Theater review: ‘Musikal!’ spotlights brio of original Filipino musical theater despite problems

The two performances last September 5 and 6 of the “Musikal! A Musical Theater Celebration of CCP’s 45th” were such landmark occasions that even the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) did something unthinkable.
 

PETA willingly cancelled the Friday and Saturday shows of the unparalleled hit “Rak of Aegis” to enable London West End veterans Isay Alvarez Seña and Robert Seña, together with their co-stars Aicelle Santos, OJ Mariano, Kakai Bautista, Jerald Napoles, Poppert Bernadas, Myke Salomon, and Phi Palmos to perform excerpts of “Rak of Aegis” at the CCP Main Theater, formally known as the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo.

           
Now on its 115th show and running until Sept. 14, “Rak of Aegis” was written by Liza Magtoto, directed by Maribel Legarda, and features the 1990s original Pilipino music hits of the band Aegis in a rock-comedy production exalting the Filipinos’ spirit of endurance and bayanihan in defiance of natural calamities like Typhoon Ondoy or of man-made disasters.

           
For Filipino theater actors and actresses and Filipino theater companies, daily life is perpetually pummeled with challenges, notably financial difficulties in meeting talent fees, securing commitments from sponsors, and production costs. Not to mention the strong competition from big-budgeted foreign productions, and the general audience’s preference for imported shows.

           
Filipino theater performers and companies, however, are like the residents of the watery world of the imaginary village Villa Venizia in the “Rak of Aegis.” The performers’ offstage lives may be tough as granite, eternally submerged in the sea of uncertainties of casting calls, or torrents of troubles at the personal level, but they aim to be lyrical and resonant.

           
When it is show time, Filipino theater talents act, sing, and dance sublimely, leaving their earthly worries backstage. It is as if this good-natured disposition, their superior skills, and true talents in stage performances are their ways of knocking off the laments and lullabies of real life’s raw deal.

           
This is the heart and soul of Chris Millado’s sensibly streamlined and delectably directed “Musikal!” which celebrated the Filipino composers’ melodies, Filipino directors’ expertise in breathing life into reams of scripts or thick librettos, the Filipino theater performers’ passion and reverence for stage acting, singing, and dancing, and the overall marvelous and magnificent musicality that made Filipino musical theater performers prominent worldwide.

Remarkable even behind-the-scenes

           
In mounting “Musikal!,” the CCP officials and staff wanted to pay homage to all the Filipino artists who have contributed onstage, backstage, and offstage in making what the center is today, 45 years after its inauguration.

           
But the bigger deal is this: in the matchless “Musikal!,” the CCP offered a perfect gift to its loyal audience and to the entire Filipino people while serving a triumphant notice to the entire world that the Filipinos are ready to take the center stage again in this part of the world, in the realm of musical theater.

           
“Musikal!” showcased segments of select 22 local musical theater productions in the last five years, encapsulated in 24 numbers involving more than 200 cast members in an almost three-hour show.

           
Under the over-all supervision and direction of Millado, who is CCP vice president and artistic director, “Musikal!” unprecedentedly assembled on one stage the original directors and composers of the chosen Philippine musical theater shows and their actors and actresses.

           
“Musikal!,” despite the technical glitches on its Friday run, was a milestone in the local musical theater scene for gathering together in one hall the very best of present Philippine musical theater talents.

           
As the spotlights faded in and out to signal the entry and exit of the performers, the performers’ voices under the monumental musical direction and musical supervision by Jed Balsamo and the orchestral music provided by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra—conducted by Gerard Salonga—bewitched the audience and infused the theater with joy, merriment, and pride.

           
The austere Main Theater stage was dominated by several giant LED screens where stylized digital video images of the original set designs, rendered by GA Fallarme and his Digital Video Design team, were flashed to summon sceneries of the past productions.

           
Set designer Ricardo Eric Cruz effectively positioned bland black risers and stairs which split the stage into two levels, fully utilized by the performers as they ascended and descended, giving the audience an ambience of an impressively expansive performance space.

           
An admirable contribution in creating and casting a magical spell on the audience were the extravagant costumes set against a minimalist set, intensely charged by Katsch Catoy’s lighting design and James Reyes’ costume styling.

           
The creative and production teams transported the audience in sweeping vista and epochs: from the days of the Philippine Revolution against Spain in the communities of Bulacan and Tondo, to a lonely warehouse manned by a future saint, to fantasylands, to the old vaudeville theaters in Avenida Rizal, to a barren hill ‘blessed by a miracle,’ to a fictional flooded village, and up to the mythical terrains of an Indian epic.

Performers galore

           
The landmark revue fittingly opened with Sheila Francisco and Red Nuestro singing flirtatiously “Makikiliti Kong Totoo” from Severino Reyes’1902 zarzuela “Walang Sugat” mounted by Tanghalang Pilipino in 2012.

           
Completing the section on zarzuela-inspired and period musicals were the chorus number “Ang Babaeng Malaya” from the movie musical adaptation of “Ang Kababaihan ng Malolos” written and produced by Dr. Nicanor Tiongson based on Jose Rizal’s famous letter; Margarita Roco’s aria “Luksang Pangitain” where she had premonitions of the death of Andres Bonifacio from Chino Toledo’s “San Andres B.,” and a suite by the Ryan Cayabyab Singers from the Green Wings Entertainment Networks’ musical “Lorenzo” based on the life of the first Filipino saint, San Lorenzo Ruiz.    

