commercialism of the Christmas holidays, appear to remain firmly glued to the right place. Majority of the respondents, when asked what they wanted to receive as Christmas gifts, indicated non-material gifts—“Love/affection” was on top at 29 percent, followed by “family togetherness/family relations” at 17 percent.
More astoundingly, the happy, hopeful feeling was strongest among the class D of society—the masa—at 70 percent, followed by class E (67 percent) and class ABC (65 percent). The most economically miserable, it seems, find meaning in constructing the greatest rampart of hope.
That sounds very much like what Christmas at its core is—not the tinsel and the bling, the partying and ersatz bonhomie, but “the season of hope,” as it has been called, a moment of renewed faith that, with the coming of a promised Savior to cleanse humanity of its excesses, the better angels of one’s nature will henceforth be better heard, and help bring about a better life.
So the Philippines celebrates the longest Christmas in the world? Not a mystery—it’s the ritual closest to the Pinoy’s invincible, eternally expectant heart.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
How America won public support for its imperial adventure in the Philippines
Photo from the Burns Archive, “a collection of historic images that uncover our astonishing past.” Caption from the Newsweek slideshow excerpting rare and unusual images from the collection, including “pictures of slaves freed and a black man lynched, of policemen posing beside the Ku Klux Klan, of a Nazi fighter pilot, an Italian assassin, Japanese geishas, medical oddities, a man tarred and feathered, the victims of the infamous Tuskegee experiment... and photographs of dead people lovingly arranged by loved ones for a departing portrait.”
Atlantis Productions brings Next to Normal to Manila--March 2011
Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo (as Diana), one of Philippine musical theater’s most accomplished actresses, and rock star/theater actor Jett Pangan (as Dan) star in this production. They take on two of the most demanding roles written for musical theater, originated on the Broadway stage by Tony Award-winning actress Alice Ripley and J.Robert Spencer.
Other cast members include Felix Rivera as Gabe, Bea Garcia as Natalie and Markki Stroem as Henry.
In “Next to Normal,” Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (book/lyrics) puts a woman’s lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder and depression center stage--in a musical. The two earned the 2009 Tony Award for Best Score and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for their work.
“Without 'Rent' and Stephen Sondheim, there is no 'Next to Normal,'” Kitt and Yorkey said, in an interview with Playbill.com following their Pulitzer Prize win.
“We’ve always been moved and inspired to write material that maybe says something a little different through musical theater. I think at the very beginning, when we set out to write this, we just wanted to write something that mattered to us, something that felt maybe that it hadn’t been explored in musical theater before. But never could we have imagined in our wildest dreams that we’d be here.”
Fresh from his critically acclaimed staging of “A Little Night Music” in Manila and Singapore, Bobby Garcia directs the Manila production of “Next to Normal,” which is the first licensed English language production outside the United States.
Garcia says, “I am thrilled that Atlantis is opening 2011 with a show as groundbreaking and as powerful as 'Next to Normal.' It is one of the most unlikely hit musicals to have ever opened on a Broadway stage, and I am thrilled we will get to create our own unique family for this production. When I saw 'Next to Normal' off-Broadway two years ago and on Broadway last year, I was once again excited for the future of musical theater.”
The Manila production is presented through a special licensing agreement with Music Theater International.
Shows are also now available for show-buying and fund-raising opportunities with excellent returns on investment. It is the perfect show to raise money for one's organization, foundation or charity.
“Next to Normal” runs March 11-27, 2011 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati. For information, call Atlantis Productions 8927078 or 8401187.
[Image from Overtures and Finales]
PLUS: Original Broadway cast members Alice Ripley, J. Robert Spencer and Aaron Tveit perform two numbers from the musical at the 2009 Tony Awards.
Monday, December 20, 2010
BRAVO! BEST OF THEATER 2010: Year of reruns and musicals
Philippine Daily Inquirer, 12.20.2010
Noticeable was the dip in new original material
Martin de los Santos, Bodjie Pascua and Bembol Roco in PETA's “Ang Post Office,” adapted by Rody Vera from Rabindranath Tagore's “The Post Office,” directed by Gardy Labad
THE DOWNTURN that has affected the rest of the world in the past two years seems to have settled on local theater as well in 2010.
Dulaang UP announced an all-revival season, beginning with its 2008 blockbuster “Orosman at Zafira” to tide it over a rough financial patch.
Tanghalang Pilipino, while still eking out a season of four productions (of uneven quality and attendance), was in similar straits. It has said that, next year, it will also rely on restagings to boost its coffers.
Peta’s early months were given over to the election-advocacy musical “Si Juan Tamad, Ang Diyablo at ang Limang Milyong Boto” which had begun its run late last year. It scored another hit in “Ang Post Office,” but had a fast-disappearing show in “Rated: PG” (which we failed to catch--its non-inclusion here not a judgment on its merits either way).
In place of serious drama, musicals of all stripes reigned--from the pan-Asian exertions of Asia On Stage’s “DragonTales” to Spotlight Artists Centre’s sprightly revival of “Magsimula Ka!” to Dulaang UP revisiting Floy Quintos’ “Isang Panaginip na Fili” and 9 Works Theatrical bringing back “Rent” to Manila.
TP got on board by adapting Lope K. Santos’ seminal Tagalog novel “Banaag at Sikat” into a so-called indie-rock musical. And if the Philippine Opera Company’s “Master Class” wasn’t strictly a musical, it was still a rerun--movie icon Cherie Gil having first played Callas in 2008.
Atlantis Productions paced the music fest with a returning “Avenue Q” and three new glittery, leading-lady-heavy Broadway imports (“Legally Blonde,” “Xanadu” and “A Little Night Music”).
Repertory Philippines had an intense entry in Peter Shaffer’s intellectual drama “Equus,” but it really achieved its peak with its year-end big musical, “Little Women.”
It was as if the doldrums of the moment didn’t need any more underlining by chest-heaving, furrowed-brow stories onstage--hence the overload of cheery, feel-good entertainment, most of them of foreign bent.
That left the Virgin Labfest, now on its sixth year, the sole reliable font of homegrown, all-original dramatic material, if only in one-act form.
Except that, this year, the Labfest seemed to have plateaued, too. Many of its entries showed polish and proficiency, but none matched the potent, provocative impact made by, say, last year’s standouts--“Doc Resurreccion: Gagamutin ang Bayan” (by Layeta Bucoy) and “Isang Araw sa Karnabal” (by Nicolas Pichay).
Interesting but smallish visions dotted the festival lineup--which made the announcement the Labfest would begin producing full-length plays next year a welcome level-up move.
For purposes of this round-up, reruns and revivals, first appraised during their original runs, were no longer considered, but new performers stepping into these shows were. The Andrew Lloyd Webber behemoth “Cats,” an all-foreign production except for Lea Salonga as Grizabella, was likewise not included.
Here, then, are what we consider the best of Manila theater in 2010.
Best Play (One-Act)
No citation.
Honorable mentions: “Balunbalunan, Bingi-bingihan” (Debbie Ann Tan, writer; Issa Lopez, director); “Suor Clara” (Floy Quintos, writer/dir.); “Higit Pa Dito” (Allan Lopez; Tuxqs Rutaquio, dir.)
Best Play (Full-Length)
“Ang Post Office” (Rabindranath Tagore’s “The Post Office,” Filipino translation by Rody Vera; Gardy Labad, dir.) Minor incongruities in the Indian-Filipino transposition aside, this was that rare species: a work both whimsical and profound, entertaining enough for kiddie audiences while also imbued with a wise, spiritual grace that moved and edified. The use of the Kilyawan and Loboc children’s choirs as live musical accompaniment was an inspired touch.
Honorable mentions: “American Hwangap”—Filipino version (Lloyd Suh, Filipino translation by Joi Barrios LeBlanc; Chris Millado, dir.); “Equus” (Peter Shaffer; Audie Gemora, dir.)
Best Actor-Play
Mario O’Hara (“American Hwangap”—Filipino version). Another towering performance from this evergreen titan--a pitch-perfect blend of patriarchal bluster and brokenness that anchored--made rational--the rather petty dysfunction at the heart of the play’s Korean-American family.
Honorable mentions: Martin de los Santos (“Ang Post Office”); Bembol Roco (“American Hwangap”—English version); Miguel Faustmann (“Duets”); Red Concepcion (“Equus”); Jojit Lorenzo (“Ondoy”); Lorenz Martinez (“Collector’s Item”); Paul Jake Paule and Ariel Diccion (“Carmi Martin”)
Best Actress-Play
Monique Wilson (“My Name Is Rachel Corrie”). In the year’s bravest performance, Wilson recast what could have been a firebrand part--a young American peacenik killed in Gaza--into a starkly artless, uninflected portrait of a girl’s awakening blooming into tragedy. Counter-intuitive, harrowing--and liberating.
Honorable mentions: Irma Adlawan (“Medea”); Gina Pareño (“American Hwangap”—Filipino version); Joy Virata (“Duets”); Frances Makil-Ignacio (“Suor Clara”); Missy Maramara (“Balunbalunan, Bingi-bingihan”)
Best Featured Actor-Play
Nicco Manalo (“American Hwangap”). Remarkably his fragile, unstable man-boy part would emerge as the sanest, keenest element in a contemporary household populated by outwardly normal nervous cases. Sustained, poignant, beautifully shaded acting.
Honorable mentions: Jeremy Domingo (“American Hwangap”); Mario O’Hara (“Tatlong Mariya”); Dennis Marasigan (“Tatlong Mariya”); Bodjie Pascua (“Ang Post Office”); Jules de la Paz (“Shock Value”)
Best Featured Actress-Play
Che Ramos (“Tatlong Mariya”). Her blowsy, gaudy take on the nouveau sister-in-law was both specific and metaphoric--canny enough on its own, but also an embodiment of the whirlwind of modernity that would engulf a family immobilized by ennui.
