We Live on Avenue Q...

Once again, Atlantis Productions brings to Manila one of the best musicals to hit Broadway - 2004 Tony Award winner "Avenue Q".

And the verdict is -- it's cute! With tunes that stick in your head -- among others: "The Internet is for Porn", "It Sucks to be Me", "For Now", and my personal favorite, "If You Were Gay". Of course there's also the senti song that goes "...there's a fine fine line between love and a waste of time..." that should strike a chord with us senti heartbroken Pinoys. :)

Described as a cross between Rent (with its gritty reality and catchy songs) and Sesame Street (maybe because of the puppets?), the show actually stands on its own. It's the story of Princeton, a 23-year old college graduate, and his neighbors living in Avenue Q (which is presumed to be a long way off from the upscale Avenue A). Just like most everyone, Princeton is living his life while discovering love and trying to find his purpose in life.

There may be puppets, but this is not a show for actual kids! First off, there is a puppet pumping scene, and the life lessons that Princeton learns are not really the ones that would be taught in an episode of Sesame Street. The puppets do evoke some Sesame Street characters -- Trekkie Monster is who Cookie Monster would be if he were addicted to porn, while roommates Nicky and Rod remind us of Bert and Ernie, and their ambiguous "relationship". Overall, it's a fun fun show, and even someone who normally wouldn't like Broadway musicals (i.e., B.) would find the tunes fun and catchy.

Avenue Q runs from September 7 til September 23 at the RCBC Auditorium, with the following cast:

• Rachel Alejandro - Kate Monster / Lucy the Slut
  
• Felix Rivera - Princeton / Rod
  
• Joel Trinidad - Nicky / Trekkie Monster / Bad Idea Bear
  
• Aiza Seguerra - Gary Coleman
  
• Frenchie Dy - Christmas Eve
  
• Rycharde Everley – Brian
  
• Teenee Chan - Mrs. Thistletwat, Bad Idea Bear, others
  

My personal favorite was the bald Joel Trinidad as Trekkie Monster...bald men rule! Hahaha.

For more info on the songs, go to the Avenue Q website. Tickets available at Ticketworld and through Atlantis Productions.

St. Louis and Dem Filipinos

From Inq7:

NINETY years after the infamous St. Louis World Exposition, where tribal Filipinos were sent as human exhibits to convince the American public of the humane righteousness of colonization, a play, "St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos," was born. Fifteen years later, a musical.

The fictionalized account of Datu Bulan, Bagobo warrior and Pinoy Everyman who dreams of doing something great in the land of America, and who ends up drifting aimlessly through the Great Depression, isn't very pretty stuff. And there are no happy endings here, just a resolute and hopeful one.

When "St. Louis" was first premiered as a straight play in 1991, director Tony Mabesa scrapped the original ending where Bulan is imagined by Fred Tinawid (the play's narrator, a Fil-Am yuppie searching for his own roots) to come home to his tribe.

Mabesa said, and rightly so, that it was a cop-out, a feel-good ending for a story that there was nothing to feel good about. It worked then as a heavy-handed political piece, with Joel Lamangan and Ronnie Lazaro alternating as Bulan. But would it work in a musical?

"St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos", the Musical, had its first run in August at UP. It's now in its second run, but only until November 26.

We caught the matinee last Saturday, and though there were still technical difficulties (some actors didn't have mikes and couldn't be heard, the show started 1 hour late), it was nevertheless, a great show. Not to mention, my friend got really great seats. :)

The UST Symphony Orchestra provided accompaniment. The play is in Taglish, alternating English lyrics with poetic Tagalog dialogue. It was almost heartbreaking to watch the lead character Bulan transform from the princely, dignified, matipuno warrior, to the sorry state he becomes 20 years later. Franco Laurel was handsome as the preppy Fil-Am narrator Fred Tinawid, for some reason reminding me vaguely of Mig Ayesa on Rockstar INXS. The fat lady of the circus (Maude) unfortunately reminded me of Little Miss Piggy, complete with blond curls and soprano singing voice. The Ifugao chief Antonio provides comic relief. Pinoy na pinoy! To make a joke out of everything. Floy Quintos as Gramps eventually steals the show.

The play starts its story in 1904. And it's a sad state of affairs that a hundred years later, the same problems still happen, the same situation still exists.

"Make them believe your a man, do something great." The play could easily be about our personal dreams, just as it is about the odyssey of us as a people. And the review quoted above is right, there are no happy endings here, just a resolute and hopeful one.