           
The genre of rock-ballet musical was capably personified by the Ballet Philippines’ neo-Filipino “Rock Supremo,” with singer Ebe Dancel rendering the haunting “Lakambini”as Richardson Yadao, Carissa Adea, Jean Marc Cordero, and Katherine Trofeo dancing as Gregoria de Jesus and Andres Bonifacio.

           
Dancel’s remarkable interpretation of “Lakambini” made several members of the audience cry, despite problems with microphones.

           
The songs “Sa Panaginip Lang Ako Minahal” (from Tanghalang Pilipino’s “Sandosenang Sapatos”), “Christmas Morning” (from the Trumpets’ “Bluebird of Happiness”), and “Pag-asa ng Bayan” (from PETA’s “Batang Rizal”) represented the children’s musical portion of “Musikal!”

           
Roeder Camañag’s risqué number “Titina” (from TP’s “Stageshow”) introduced the vaudeville genre. He was immediately followed by Alvarez Seña’s bouncy “Aba Ba Boogie” (from the Spotlight Artist Center’s “Katy”) re-mounted last year. Dulce and Santos, together with the Spotlight Artist Center’s Ensemble, joined Alvarez Seña in this number honoring Katy dela Cruz.

         
A revue about Philippine music would not be complete without the Philippine Madrigal Singers. The group was given the distinction of performing a capella a suite of songs from TP’s “Noli Me Tangere” with libretto by National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera and music by Ryan Cayabyab from Rizal’s original novel of the same title.

           
From the Spanish period, the PETA’s Ensemble, led by Alvarez Seña, Seña, and Santos, shifted to the present the mood with their “Munting Pangarap” from the “Rak of Aegis.”

           
After the intermission, Myke Salomon performed “Magsimula Ka” from Spotlight Artist Center’s musical of the same title. “Magsimula Ka” has become one of the most enduring melodies of the Philippine musical theater.

           
School-based and university-themed musicals were represented by “Boy from La Salle” (from the 4th Wall Street Theater Company’s “Rivalry: Ateneo-La Salle, The Musical”); Red Concepcion’s “Take Me to the Sky” (from the “Toilet, The Musical” by the Ateneo Blue Rep); and “Alalahanin, Gunitain” (from Ateneo’s Dulaang Sibol’s “Sinta”).

           
The Sugarfree brand of music was embodied in the number “Bawat Daan” from the musical “Sa Wakas” directed by Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan and lyrics and music by Dancel.

           
The audience was reminded of the legacy of Nora Aunor via an emotional suite from “Himala” where Dulce showed her immensely powerful vocal prowess, together with May Bayot-Castro, Alvarez Seña, and Cynthia Cuilig-Guico.

           
Hearing Dulce’s soaring voice again reminds one of her numerous memorable singing numbers in musicals mounted at the old Metropolitan Theater in Liwasang Bonifacio, such as the “Great White Way.”

           
From the serious theme of faith and lies, the mood switched to total gaiety with Salomon appearing as a Palestinian masquerading as an Israeli smitten with a cross-dressing gay Filipino care-giver (Melvin Lee) in the song number “Mysterious” from PETA’s hit and award-winning “Caredivas”.

           
The hit “Maxie, The Musicale” produced by the Bit by Bit Company took its turn with Jayvhot Galang and Jojo Riguerra belting “Ang Buhay ay Pelikula.” The song “Multo ng Nakaraan” from TP’s “Zsazsa Zaturnah, Ze Muzikal” was performed by Wenah Nagales, Tuxqs Rutaquio, and Nar Cabico.

           
Rounding off the section on gay-themed musicals was a fabulous full-blown production number with the cast of “Caredivas” hilariously mesmerizing the audience with their all-white drag and singing “Saan Ka Man Dalhin.”

           
The cross-dressing Lee, Salomon, Vincent de Jesus, Buddy Caramat, Dudz Teraña, Jason Barcial, Ron Alfonso, and Napoles were rewarded with a thunderous applause by the audience.

           
A place of high honor was reserved for the ballet musical where several national artists collaborated. The last musical excerpt to be presented, and the penultimate before the finale, was a suite from Ballet Philippines’ “Rama Hari.”

           
Lumbera wrote the libretto of “Rama Hari,” music by Cayabyab, choreography by the new National Artist for Dance Alice Reyes, and set design by Salvador Bernal.

           
Seña, Karylle, and OJ Mariano sung numbers which included the famous “Magbalik Ka Na Mahal,” made popular by Kuh Ledesma in the original production, while the BP dancers performed.

Applause nourishes performers

           
Before starting the finale, Alvarez Seña delivered a short speech where she thanked the Filipino audience for loyally patronizing locally produced shows.

           
“Ang palakpak ng mga manonood ang bitamina ng mga gumaganap sa entablado. (The audience’s applause nourishes the theater performers.),” Alvarez Seña told the audience before she was joined by Dulce and Santos in singing the informal anthem of stage actors and actresses, the song titled “Minsan ang Minahal ay Ako” from “Katy.”

           
And then the curtain rose, showing the entire stage swelling with the more than 200 cast members of the “Musikal!” prompting the audience to give them a lingering standing ovation and shouts of bravos.

           
Thank you very much, CCP, for giving the Filipino audience the “Musikal!” Happy 45th anniversary, too. — VC, GMA News