Honorable mentions: Liesl Batucan (“American Hwangap”); Ana Abad Santos (“Shock Value”); Pheona Baranda (“Equus”)
Best Musical
“Little Women” (music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, book by Allan Knee based on the Louisa May Alcott novel; Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, dir.). So-so musical transformed into an unexpectedly expressive, buoyant experience in the theater. Thoughtful and innovative, this production glowed with Lauchengco-Yulo’s astute directorial choices and actor’s feel for incident and character.
Honorable mentions: “A Little Night Music” (music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler; Bobby Garcia, dir.); “Xanadu” (music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, book by Douglas Carter Beane; Bobby Garcia, dir.); “The Wedding Singer” (music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy; Robbie Guevara, dir.); “Walang Sugat” (music by Fulgencio Tolentino, lyrics by Severino Reyes; Ricardo Abad, dir.)
Best Actor-Musical
Nonie Buencamino (“A Little Night Music”). “A beacon of clarity and exactitude, an actorly intelligence ever layering his vocals,” we wrote in our review of the show. Refusing to subsume character to musical prettiness, Buencamino’s Fredrik Egerman was, accessibly and appealingly, all flesh-and-blood.
Honorable mentions: Felix Rivera (“Xanadu”); Nazer Salcedo (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Arman Ferrer (“Walang Sugat”); Robert Seña (“Si Juan Tamad, ang Diyablo at ang Limang Milyong Boto”); Gian Magdangal (“The Wedding Singer”); Myke Salomon (“Magsimula Ka!”)
Best Actress-Musical
Caisa Borromeo (“Little Women”). Hers is a bona-fide “a star is born” performance--easily the brightest, most accomplished musical turn this year, brimming with the sweep and fire and feeling of an ingenue stepping up to her moment with destiny--and running away with it.
Honorable mentions: Dawn Zulueta (“A Little Night Music”); Janine Santos (“Walang Sugat”); Delphine Buencamino (“Orosman at Zafira”); Ayen Munji-Laurel (“Banaag at Sikat”); Cris Villonco (“Romeo and Bernadette”); Nikki Gil (“Legally Blonde”); Mica Pineda (“They’re Playing Our Song”)
Best Featured Actor-Musical
Noel Trinidad (“Xanadu”). He was gone from the boards for years, but when he came back, Trinidad showed he had lost none of the sharpness and sangfroid that must have attended the best of his performances in years past. A master class in on-stage effortlessness and style.
Honorable mentions: OJ Mariano (“Rent”); Jett Pangan (“Legally Blonde”); Leo Rialp (“Xanadu”); Dondi Ong (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Inno Martin (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Johann de la Fuente (“The Wedding Singer”); Jerald Napoles (“Magsimula Ka!”)
Best Featured Actress-Musical
Pinky Marquez (“Little Women”). Tremendous is the word for Marquez’s two musical moments in “Little Women”—the Act 2 ballad “Days of Plenty,” in particular, acquiring incandescence and majesty from her distinguished, powerful singing.
Honorable mentions: Cara Barredo (“Little Women”); Jay Glorioso, Jenny Jamora and Alys Serdenia (“A Little Night Music”); Janine Santos (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Carla Guevara-Laforteza and Mian Dimacali (“Rent”); Chari Arespacochaga and Yael Pineda (“Xanadu”); Jinky Llamanzares (“Legally Blonde”); Nicole Aldiosa (“Walang Sugat”); Kakki Teodoro (“Magsimula Ka!”)
Noticeable was the dip in new original material
THE DOWNTURN that has affected the rest of the world in the past two years seems to have settled on local theater as well in 2010.
Dulaang UP announced an all-revival season, beginning with its 2008 blockbuster “Orosman at Zafira” to tide it over a rough financial patch.
Tanghalang Pilipino, while still eking out a season of four productions (of uneven quality and attendance), was in similar straits. It has said that, next year, it will also rely on restagings to boost its coffers.
Peta’s early months were given over to the election-advocacy musical “Si Juan Tamad, Ang Diyablo at ang Limang Milyong Boto” which had begun its run late last year. It scored another hit in “Ang Post Office,” but had a fast-disappearing show in “Rated: PG” (which we failed to catch--its non-inclusion here not a judgment on its merits either way).
In place of serious drama, musicals of all stripes reigned--from the pan-Asian exertions of Asia On Stage’s “DragonTales” to Spotlight Artists Centre’s sprightly revival of “Magsimula Ka!” to Dulaang UP revisiting Floy Quintos’ “Isang Panaginip na Fili” and 9 Works Theatrical bringing back “Rent” to Manila.
TP got on board by adapting Lope K. Santos’ seminal Tagalog novel “Banaag at Sikat” into a so-called indie-rock musical. And if the Philippine Opera Company’s “Master Class” wasn’t strictly a musical, it was still a rerun--movie icon Cherie Gil having first played Callas in 2008.
Atlantis Productions paced the music fest with a returning “Avenue Q” and three new glittery, leading-lady-heavy Broadway imports (“Legally Blonde,” “Xanadu” and “A Little Night Music”).
Repertory Philippines had an intense entry in Peter Shaffer’s intellectual drama “Equus,” but it really achieved its peak with its year-end big musical, “Little Women.”
It was as if the doldrums of the moment didn’t need any more underlining by chest-heaving, furrowed-brow stories onstage--hence the overload of cheery, feel-good entertainment, most of them of foreign bent.
That left the Virgin Labfest, now on its sixth year, the sole reliable font of homegrown, all-original dramatic material, if only in one-act form.
Except that, this year, the Labfest seemed to have plateaued, too. Many of its entries showed polish and proficiency, but none matched the potent, provocative impact made by, say, last year’s standouts--“Doc Resurreccion: Gagamutin ang Bayan” (by Layeta Bucoy) and “Isang Araw sa Karnabal” (by Nicolas Pichay).
Interesting but smallish visions dotted the festival lineup--which made the announcement the Labfest would begin producing full-length plays next year a welcome level-up move.
For purposes of this round-up, reruns and revivals, first appraised during their original runs, were no longer considered, but new performers stepping into these shows were. The Andrew Lloyd Webber behemoth “Cats,” an all-foreign production except for Lea Salonga as Grizabella, was likewise not included.
Here, then, are what we consider the best of Manila theater in 2010.
Best Play (One-Act)
No citation.
Honorable mentions: “Balunbalunan, Bingi-bingihan” (Debbie Ann Tan, writer; Issa Lopez, director); “Suor Clara” (Floy Quintos, writer/dir.); “Higit Pa Dito” (Allan Lopez; Tuxqs Rutaquio, dir.)
Best Play (Full-Length)
“Ang Post Office” (Rabindranath Tagore’s “The Post Office,” Filipino translation by Rody Vera; Gardy Labad, dir.) Minor incongruities in the Indian-Filipino transposition aside, this was that rare species: a work both whimsical and profound, entertaining enough for kiddie audiences while also imbued with a wise, spiritual grace that moved and edified. The use of the Kilyawan and Loboc children’s choirs as live musical accompaniment was an inspired touch.
Honorable mentions: “American Hwangap”—Filipino version (Lloyd Suh, Filipino translation by Joi Barrios LeBlanc; Chris Millado, dir.); “Equus” (Peter Shaffer; Audie Gemora, dir.)
Best Actor-Play
Mario O’Hara (“American Hwangap”—Filipino version). Another towering performance from this evergreen titan--a pitch-perfect blend of patriarchal bluster and brokenness that anchored--made rational--the rather petty dysfunction at the heart of the play’s Korean-American family.
Honorable mentions: Martin de los Santos (“Ang Post Office”); Bembol Roco (“American Hwangap”—English version); Miguel Faustmann (“Duets”); Red Concepcion (“Equus”); Jojit Lorenzo (“Ondoy”); Lorenz Martinez (“Collector’s Item”); Paul Jake Paule and Ariel Diccion (“Carmi Martin”)
Best Actress-Play
Monique Wilson (“My Name Is Rachel Corrie”). In the year’s bravest performance, Wilson recast what could have been a firebrand part--a young American peacenik killed in Gaza--into a starkly artless, uninflected portrait of a girl’s awakening blooming into tragedy. Counter-intuitive, harrowing--and liberating.
Honorable mentions: Irma Adlawan (“Medea”); Gina Pareño (“American Hwangap”—Filipino version); Joy Virata (“Duets”); Frances Makil-Ignacio (“Suor Clara”); Missy Maramara (“Balunbalunan, Bingi-bingihan”)
Best Featured Actor-Play
Nicco Manalo (“American Hwangap”). Remarkably his fragile, unstable man-boy part would emerge as the sanest, keenest element in a contemporary household populated by outwardly normal nervous cases. Sustained, poignant, beautifully shaded acting.
Honorable mentions: Jeremy Domingo (“American Hwangap”); Mario O’Hara (“Tatlong Mariya”); Dennis Marasigan (“Tatlong Mariya”); Bodjie Pascua (“Ang Post Office”); Jules de la Paz (“Shock Value”)
Best Featured Actress-Play
Che Ramos (“Tatlong Mariya”). Her blowsy, gaudy take on the nouveau sister-in-law was both specific and metaphoric--canny enough on its own, but also an embodiment of the whirlwind of modernity that would engulf a family immobilized by ennui.
Honorable mentions: Liesl Batucan (“American Hwangap”); Ana Abad Santos (“Shock Value”); Pheona Baranda (“Equus”)
Best Musical
“Little Women” (music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, book by Allan Knee based on the Louisa May Alcott novel; Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, dir.). So-so musical transformed into an unexpectedly expressive, buoyant experience in the theater. Thoughtful and innovative, this production glowed with Lauchengco-Yulo’s astute directorial choices and actor’s feel for incident and character.