"Pusong naglalakbay, ibalik mo sa akin." Without our roots, are we really doomed to lose ourselves? Thought provoking. Catch it, while it's on. For more info, surf to Dulaang UP's site.

Once on this Island

For days now, I had been bugging B to accompany me in watching Once on this Island at the RCBC Theater. My girlfriends and I had planned to watch it last weekend, but one of them got sick, so we weren't able to push through with that plan. The musical will only be running until the end of May however, and with shows only on the weekends (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays), it seemed like we didn't have enough free time to catch the show, and it would end up on my wish-i-did-but-i-didn't-have-time-for-it list.

But it turns out B also wanted to watch the show (because of Jett Pangan). Finally, last Friday, 10 minutes before showtime, we were able to buy some tickets to watch Actor's Actors Inc. staging of Once on This Island at the RCBC Theater.

The musical itself debuted on Broadway in 1990, and was nominated in that year's Tony Awards for Best Score, Best Book and Best Musical. It didn't win, but nevertheless, it's a fun musical worth catching.

Here's a short summary I lifted from somewhere in the web (sorry, didn't feel like summarizing it on my own):

Freely adapted from the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, Once On This Island is a twist on the traditional Little Mermaid tale, as it tells of Ti Moune, a poor,orphaned, peasant girl who falls in love with Daniel, an upper class boy whose life she saves after a car crash. There are four gods that the peasants believe rule their lives; Erzulie (the goddess of Love), Asaka (Mother of the Earth), Agwe (God of Water), and Papa Ge (The Demon of Death). These gods cause the lives of the young lovers to intersect, and Ti Moune leaves her adoptive parents and village on the fateful journey that tests the strength of her love.

Ti Moune's story is told by the villagers (or should I say islanders) as a story that happened "once on this island". The island, as they tell it, is divided into two worlds -- the world of the rich foreigners, and the world of the poor native peasants. The first scene shows the villagers, huddling together in the midst of a storm, telling Ti Moune's story to a little girl. The Caribbean beach-y island theme is carried out in the whole musical -- even the costumes are in various shades of flowing tie-dyed island wear. The set is simple, just a bare stage with lots of bamboo banigs hanging all over the place. The effect however, is great. Lighting carries a big part in how the characters are depicted. There are scenes of Jett Pangan (as the Demon of Death), looking menacing under the yellow-red spotlight.


(**Pictures from oarhouse.blogspot.com and thespoke.net)


If you look hard enough, the story tackles racial differences, culture, family, love. The circle of life (enter soundtrack of The Lion King) is emphasized. The musical starts as a story being told to a young girl, and ends with the young girl now telling the story. "Our lives become the stories that we weave...", her audience chants. Praise should be given to how the story is told. I found it fascinating that despite the tragic story of Ti Moune, one leaves the theater happy, the cheery island music humming in one's brain.

Fellow UP graduate and former Smokey Mountain member Jeffrey Hidalgo plays Daniel, the male love interest. Since he's supposed to be "upper class", he prances around in an all-white suit with a white bowler hat, in contrast to everyone else who're dressed in island attire. Though he falls in love with Ti Moune, he actually is engaged to marry someone from his class. "Some girls you marry, some you love," he sings, just before Ti Moune finds out about his engagement. And you just know this weak man is going to break her heart.

"Born Diva" winner Raki Vega is great as Ti Moune. I wasn't able to watch "Born Diva" on TV, so I didn't really know how Raki Vega would look like. I was expecting someone with a boob job (Born Diva sponsors free plastic surgeries as part of its bid to 'better' the contestants), but she's this thin girl with the great voice, and she really did do justice to her role as Ti Moune, singing her heart out with great emotion. Others in the cast include Kuya Bodjie (as Ti Moune's adoptive dad), Jett Pangan (God of Death), Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo (swirling in a pink dress as the goddess of love), Michael Williams (as God of Water), Micheal de Mesa (chorus/Daniel's Dad), and Bituin Escalante as Mother Earth. Although when we watched last Friday, it was Bituin's alternate Radha who played Mother Earth. I remember Radha from Kulay, and now she's even chubbier than Bituin, but she still does justice to her solo, "Mama Will Provide".

"Once on This Island" is at turns touching and funny. It runs until May 29 at the RCBC Theater, Makati City. It is directed by Bart Guingona (Actor's Actors). For tickets, contact Ticketworld.