Honorable mentions: “A Little Night Music” (music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler; Bobby Garcia, dir.); “Xanadu” (music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, book by Douglas Carter Beane; Bobby Garcia, dir.); “The Wedding Singer” (music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy; Robbie Guevara, dir.); “Walang Sugat” (music by Fulgencio Tolentino, lyrics by Severino Reyes; Ricardo Abad, dir.)
Best Actor-Musical
Nonie Buencamino (“A Little Night Music”). “A beacon of clarity and exactitude, an actorly intelligence ever layering his vocals,” we wrote in our review of the show. Refusing to subsume character to musical prettiness, Buencamino’s Fredrik Egerman was, accessibly and appealingly, all flesh-and-blood.
Honorable mentions: Felix Rivera (“Xanadu”); Nazer Salcedo (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Arman Ferrer (“Walang Sugat”); Robert Seña (“Si Juan Tamad, ang Diyablo at ang Limang Milyong Boto”); Gian Magdangal (“The Wedding Singer”); Myke Salomon (“Magsimula Ka!”)
Best Actress-Musical
Caisa Borromeo (“Little Women”). Hers is a bona-fide “a star is born” performance--easily the brightest, most accomplished musical turn this year, brimming with the sweep and fire and feeling of an ingenue stepping up to her moment with destiny--and running away with it.
Honorable mentions: Dawn Zulueta (“A Little Night Music”); Janine Santos (“Walang Sugat”); Delphine Buencamino (“Orosman at Zafira”); Ayen Munji-Laurel (“Banaag at Sikat”); Cris Villonco (“Romeo and Bernadette”); Nikki Gil (“Legally Blonde”); Mica Pineda (“They’re Playing Our Song”)
Best Featured Actor-Musical
Noel Trinidad (“Xanadu”). He was gone from the boards for years, but when he came back, Trinidad showed he had lost none of the sharpness and sangfroid that must have attended the best of his performances in years past. A master class in on-stage effortlessness and style.
Honorable mentions: OJ Mariano (“Rent”); Jett Pangan (“Legally Blonde”); Leo Rialp (“Xanadu”); Dondi Ong (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Inno Martin (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Johann de la Fuente (“The Wedding Singer”); Jerald Napoles (“Magsimula Ka!”)
Best Featured Actress-Musical
Pinky Marquez (“Little Women”). Tremendous is the word for Marquez’s two musical moments in “Little Women”—the Act 2 ballad “Days of Plenty,” in particular, acquiring incandescence and majesty from her distinguished, powerful singing.
Honorable mentions: Cara Barredo (“Little Women”); Jay Glorioso, Jenny Jamora and Alys Serdenia (“A Little Night Music”); Janine Santos (“Isang Panaginip na Fili”); Carla Guevara-Laforteza and Mian Dimacali (“Rent”); Chari Arespacochaga and Yael Pineda (“Xanadu”); Jinky Llamanzares (“Legally Blonde”); Nicole Aldiosa (“Walang Sugat”); Kakki Teodoro (“Magsimula Ka!”)
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Why we get hiccups, goosebumps, backaches
Evolution, says this article, is the culprit. Our bodies retain the history, habits--and leftovers (think: male nipples)--of our ancestral beginnings.
We are full of the accumulated baggage of our idiosyncratic histories. The body is built on an old form, out of parts that once did very different things. So take a moment to pause and sit on your coccyx, the bone that was once a tail. Roll your ankles, each of which once connected a front leg to a paw...
Hiccups. The first air-breathing fish and amphibians extracted oxygen using gills when in the water and primitive lungs when on land—and to do so, they had to be able to close the glottis, or entryway to the lungs, when underwater. Importantly, the entryway (or glottis) to the lungs could be closed. When underwater, the animals pushed water past their gills while simultaneously pushing the glottis down. We descendants of these animals were left with vestiges of their history, including the hiccup. In hiccupping, we use ancient muscles to quickly close the glottis while sucking in (albeit air, not water). Hiccups no longer serve a function, but they persist without causing us harm—aside from frustration and occasional embarrassment. One of the reasons it is so difficult to stop hiccupping is that the entire process is controlled by a part of our brain that evolved long before consciousness, and so try as you might, you cannot think hiccups away.
Goosebumps. When our ancestors were covered in fur, muscles in their skin called “arrector pili” contracted when they were upset or cold, making their fur stand on end. When an angry or frightened dog barks at you, these are the muscles that raise its bristling hair. The same muscles puff up the feathers of birds and the fur of mammals on cold days to help keep them warm. Although we no longer have fur, we still have fur muscles just beneath our skin. They flex each time we are scared by a bristling dog or chilled by a wind, and in doing so give us goose bumps that make our thin hair stand uselessly on end.
The complete eye-opener here.
PLUS: I have to ask this--how do you control your hiccups? The answers seem to be as varied as the people I've asked. When I was a kid, my folks invariably directed me to drink water--glass after glass, if necessary, until the sinok had stopped. Others have recommended enclosing the nose and mouth in a plastic bag and breathing from there. A friend says getting surprised--as in have someone do “Bulaga!” on you--can scare the hiccups off. I know some who just sleep them off. I've tried that, but I wake up and, in a few minutes, the damn thing is back.
Here's what I've done for years--something I can swear to but can't explain scientifically. Whenever I get the hiccups, I press the pulse on my wrist. Left or right hand--doesn't matter. I find the throbbing point and press on it for a few minutes. After a while, more often than not, the fitful breathing stops. I'm not sure if there's a rational explanation--it might be nothing more than auto-suggestion--but it's been successful so many times for me that, whenever I get the condition, I automatically reach for my wrist. If nothing happens right away, I just press another point, still within vicinity of the pulse, and wait. Or I switch to the other hand. Ah, relief. Try it, and tell me if it works for you.
[hat tip: The Daily Dish]
We are full of the accumulated baggage of our idiosyncratic histories. The body is built on an old form, out of parts that once did very different things. So take a moment to pause and sit on your coccyx, the bone that was once a tail. Roll your ankles, each of which once connected a front leg to a paw...
Hiccups. The first air-breathing fish and amphibians extracted oxygen using gills when in the water and primitive lungs when on land—and to do so, they had to be able to close the glottis, or entryway to the lungs, when underwater. Importantly, the entryway (or glottis) to the lungs could be closed. When underwater, the animals pushed water past their gills while simultaneously pushing the glottis down. We descendants of these animals were left with vestiges of their history, including the hiccup. In hiccupping, we use ancient muscles to quickly close the glottis while sucking in (albeit air, not water). Hiccups no longer serve a function, but they persist without causing us harm—aside from frustration and occasional embarrassment. One of the reasons it is so difficult to stop hiccupping is that the entire process is controlled by a part of our brain that evolved long before consciousness, and so try as you might, you cannot think hiccups away.
Goosebumps. When our ancestors were covered in fur, muscles in their skin called “arrector pili” contracted when they were upset or cold, making their fur stand on end. When an angry or frightened dog barks at you, these are the muscles that raise its bristling hair. The same muscles puff up the feathers of birds and the fur of mammals on cold days to help keep them warm. Although we no longer have fur, we still have fur muscles just beneath our skin. They flex each time we are scared by a bristling dog or chilled by a wind, and in doing so give us goose bumps that make our thin hair stand uselessly on end.
The complete eye-opener here.
PLUS: I have to ask this--how do you control your hiccups? The answers seem to be as varied as the people I've asked. When I was a kid, my folks invariably directed me to drink water--glass after glass, if necessary, until the sinok had stopped. Others have recommended enclosing the nose and mouth in a plastic bag and breathing from there. A friend says getting surprised--as in have someone do “Bulaga!” on you--can scare the hiccups off. I know some who just sleep them off. I've tried that, but I wake up and, in a few minutes, the damn thing is back.
Here's what I've done for years--something I can swear to but can't explain scientifically. Whenever I get the hiccups, I press the pulse on my wrist. Left or right hand--doesn't matter. I find the throbbing point and press on it for a few minutes. After a while, more often than not, the fitful breathing stops. I'm not sure if there's a rational explanation--it might be nothing more than auto-suggestion--but it's been successful so many times for me that, whenever I get the condition, I automatically reach for my wrist. If nothing happens right away, I just press another point, still within vicinity of the pulse, and wait. Or I switch to the other hand. Ah, relief. Try it, and tell me if it works for you.
[hat tip: The Daily Dish]
Thursday, December 16, 2010
India is color, part 1
Holiday gift idea: Repertory Philippines' Season Pass
“You can give either Rep’s Gold or Silver Season Pass to yourself or your family and friends,” says associate artistic director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo. “Companies, schools and organizations can give our passes to business partners, suppliers and clients. Passes can also be given to work colleagues or staff.”
Repertory Philippines is an institution in the theater industry, having been around for more than 40 years. It has a track record for quality entertainment through its English plays and musicals. It’s also known for training world-renowned theater actors like Lea Salonga and Monique Wilson.
Season Passes grant the holder access to the first three productions of Rep for the year.
Silver Pass holders save up to P450 off on regular single-show ticket prices and have guaranteed seats in the upper orchestra center section for selected showdates.
Gold Pass holders save up to P600 off on regular single-show ticket prices, have guaranteed seating in the lower orchestra center section for selected showdates, and are allowed to call-in for seat reservations.
In 2011, movie lovers will find Rep’s first three productions interesting: “Joy Luck Club” (Feb 4-20, 2011), based on the bestselling novel by Amy Tan which was made into a film directed by Ang Lee; the comedy “The 39 Steps” (March 4-20, 2011), based on Alfred Hitchcock’s film; and “Shakespeare in Hollywood” (April 1-17, 2011), a comedy that features Shakespearean fairies working in a real Hollywood movie set.
All Pass holders can use their pass to avail of a 10-percent discount on a ticket to Rep’s children’s musical on selected showdates and a 15% discount on a ticket to Rep’s year-end big musical on selected showdates.
From Aug. 13 to Dec. 11, 2011, Rep will stage the children’s musical “Seussical,” based on characters from the Dr. Seuss books.
“Peter Pan” will be its year-end big musical from Sept. 29 to Oct. 30, 2011 with Sam Concepcion in the title role. Past big musicals include “Sweeney Todd,” “Sound of Music” and this year’s “Little Women.”
Except for “Peter Pan” which will be staged at Meralco Theater, all Rep shows are staged at Onstage Theater.
“Meralco Theater is across the street from Robinsons Galleria Mall, while Onstage Theater is inside Greenbelt 1 Mall,” Yulo says. “Families or groups of officemates or friends can shop or eat before or after catching our shows.”
Yulo notes that availing of Season Passes is also a show of support for Filipino home-grown talents. “You’ll help build the local industry of Filipino artists. In effect, you become a patron of the arts.”
All Rep shows are also open for showbuying or bulk-ticket sales for individuals who would like to earn extra income or groups and organizations who wish to raise funds. All productions are also available for sponsors who wish to reach Rep's audiences.
Call Repertory Philippines at 5716926 or 5714941 or email info@repertory-philippines.com. Visit www.repertory.ph. Add Rep on Facebook (“Rep Phils”) and view videos at www.youtube.com/user/repertoryphils.
[Photo: Kelly Lati, Caisa Borromeo, Cara Barredo and Lora Nicolas--the four March sisters in Rep's latest musical, Little Women--holding Repertory Philippines Gold or Silver Season Passes]
Monday, December 13, 2010
In Magsimula Ka! and 3 other musicals--an illustrative moment
Philippine Daily Inquirer, 12.13.2010
The drama, if you will, is in the details
SCENE: DELIA, a young woman paralyzed from the waist down by a car accident, falls from her wheelchair. Her friends rush to her, comfort her, urge her not to lose faith. She will walk again, they chorus.
From the everyday dialogue of just moments ago, they suddenly lapse into “poetic” language: “Magsimula ka,” one says, “batiin ang kay gandang umaga.” “Ang buhay ay masaya, palalagpasin mo ba?” says another. “Sa paghihintay, baka masanay,” pipes in a third.
Then the first strains of the musical’s now-classic “carrier single” is heard, rising to a ringing Act 1 finale.
If one wanted a moment that distilled both what was good and what was bad in the longest-running musical of the 1980s, “Magsimula Ka!,” recently restaged at the Music Museum by Robert Seña under his and wife Isay Alvarez’s Spotlight Artists Centre, then its unintentionally funny first-act closer would make the grade.
After nearly 30 years, the musical (music and lyrics by Gines Tan, who also co-wrote the book with Inquirer Saturday Special editor Nestor Torre) sounded as good as ever--a high-voltage showcase of vocal exuberance a fresh cast of mostly new theater faces populated with aplomb.
The score (original arrangements by Ryan Cayabyab), a vibrant matrix of dominant ’70s and ’80s OPM sounds, had the bright-eyed, annunciatory quality of that golden age of local music-making (“Tunog-Pinoy ay uunlad, kikilalanin saan man mapadpad,” went one song).
But while the music still walloped with its pizzazz and lung power, the accompanying script was as moldy as the long-ago year (1985) in which the putative story took place. Unsurprisingly the young ensemble--playing fresh college graduates seeking their own place in the waning Marcos-era sun--could summon no authentic feel for the ’80s, despite the retro costumes and (lame) pop-culture references.
The text itself was no help in that regard, relying on cornball sentiment (see Act 1 scene above) and melodramatic contrivance (stern businessman father against son’s musical bent because--surprise!--in his youth he was also a gifted, but thwarted, music hopeful, and presumably still traumatized by it) to move the creaking story along.
Hokey script notwithstanding, the songs were glorious. A testament to Tan’s skill at mining the sound and feel of OPM was the mock song tilt near the end, where each of the nine “entries” not only sounded plausible enough as a contest piece, but also evoked the range and breadth of vintage Pinoy pop music, from Sampaguita to jukebox to novelty to showband harmonies, to the gleaming ballads of Basil Valdez.
Here, Seña’s expertise as one of the country’s most accomplished vocalists came to the fore, in the way he coaxed out particularly supple, assured singing from his newbie cast.
Not all of them, however. Ciara Sotto (an otherwise good dancer) had thin vocals and a wan presence onstage, a tentative quality shared by the big-voiced male lead, Poppert Bernadas. Good thing the musical’s anthem fell into the hands of Myke Salomon, who batted it out of the ballpark. And Jerald Napoles and Kakki Teodoro brought effortless timing to their comic routines.
One thing “Magsimula Ka!” got indisputably right: From its surfeit of stirring melodies (nearly every other song ended on symphonic big note), it reserved the best for last. The full-length “Magsimula Ka,” sung as a performance piece unencumbered by clumsy narrative, lifted the musical to a definitive high. Its back story? Sadly, to quote the male lead’s quaint description of his angsty dad--“Babaw ng logic.”
Asia On Stage’s ‘DragonTales’
Scenery: A crescent, sloping-top wall revolving on stage every time the scene shifts from the play’s mythical world to its contemporary counterpart. In a modern home, the bare division physicalizes the emotional alienation between writer-son and wastrel dad. In the dragons’ lair, amid a riot of flamboyant costumes and stylized gestures by the actors, the stark background situates the mythology in an indeterminate realm--Chinese-seeming, but also as if two steps removed from it.
It would be unfair to reduce Asia On Stage’s recent “DragonTales,” the debut collaborative effort of a group of Singaporean and Filipino theater artists, to its scenery (by Gino Gonzales)--and this is no attempt at that. However, it wouldn’t be too far off, too, to use the workings of that revolving wall as a metaphor for the fate of the play itself.
Interesting at first, the set element would, with each successive, increasingly quick turnaround (at one point, it nearly knocked down one of the actors), induce tedium, lose its ability--as any effective scenery should--to immerse you in the universe of its making.
And so it was, alas, with “DragonTales,” directed by Singaporean Jeremiah Choy, with music and lyrics by Vince de Jesus. The newly minted musical, staged at the Peta Theater Center as prelude to a planned Asian tour, starred nine local actors and one Singaporean, in a tale about a put-upon playwright struggling to write a play about fanciful dragons in some faraway realm whose feuds and passions mirrored the simmering enmities in his home front.
Angry beasts and broken families--but the resulting drama had anything but. Much of the play was spent on talky exposition to explain the tangled mythology of the creatures—characters originally created by Michael Chow, head honcho of Asia On Stage. The “dragons” looked magnificent either clothed or not (Miguel Vasquez’s rippling bod seemed a character unto itself). But no genuine grandeur or mystery informed their proceedings, and the banal, dutiful script kept the mythical aspirations strictly earth-bound.
The sound mix was sumptuous, the aural palette plangent with Asian touches. One missed here, though, the hallmarks of De Jesus’ past works: the verbal lightness, the melodic wit, the sharp-edged humor, the clear storytelling. In their place was a strained solemnity and ponderousness that marked as well the polished but ultimately arid staging by Choy.
If at all, this appeared less the product of carelessness than of its opposite: an all-too-careful, self-conscious effort which also snuffed out any speck of spontaneity in the material.
Of the spirited, majestically brocaded and well-lit cast--unfortunately freighted with excessive movement (choreography by the Singaporean lead, Gani Karim) that, in time, rather than help define and deepen character, only looked goofy, repetitive--Kalila Aguilos stood out with a fierce, go-for-broke turn as the human-turned-dragon queen Wanabe. This sleek but flavorless musical could use some of that quirky fire.
Dulaang UP’s ‘Isang Panaginip na Fili’
Scene: A gaggle of nuns, chained to each other, writhe on the floor while flagellating themselves. Maria Clara emerges, a spectral sight in saintly robes, a haunting melody on her lips. Padre Salvi comes next, menacing. On the other side of the stage, Juli, now ravaged by Padre Camorra, is cast out of the convent.
The two women of Rizal’s novel join voices, harmonize on one sublime note. Then Salvi strips Maria Clara, drags her up the stairs and strangles her, as the nuns pant with their lamentations. Juli, high on a platform, takes her own life, a swirling cloud of dust devouring her plunge from the bell tower.
In that bravura sequence, alive with audacious revisionism and lush theatricality, could be glimpsed the arresting nature of Floy Quintos’ “Isang Panaginip na Fili,” restaged by Dulaang UP at Guerrero Theater in UP Diliman.
Two years ago, the musical had a messy debut, with composer Ceejay Javier’s relentlessly modernist music--its arrangements sounding rushed and flimsy--unable to find traction in a sprawling cast composed mostly of actors (competent ones, to be fair) rather than singers.
But that run also showed that, with the right pipes--Franco Laurel as Pepe, Onyl Torres as his ilustrado friend Tunying--the asymmetrical character of the music would come through.
In the recent staging, Torres stepped offstage to act as vocal coach, and his ministrations, along with Quintos’ decision to recast the roles based mainly on vocal chops, successfully conjured a tighter, more cohesive and compelling fever dream of a musical, emotionally engorged and ambiently sensuous.
Quintos’ lines could wax lyrical--Tunying, on the novel whose dark character Simoun he would assume in the course of the play: “Para sa akin, wala pa rin itong pinagkaiba sa mga romantikong nobela nina Dumas at Hugo. At hindi ‘yan pangungutya. Ngunit maski sina Dumas at Hugo ay hindi nakapagsulat kailanman ng sandakilang pananawagan, o nakapagbigay ng simbanal na alay.”
By keeping to the escalating human drama of Rizal’s narrative, this “Fili” sidestepped the preachiness, reveling instead in sexual tension, ambiguity--reality and reimagining in an intertextual dance. Strikingly, even as Javier’s music now sounded even more avant-garde in reworked arrangements, its power and pathos still located their purest interpretations in cultivated, classically placed voices--Laurel (alternating with a fine Red Concepcion) and Greg de Leon back as Pepe and Kabesang Tales, respectively; Nazer Salcedo, Dondi Ong, Nicole Aldiosa, a luminous-sounding Janine Santos.
OJ Mariano, meanwhile, who broke through earlier this year as Collins in 9 Works Theatrical’s “Rent,” lent his Tunying a gritty, youthful charge.
The high-flown vision occasionally foundered on the nitty-gritty. Guerrero Theater’s technicals remained feeble--at least for musicals, and Dulaang UP’s usual unwieldy mix of professional and student actors could only ensure the production would not achieve the kind of seamless, high-toned sheen “DragonTales,” say, had going for it.
But if that shabby accessibility also left you moved, weeping even, in the end, it was clear the musical was on to something right.
Rep’s “Little Women”
Scene/scenery: Cape Cod projected on the background, a giant lighthouse at sunset setting off the wheelchair in the foreground. On the beach, Beth, the dying March sister, comforts Jo, the headstrong one. “Some things are meant to be...,” she sings. “Let me go.”
She slowly extricates herself, loses herself in the wings. The lights dim, the orchestra eases into a whisper, the chair now in silhouette. Jo slowly wheels it out, a hunched figure in the landscape. Blackout.
For the utmost delicacy and soulfulness that governed the rest of Repertory Philippines’ “Little Women,” directed by Menchu Lauchengco Yulo, one need look no further than this illustrative moment, played with such heartbreaking truth by young actresses Cara Barredo (Beth) and Caisa Borromeo (in a sensational, star-making turn as Jo).
Lauchengco Yulo, in only her second directorial outing after Stages’ “West Side Story” two years ago, did something quite unexpected with “Little Women.” In her hands, the prim, melodically old-fashioned Broadway musical (music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and book by Allan Knee based on the enduring Louisa May Alcott novel) became much more than a conventional song-and-dance pageant.
What had been called in its New York run an “underwritten, undercomposed, understaged, and underpopulated epic” (Matthew Murray, Talkin’ Broadway) here surprised with a warm, winsome energy and a richly suggested inner life.
While the music-making remained skillful (eloquent playing by Gerard Salonga and Filharmonika), the director seemed to have very gently steered the musical into more nuanced, actorly territory. At best, Lauchengco-Yulo’s decades-long musical-theater training found ample reflection in the fulsome, meticulous performances she managed to extract from her nearly flawless cast.
The five women especially--Borromeo, Barredo, Lora Nicolas as the beautiful Meg, Kelly Lati as the flighty Amy, and Pinky Marquez as the girls’ mother Marmee (her Act 2 ballad “Days of Plenty” took one’s breath away)--were ideally cast.
Miguel Faustmann, Jeff Arcilla, Jack Salud and Joy Virata also did well by their roles. Only Jaime Barcelon had to struggle with his part’s vocal demands.
A show that ends Act 1 with a song called “Astonishing” and in Act 2 features another number in the same breathless mode--“The Most Amazing Thing”--must sound like a musical Pollyanna, or a production on uppers. Still, the word that came to mind with this “Little Women” was intimate.
Helping shape its restrained, resonant pitch was the masterfully stylized scenery by New York-based set designer Joey Mendoza, along with Tuxqs Rutaquio’s intricate period costumes and John Batalla’s lighting.
And then there was Borromeo. On her shoulders rested the fragile, feather-light spirit of this production. Too much brassy tomboy and she’d harden the show; too much playing cute and “Little Women” would tumble into treacle.
She delivered--astonishingly. Her dazzling Act 1 closer heralded nothing less than one of those moments musical-theater worshippers live for--the birth of a bright new young star in the local theatrical firmament.
The drama, if you will, is in the details
SCENE: DELIA, a young woman paralyzed from the waist down by a car accident, falls from her wheelchair. Her friends rush to her, comfort her, urge her not to lose faith. She will walk again, they chorus.
From the everyday dialogue of just moments ago, they suddenly lapse into “poetic” language: “Magsimula ka,” one says, “batiin ang kay gandang umaga.” “Ang buhay ay masaya, palalagpasin mo ba?” says another. “Sa paghihintay, baka masanay,” pipes in a third.
Then the first strains of the musical’s now-classic “carrier single” is heard, rising to a ringing Act 1 finale.
If one wanted a moment that distilled both what was good and what was bad in the longest-running musical of the 1980s, “Magsimula Ka!,” recently restaged at the Music Museum by Robert Seña under his and wife Isay Alvarez’s Spotlight Artists Centre, then its unintentionally funny first-act closer would make the grade.
After nearly 30 years, the musical (music and lyrics by Gines Tan, who also co-wrote the book with Inquirer Saturday Special editor Nestor Torre) sounded as good as ever--a high-voltage showcase of vocal exuberance a fresh cast of mostly new theater faces populated with aplomb.
The score (original arrangements by Ryan Cayabyab), a vibrant matrix of dominant ’70s and ’80s OPM sounds, had the bright-eyed, annunciatory quality of that golden age of local music-making (“Tunog-Pinoy ay uunlad, kikilalanin saan man mapadpad,” went one song).
But while the music still walloped with its pizzazz and lung power, the accompanying script was as moldy as the long-ago year (1985) in which the putative story took place. Unsurprisingly the young ensemble--playing fresh college graduates seeking their own place in the waning Marcos-era sun--could summon no authentic feel for the ’80s, despite the retro costumes and (lame) pop-culture references.
The text itself was no help in that regard, relying on cornball sentiment (see Act 1 scene above) and melodramatic contrivance (stern businessman father against son’s musical bent because--surprise!--in his youth he was also a gifted, but thwarted, music hopeful, and presumably still traumatized by it) to move the creaking story along.
Hokey script notwithstanding, the songs were glorious. A testament to Tan’s skill at mining the sound and feel of OPM was the mock song tilt near the end, where each of the nine “entries” not only sounded plausible enough as a contest piece, but also evoked the range and breadth of vintage Pinoy pop music, from Sampaguita to jukebox to novelty to showband harmonies, to the gleaming ballads of Basil Valdez.
Here, Seña’s expertise as one of the country’s most accomplished vocalists came to the fore, in the way he coaxed out particularly supple, assured singing from his newbie cast.
Not all of them, however. Ciara Sotto (an otherwise good dancer) had thin vocals and a wan presence onstage, a tentative quality shared by the big-voiced male lead, Poppert Bernadas. Good thing the musical’s anthem fell into the hands of Myke Salomon, who batted it out of the ballpark. And Jerald Napoles and Kakki Teodoro brought effortless timing to their comic routines.
One thing “Magsimula Ka!” got indisputably right: From its surfeit of stirring melodies (nearly every other song ended on symphonic big note), it reserved the best for last. The full-length “Magsimula Ka,” sung as a performance piece unencumbered by clumsy narrative, lifted the musical to a definitive high. Its back story? Sadly, to quote the male lead’s quaint description of his angsty dad--“Babaw ng logic.”
Asia On Stage’s ‘DragonTales’
Scenery: A crescent, sloping-top wall revolving on stage every time the scene shifts from the play’s mythical world to its contemporary counterpart. In a modern home, the bare division physicalizes the emotional alienation between writer-son and wastrel dad. In the dragons’ lair, amid a riot of flamboyant costumes and stylized gestures by the actors, the stark background situates the mythology in an indeterminate realm--Chinese-seeming, but also as if two steps removed from it.
It would be unfair to reduce Asia On Stage’s recent “DragonTales,” the debut collaborative effort of a group of Singaporean and Filipino theater artists, to its scenery (by Gino Gonzales)--and this is no attempt at that. However, it wouldn’t be too far off, too, to use the workings of that revolving wall as a metaphor for the fate of the play itself.
Interesting at first, the set element would, with each successive, increasingly quick turnaround (at one point, it nearly knocked down one of the actors), induce tedium, lose its ability--as any effective scenery should--to immerse you in the universe of its making.
And so it was, alas, with “DragonTales,” directed by Singaporean Jeremiah Choy, with music and lyrics by Vince de Jesus. The newly minted musical, staged at the Peta Theater Center as prelude to a planned Asian tour, starred nine local actors and one Singaporean, in a tale about a put-upon playwright struggling to write a play about fanciful dragons in some faraway realm whose feuds and passions mirrored the simmering enmities in his home front.
Angry beasts and broken families--but the resulting drama had anything but. Much of the play was spent on talky exposition to explain the tangled mythology of the creatures—characters originally created by Michael Chow, head honcho of Asia On Stage. The “dragons” looked magnificent either clothed or not (Miguel Vasquez’s rippling bod seemed a character unto itself). But no genuine grandeur or mystery informed their proceedings, and the banal, dutiful script kept the mythical aspirations strictly earth-bound.
The sound mix was sumptuous, the aural palette plangent with Asian touches. One missed here, though, the hallmarks of De Jesus’ past works: the verbal lightness, the melodic wit, the sharp-edged humor, the clear storytelling. In their place was a strained solemnity and ponderousness that marked as well the polished but ultimately arid staging by Choy.
If at all, this appeared less the product of carelessness than of its opposite: an all-too-careful, self-conscious effort which also snuffed out any speck of spontaneity in the material.
Of the spirited, majestically brocaded and well-lit cast--unfortunately freighted with excessive movement (choreography by the Singaporean lead, Gani Karim) that, in time, rather than help define and deepen character, only looked goofy, repetitive--Kalila Aguilos stood out with a fierce, go-for-broke turn as the human-turned-dragon queen Wanabe. This sleek but flavorless musical could use some of that quirky fire.
Dulaang UP’s ‘Isang Panaginip na Fili’
Scene: A gaggle of nuns, chained to each other, writhe on the floor while flagellating themselves. Maria Clara emerges, a spectral sight in saintly robes, a haunting melody on her lips. Padre Salvi comes next, menacing. On the other side of the stage, Juli, now ravaged by Padre Camorra, is cast out of the convent.
The two women of Rizal’s novel join voices, harmonize on one sublime note. Then Salvi strips Maria Clara, drags her up the stairs and strangles her, as the nuns pant with their lamentations. Juli, high on a platform, takes her own life, a swirling cloud of dust devouring her plunge from the bell tower.
In that bravura sequence, alive with audacious revisionism and lush theatricality, could be glimpsed the arresting nature of Floy Quintos’ “Isang Panaginip na Fili,” restaged by Dulaang UP at Guerrero Theater in UP Diliman.
Two years ago, the musical had a messy debut, with composer Ceejay Javier’s relentlessly modernist music--its arrangements sounding rushed and flimsy--unable to find traction in a sprawling cast composed mostly of actors (competent ones, to be fair) rather than singers.
But that run also showed that, with the right pipes--Franco Laurel as Pepe, Onyl Torres as his ilustrado friend Tunying--the asymmetrical character of the music would come through.
In the recent staging, Torres stepped offstage to act as vocal coach, and his ministrations, along with Quintos’ decision to recast the roles based mainly on vocal chops, successfully conjured a tighter, more cohesive and compelling fever dream of a musical, emotionally engorged and ambiently sensuous.
Quintos’ lines could wax lyrical--Tunying, on the novel whose dark character Simoun he would assume in the course of the play: “Para sa akin, wala pa rin itong pinagkaiba sa mga romantikong nobela nina Dumas at Hugo. At hindi ‘yan pangungutya. Ngunit maski sina Dumas at Hugo ay hindi nakapagsulat kailanman ng sandakilang pananawagan, o nakapagbigay ng simbanal na alay.”
By keeping to the escalating human drama of Rizal’s narrative, this “Fili” sidestepped the preachiness, reveling instead in sexual tension, ambiguity--reality and reimagining in an intertextual dance. Strikingly, even as Javier’s music now sounded even more avant-garde in reworked arrangements, its power and pathos still located their purest interpretations in cultivated, classically placed voices--Laurel (alternating with a fine Red Concepcion) and Greg de Leon back as Pepe and Kabesang Tales, respectively; Nazer Salcedo, Dondi Ong, Nicole Aldiosa, a luminous-sounding Janine Santos.
OJ Mariano, meanwhile, who broke through earlier this year as Collins in 9 Works Theatrical’s “Rent,” lent his Tunying a gritty, youthful charge.
The high-flown vision occasionally foundered on the nitty-gritty. Guerrero Theater’s technicals remained feeble--at least for musicals, and Dulaang UP’s usual unwieldy mix of professional and student actors could only ensure the production would not achieve the kind of seamless, high-toned sheen “DragonTales,” say, had going for it.
But if that shabby accessibility also left you moved, weeping even, in the end, it was clear the musical was on to something right.
Rep’s “Little Women”
Scene/scenery: Cape Cod projected on the background, a giant lighthouse at sunset setting off the wheelchair in the foreground. On the beach, Beth, the dying March sister, comforts Jo, the headstrong one. “Some things are meant to be...,” she sings. “Let me go.”
She slowly extricates herself, loses herself in the wings. The lights dim, the orchestra eases into a whisper, the chair now in silhouette. Jo slowly wheels it out, a hunched figure in the landscape. Blackout.
For the utmost delicacy and soulfulness that governed the rest of Repertory Philippines’ “Little Women,” directed by Menchu Lauchengco Yulo, one need look no further than this illustrative moment, played with such heartbreaking truth by young actresses Cara Barredo (Beth) and Caisa Borromeo (in a sensational, star-making turn as Jo).
Lauchengco Yulo, in only her second directorial outing after Stages’ “West Side Story” two years ago, did something quite unexpected with “Little Women.” In her hands, the prim, melodically old-fashioned Broadway musical (music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and book by Allan Knee based on the enduring Louisa May Alcott novel) became much more than a conventional song-and-dance pageant.
What had been called in its New York run an “underwritten, undercomposed, understaged, and underpopulated epic” (Matthew Murray, Talkin’ Broadway) here surprised with a warm, winsome energy and a richly suggested inner life.
While the music-making remained skillful (eloquent playing by Gerard Salonga and Filharmonika), the director seemed to have very gently steered the musical into more nuanced, actorly territory. At best, Lauchengco-Yulo’s decades-long musical-theater training found ample reflection in the fulsome, meticulous performances she managed to extract from her nearly flawless cast.
The five women especially--Borromeo, Barredo, Lora Nicolas as the beautiful Meg, Kelly Lati as the flighty Amy, and Pinky Marquez as the girls’ mother Marmee (her Act 2 ballad “Days of Plenty” took one’s breath away)--were ideally cast.
Miguel Faustmann, Jeff Arcilla, Jack Salud and Joy Virata also did well by their roles. Only Jaime Barcelon had to struggle with his part’s vocal demands.
A show that ends Act 1 with a song called “Astonishing” and in Act 2 features another number in the same breathless mode--“The Most Amazing Thing”--must sound like a musical Pollyanna, or a production on uppers. Still, the word that came to mind with this “Little Women” was intimate.
Helping shape its restrained, resonant pitch was the masterfully stylized scenery by New York-based set designer Joey Mendoza, along with Tuxqs Rutaquio’s intricate period costumes and John Batalla’s lighting.
She delivered--astonishingly. Her dazzling Act 1 closer heralded nothing less than one of those moments musical-theater worshippers live for--the birth of a bright new young star in the local theatrical firmament.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Incredible, indeed
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Getting to know Guangzhou
Guangzhou, the capital of Guandong province in Southern China, is the host of the current Asian Games--an event that doesn't seem to be generating much press or hoopla. Bakit kaya? Anyway, the mention of the city in the measly coverage I've come across reminded me that in February 2005, I had been to Guangzhou--and I have pictures of the trip I've never shared here before, since in 2005 I wasn't blogging yet. A few photos went into the travel piece I wrote for the paper; most went into a CD file that saw the light of day again only yesterday.
I'm on another trip for a few days, so lemme leave you with these for now. You might know the people I went with on this, my first trip to China. (Hint: One of them is now one of the country's most popular and influential bloggers.)
From my March 13, 2005 travel feature in the Inquirer: The ancient city [of Guangzhou], once called Canton by British colonists, has become the country's premier trade and commerce hub, a hustle-and-bustle counterpoint to the historical, cultural and political heartland that is Beijing and the cosmopolitan center of high finance that is Shanghai. As a major world port, Guangzhou is seen as the most culturally open-minded of China's major cities, and its residents more adventurous and freewheeling.
We were billeted in a hotel in Huanshidong Road, central Guangzhou, the lobby directly connected to a swanky shopping mall carrying the ritziest global fashion brands. Clearly, this was no longer the Communist China of old. A short distance away was the Philippine consulate, housed in that skyscraper in the third photo. We were told the weather would be like Baguio's--14 degrees C at night. It was more like 4 degrees C; my first time to experience winter (or at least the tailend of it), and I had only a couple of lightweight jackets with me. Fortunately...
Ang mura ng bilihin sa Guangzhou! Because it's one of China's manufacturing hubs (many of the China-made goods you see in Divisoria and 168 Mall are from Guangzhou and the rest of Guandong province), everything--especially garments, shoes, jewelry and leather accessories--is cheap at local Yuan (Rmb) prices. The first two photos are Shang Xia Jiu Street--Guangzhou's Divisoria, where I managed to buy a couple of thick, comfy sweatshirts to tide me through the frigid days.
The more upscale Beijing Road (the one festooned with lanterns) is the city's Greenhills, if you will--prices are a bit higher, branded goods more prominent, the city's young, trendy denizens in profusion. See that rectangular space covered by glass in the third photo? It protects a historic spot--excavated remnants of the earliest known walls and settlements in ancient Guangzhou. Shoppers can peer into the covered pit and know a bit of the city's storied past.
A quieter, more traditional part of Guangzhou. We had limited time to walk around the city, but the parts we saw had lots of greenery, wide parks even, in them. And quaint eateries; they're everywhere, exactly like the ones we have here--rather dim, dinghy, greasy affairs, but, at least the one we tried, after walking for what seemed like an hour to get to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, offering food that was as distinctive and flavorful.
Our media group in Guangzhou: former ANC news editor and now entrepreneur and Dulaang UP actor Joel Saracho; a portly me--yaiks!--made more suman-like by the damn Chinese sweatshirt (magkaliwanagan lang, this was five years ago, hoe-kay?); Cecile Zamora van Straten aka Chuvaness herself (representing Philippine Star--the photos of “the other side of Guangzhou” are hers, by the way; thanks, Cecile!); ANC cameraman Romel Zarate; and our Chinese tour guide Tony. Despite the nosebleed weather, a lovely trip.
I'm on another trip for a few days, so lemme leave you with these for now. You might know the people I went with on this, my first trip to China. (Hint: One of them is now one of the country's most popular and influential bloggers.)
We were billeted in a hotel in Huanshidong Road, central Guangzhou, the lobby directly connected to a swanky shopping mall carrying the ritziest global fashion brands. Clearly, this was no longer the Communist China of old. A short distance away was the Philippine consulate, housed in that skyscraper in the third photo. We were told the weather would be like Baguio's--14 degrees C at night. It was more like 4 degrees C; my first time to experience winter (or at least the tailend of it), and I had only a couple of lightweight jackets with me. Fortunately...
The more upscale Beijing Road (the one festooned with lanterns) is the city's Greenhills, if you will--prices are a bit higher, branded goods more prominent, the city's young, trendy denizens in profusion. See that rectangular space covered by glass in the third photo? It protects a historic spot--excavated remnants of the earliest known walls and settlements in ancient Guangzhou. Shoppers can peer into the covered pit and know a bit of the city's storied past.
Which would you rather have--an original Filipino musical done badly, or a Broadway ('foreign') production staged competently?
A question I recently posted on my Facebook (here), and so far the thread has generated 54 comments, one by no less than (namedropper alert!) National Artist for Theater Salvardor Bernal himself. The opinions expressed are mostly insightful, nuanced and provocative, avoiding smart-alecky posturing or lazy cattiness for a genuine desire to think substantively and purposefully through this complex, hot-button issue. I thought they deserved reposting elsewhere, so here they are verbatim (along with my take on specific comments)--read and reap:
Manuel Pangaruy: If I have to choose, I'll go for the original Filipino musical. Kahit pangit, it still encourages us to create and do more (with improvements, of course). At least we know how to recognize an "original". Ibig sabihin, to justify if it's original, we've seen other productions din na hindi conceived locally.
Richard S. Cunanan: I'd have to go with the competent one. Incompetent theater doesn't inspire me, it makes me make fun of people. There are SOME people who say "Put on a show! Pour your heart into it and good or bad it's worth it!". And that sentiment works at, you know, like a office-party or grade -school level. Past that, though, you gotta take the viewpoint that if it's worth doing -- and SHOWING -- it's worth doing well.
Allan Matute: i dont think nationalism/patriotism/love for country should be an excuse for incompetence or shoddy work.
Exie Abola: The two choices aren't equal. An original musical done badly has farther to fall. Everything has to be originated. Whereas an imported musical that has already succeeded abroad doesn't take as much effort to bring to the stage, so doing it competently is the bare minimum you would expect. Of the two I side with the first just a bit more, only because it takes more risks.
Richard S. Cunanan: Interesting, Exie, I'd like to comment on that. The reason that imported shows have succeeded abroad is because they've been put through the wringer -- as painful as that process is, the whole point of staging, revising and assessing a show is to see what works -- and what doesn't. Those risks GET taken by the people mounting the plays(and it's expensive indeed, which is why so many Broadway plays seem formulaic. They are: they're formulated to make money). The ONLY ones that make it here are, naturally, the successes. And the big successes at that.
Here, perhaps because such money is not available , a musical is essentially only ever seen in its first form. If you like, it's being exposed to the public at a much earlier stage in the process and usually the process stops after that. Sure, maybe it's not the fault of the creators, but the truth is, the play gets shown to a public way WAY before ANY kind of critical assessment happens. And, like it or not, once you expose it to us the audience, we have the right to judge it.
Teatro Expedicion De Filipinas: Foreign "MATERIAL" to be staged with an ORIGINAL FILIPINO APPROACH.
Dan Asa: no to mediocrity!... isang malaking kahihiyan at insulto ang gumawa ng hilaw na filipino original musical sa mga manonood. mas dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ang bawat detalye kung gawang atin dahil ito'y pagkatawan sa ating kultura't kakayanan sa larangan ng entablado. matatanggap ko pa ang mababang kalidad na pagtatanghal ng banyagang musical dahil ito'y hiram lamang. gayunpaman, lahat ng pagtatanghal, orihinal man o banyaga, ay nararapat nasa antas ng pinakamataas na kalidad at maisasabuhay ang bawat kaganapan di lamang makapanindig-balahibo at sa halip tatagos hanggang sa hibla ng iyong laman...
Ralph B. Peña: I agree with what Exie said, but I thought of something else. The question, in the bigger scheme, obliquely leads the reader to take a cultural bias. It’s not just original musical versus play revival, but also Filipino versus foreign. Being asked to choose between good and bad is a non-starter. We all want good in any denomination. As for original versus remount, there are compelling arguments for either. On the one hand you want to expand the canon, on the other, extend the life of a play. So it comes down to Filipino against all others – and that’s where it gets messy because a meaningful comparison between the two must invoke contexts and histories – apart from the variances in production hurdles Exie mentioned. There isn’t enough space here to launch into that discussion. The short of it is, it’s not easy to answer your question. To paraphrase a line from Marvin's Room, my feelings for this is like a bowl of fish hooks, I pick one and the rest comes along with it.
Vince De Jesus: I agree with Exie and Ralph. Uminom tayo ng kape para sa mahabang usapang ito. Much better kung over wine. :-)
Gibbs Cadiz: ralph--quite nearly the things that bump in my head all the time. how to balance those competing interests--the need to encourage expansion of the canon versus guarding against shoddy work that subsists on noble intent alone. how not to forget context in looking at productions whether original or 'foreign,' but, on the other hand, making sure context and the peculiarities of the local condition do not lead to, or justify, what bush speechwriter david frum had called (and i can't believe i'd be quoting the shrub!) 'the soft bigotry of low expectations.' where to place original filipino musical material that, while in the native tongue and mining native circumstances and scenery, are--in form, feel, structure and spirit (okay, even poster design!)--more like devout imitations of the broadway musical template--and who can blame them when the default impulse is not only to hew to the tried-and-tested, but also to employ our natural affinity for the western song-and-dance tradition?... vince, yep, this does call for bouts of coffee/wine drinking. but since i'm neither much into both, goading you all into unloading your thoughts here, and adding to the perspectives that keep me thinking hard all the time, is the next best thing. :)
Von Totanes: whether filipino or broadway, original or not, competent will always trump incompetent. encouraging words are good, but a spade needs to be called a spade... except when apples are being compared to oranges.
Salvador Bernal: we're quick to say pinoy musicals are bad. western musicals are honed, polished to a level of success. they're tested in places to be good, a hit. so when locals stage them they have high percent of succeeding. blue-chip na.
Gibbs Cadiz: MR. BERNAL! thank you for your comment, glad to see you here. yep, unfortunately, we don't have the out-of-town tryouts, the years-long gestation periods, the weeks' worth of paid previews that foreign producers use to refine the work before it's officially presented on opening night. there's context staring one in the face.
Exie Abola: That's the rub, Gibbs. I was commenting based on your original choice. The original Pinoy musical vs the imported one don't start at the same point: lamang na yung isa. So my heart pulls for the former. And yet, you don't do it a favor by lowering your standards... Say when and where, and I'll bring wine. :)
Gibbs Cadiz: on the other hand, exie--and this is another complicating skein--we do know from experience that even the best broadway material, the ones that have emerged the most polished, viable, etc. after the stringent process they employ there, can still get a poor staging hereabouts. obviously, quality of material alone--its pre-ordained viability given what it's gone through abroad--is not sufficient to assure a good local production. do i begin ticking off the names here? haha. but--the opposite can happen, too, once in a while--middling show abroad, but once tackled by local talents, emerges looking better, more deserving of consideration. tama nga ata talaga si william goldman: in the business of show, ultimately, nobody knows anything. :) but that's art, i guess--refusing to be pigeonholed.
Oggs Cruz: I'll go for the former. The fact that the material has already been made, whether its done sloppily or shoddily, gives way to it being done again and being improved upon in the future. The pleasures of the latter, whether it turns out to be the best local production, is only momentary.
Nor Domingo: I want to ask first what you mean by "original filipino musical"? Would you consider a musical original and filipino even though the theme, treatment, language, music etc, etc is completely western?
Gibbs Cadiz: nor--at its most basic--original script, music, lyrics, libretto. pwedeng foreign ang source--is there any question that rama at sita is an original pinoy musical even if the source material is an indian epic? basta the basics are all homegrown. or foreign-influenced ang music--the motown soul of vince dj's zsazsa zaturnnah, but all the rest of it, especially its core camp sensibility, is pinoy. can be english-language, too--rep's miong, about the life of emilio aguinaldo. all-pinoy material, talents, staging, etc. even if it's in english and the music is clearly derivative of the broadway idiom. or, an even trickier mix--english-language libretto/music, based on a foreign material--trumpets' the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. cs lewis story, but everything else in the musical was done by pinoy talent.
Nor Domingo: Reading through the comments again, i think nasabi na ang lahat. Each side make very good points! Personally, if I paid for to see a show I would prefer to see a competent staging, particularly those by theater companies specializing in mounting Broadway hits. Kasi mahal ang ticket I deserve nothing less. Pero kung walang usapang pera, I prefer to see an original pinoy musical, in english or filipino simply because we NEED to create them.
Victor Velasco: Great reads, very revealing of the reasons and passions of practitioners. Now, I'm curious to know what comprises this "canon" that needs to be expanded. Is it a canon of "Filipino materials" against which new "Filipino materials" AND foreign adaptations are/will be measured? Or simply a collection of materials that have been re-staged over and over and over? How have they been canon-ized and who did the canonization? And what of materials done by Filipino-identified writers/directors/actors that were critically successful outside Pinas (off-off, regional, etc) but not so IN Pinas? Just curious.
maybe another parallelism can be this: how do we re-stage fast successes until they form -- informally -- this canon vis-avis how does broadway/west end do it? just very recently, john doyle's re-imagining of company was so far removed from what made it initially successful in terms of production and even orchestration. and wasn't the les miz that you saw in west end re-imagined as well? nowl, how about the countless re-staging of dalagang bukid, walang sugat, noli-fili and recently, larawan and zsazsa? what risks were taken -- and overcame or not -- to set the bar higher -- for both material and audience? do we have new crops of tinios who dare stage traviatas with a mosquito net?
so in terms of Original Filipino Musicals, maybe another question is this: do we want the reassuring familiarity of good old stuff or the unfamiliarity and risks -- even if failures -- of something new?
Rody Vera: Gibbs, i prefer to have all of them. pag pinalabas, tsaka na lang sabihin, Ay ito pangit, ay ito maganda. Kakaunti na nga lang ang nagpapalabas per se. the important thing right now is for every theater company in this country to just keep producing plays, musicals, for audiences and for themselves. the important thing is for more theater companies to be born and NOT FOLD UP (like the musical theater philippines--di ba mas malungkot?)
-------------------------------
Rody's comment, which capped the discussion (for now) on a reassuringly expansive note, had me replying with an emphatic "Korek!"
You--what's your opinion? Join the chat!
Manuel Pangaruy: If I have to choose, I'll go for the original Filipino musical. Kahit pangit, it still encourages us to create and do more (with improvements, of course). At least we know how to recognize an "original". Ibig sabihin, to justify if it's original, we've seen other productions din na hindi conceived locally.
Richard S. Cunanan: I'd have to go with the competent one. Incompetent theater doesn't inspire me, it makes me make fun of people. There are SOME people who say "Put on a show! Pour your heart into it and good or bad it's worth it!". And that sentiment works at, you know, like a office-party or grade -school level. Past that, though, you gotta take the viewpoint that if it's worth doing -- and SHOWING -- it's worth doing well.
Allan Matute: i dont think nationalism/patriotism/love for country should be an excuse for incompetence or shoddy work.
Exie Abola: The two choices aren't equal. An original musical done badly has farther to fall. Everything has to be originated. Whereas an imported musical that has already succeeded abroad doesn't take as much effort to bring to the stage, so doing it competently is the bare minimum you would expect. Of the two I side with the first just a bit more, only because it takes more risks.
Richard S. Cunanan: Interesting, Exie, I'd like to comment on that. The reason that imported shows have succeeded abroad is because they've been put through the wringer -- as painful as that process is, the whole point of staging, revising and assessing a show is to see what works -- and what doesn't. Those risks GET taken by the people mounting the plays(and it's expensive indeed, which is why so many Broadway plays seem formulaic. They are: they're formulated to make money). The ONLY ones that make it here are, naturally, the successes. And the big successes at that.
Here, perhaps because such money is not available , a musical is essentially only ever seen in its first form. If you like, it's being exposed to the public at a much earlier stage in the process and usually the process stops after that. Sure, maybe it's not the fault of the creators, but the truth is, the play gets shown to a public way WAY before ANY kind of critical assessment happens. And, like it or not, once you expose it to us the audience, we have the right to judge it.
Teatro Expedicion De Filipinas: Foreign "MATERIAL" to be staged with an ORIGINAL FILIPINO APPROACH.
Dan Asa: no to mediocrity!... isang malaking kahihiyan at insulto ang gumawa ng hilaw na filipino original musical sa mga manonood. mas dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ang bawat detalye kung gawang atin dahil ito'y pagkatawan sa ating kultura't kakayanan sa larangan ng entablado. matatanggap ko pa ang mababang kalidad na pagtatanghal ng banyagang musical dahil ito'y hiram lamang. gayunpaman, lahat ng pagtatanghal, orihinal man o banyaga, ay nararapat nasa antas ng pinakamataas na kalidad at maisasabuhay ang bawat kaganapan di lamang makapanindig-balahibo at sa halip tatagos hanggang sa hibla ng iyong laman...
Ralph B. Peña: I agree with what Exie said, but I thought of something else. The question, in the bigger scheme, obliquely leads the reader to take a cultural bias. It’s not just original musical versus play revival, but also Filipino versus foreign. Being asked to choose between good and bad is a non-starter. We all want good in any denomination. As for original versus remount, there are compelling arguments for either. On the one hand you want to expand the canon, on the other, extend the life of a play. So it comes down to Filipino against all others – and that’s where it gets messy because a meaningful comparison between the two must invoke contexts and histories – apart from the variances in production hurdles Exie mentioned. There isn’t enough space here to launch into that discussion. The short of it is, it’s not easy to answer your question. To paraphrase a line from Marvin's Room, my feelings for this is like a bowl of fish hooks, I pick one and the rest comes along with it.
Vince De Jesus: I agree with Exie and Ralph. Uminom tayo ng kape para sa mahabang usapang ito. Much better kung over wine. :-)
Gibbs Cadiz: ralph--quite nearly the things that bump in my head all the time. how to balance those competing interests--the need to encourage expansion of the canon versus guarding against shoddy work that subsists on noble intent alone. how not to forget context in looking at productions whether original or 'foreign,' but, on the other hand, making sure context and the peculiarities of the local condition do not lead to, or justify, what bush speechwriter david frum had called (and i can't believe i'd be quoting the shrub!) 'the soft bigotry of low expectations.' where to place original filipino musical material that, while in the native tongue and mining native circumstances and scenery, are--in form, feel, structure and spirit (okay, even poster design!)--more like devout imitations of the broadway musical template--and who can blame them when the default impulse is not only to hew to the tried-and-tested, but also to employ our natural affinity for the western song-and-dance tradition?... vince, yep, this does call for bouts of coffee/wine drinking. but since i'm neither much into both, goading you all into unloading your thoughts here, and adding to the perspectives that keep me thinking hard all the time, is the next best thing. :)
Von Totanes: whether filipino or broadway, original or not, competent will always trump incompetent. encouraging words are good, but a spade needs to be called a spade... except when apples are being compared to oranges.
Salvador Bernal: we're quick to say pinoy musicals are bad. western musicals are honed, polished to a level of success. they're tested in places to be good, a hit. so when locals stage them they have high percent of succeeding. blue-chip na.
Gibbs Cadiz: MR. BERNAL! thank you for your comment, glad to see you here. yep, unfortunately, we don't have the out-of-town tryouts, the years-long gestation periods, the weeks' worth of paid previews that foreign producers use to refine the work before it's officially presented on opening night. there's context staring one in the face.
Exie Abola: That's the rub, Gibbs. I was commenting based on your original choice. The original Pinoy musical vs the imported one don't start at the same point: lamang na yung isa. So my heart pulls for the former. And yet, you don't do it a favor by lowering your standards... Say when and where, and I'll bring wine. :)
Gibbs Cadiz: on the other hand, exie--and this is another complicating skein--we do know from experience that even the best broadway material, the ones that have emerged the most polished, viable, etc. after the stringent process they employ there, can still get a poor staging hereabouts. obviously, quality of material alone--its pre-ordained viability given what it's gone through abroad--is not sufficient to assure a good local production. do i begin ticking off the names here? haha. but--the opposite can happen, too, once in a while--middling show abroad, but once tackled by local talents, emerges looking better, more deserving of consideration. tama nga ata talaga si william goldman: in the business of show, ultimately, nobody knows anything. :) but that's art, i guess--refusing to be pigeonholed.
Oggs Cruz: I'll go for the former. The fact that the material has already been made, whether its done sloppily or shoddily, gives way to it being done again and being improved upon in the future. The pleasures of the latter, whether it turns out to be the best local production, is only momentary.
Nor Domingo: I want to ask first what you mean by "original filipino musical"? Would you consider a musical original and filipino even though the theme, treatment, language, music etc, etc is completely western?
Gibbs Cadiz: nor--at its most basic--original script, music, lyrics, libretto. pwedeng foreign ang source--is there any question that rama at sita is an original pinoy musical even if the source material is an indian epic? basta the basics are all homegrown. or foreign-influenced ang music--the motown soul of vince dj's zsazsa zaturnnah, but all the rest of it, especially its core camp sensibility, is pinoy. can be english-language, too--rep's miong, about the life of emilio aguinaldo. all-pinoy material, talents, staging, etc. even if it's in english and the music is clearly derivative of the broadway idiom. or, an even trickier mix--english-language libretto/music, based on a foreign material--trumpets' the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. cs lewis story, but everything else in the musical was done by pinoy talent.
Nor Domingo: Reading through the comments again, i think nasabi na ang lahat. Each side make very good points! Personally, if I paid for to see a show I would prefer to see a competent staging, particularly those by theater companies specializing in mounting Broadway hits. Kasi mahal ang ticket I deserve nothing less. Pero kung walang usapang pera, I prefer to see an original pinoy musical, in english or filipino simply because we NEED to create them.
Victor Velasco: Great reads, very revealing of the reasons and passions of practitioners. Now, I'm curious to know what comprises this "canon" that needs to be expanded. Is it a canon of "Filipino materials" against which new "Filipino materials" AND foreign adaptations are/will be measured? Or simply a collection of materials that have been re-staged over and over and over? How have they been canon-ized and who did the canonization? And what of materials done by Filipino-identified writers/directors/actors that were critically successful outside Pinas (off-off, regional, etc) but not so IN Pinas? Just curious.
maybe another parallelism can be this: how do we re-stage fast successes until they form -- informally -- this canon vis-avis how does broadway/west end do it? just very recently, john doyle's re-imagining of company was so far removed from what made it initially successful in terms of production and even orchestration. and wasn't the les miz that you saw in west end re-imagined as well? nowl, how about the countless re-staging of dalagang bukid, walang sugat, noli-fili and recently, larawan and zsazsa? what risks were taken -- and overcame or not -- to set the bar higher -- for both material and audience? do we have new crops of tinios who dare stage traviatas with a mosquito net?
so in terms of Original Filipino Musicals, maybe another question is this: do we want the reassuring familiarity of good old stuff or the unfamiliarity and risks -- even if failures -- of something new?
Rody Vera: Gibbs, i prefer to have all of them. pag pinalabas, tsaka na lang sabihin, Ay ito pangit, ay ito maganda. Kakaunti na nga lang ang nagpapalabas per se. the important thing right now is for every theater company in this country to just keep producing plays, musicals, for audiences and for themselves. the important thing is for more theater companies to be born and NOT FOLD UP (like the musical theater philippines--di ba mas malungkot?)
-------------------------------
Rody's comment, which capped the discussion (for now) on a reassuringly expansive note, had me replying with an emphatic "Korek!"
You--what's your opinion? Join the chat!
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