Noli Me Tangere Manila

Why I enjoyed my theater trip outside RCBC

I can't decide how much I liked this show. On the one hand, production value was excellent. On the other, I only understood like 40% of it. (Yes, I am a terrible Filipino. Yes, I am terrible at Filipino.) Maybe I should have invited a companion who could have acted as a handy reference for words I didn't understand.

I have, let's say, personal baggage about Noli Me Tangere. I had to take it up twice, once each in high school and college. I didn't enjoy studying it either time because, well, I didn't really enjoy anything we took up in Filipino class. And having read it 1-2 times, I really don't think it's a good book. I'm not talking context; but as a work of literature I don't know what it wants to say or do. So many characters, so many symbols, so many sub-plots. Too crazy. (Like seasons four and five of Lost?) So me disliking the content to begin with + not being able to understand the whole show makes me feel like I can't really make a judgments or comment about whether or not play's truth was well told.

In the Heights Manila: As good as it gets?

I think it was Plato who said that ours is but a world of echoes, that everything in our reality only hints of another dimension where things exist in essence, in their purest form. Based on his belief, are we doomed to live our entire existence without experiencing “the real thing”? When it comes to local theater, I sometimes think this is true.

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I grew up believing that Philippine theatre was every bit as wonderful as anything that existed outside the country. After all, wasn’t a Filipina headlining Miss Saigon in the West End?

The first real musical I remember seeing was Les Miserables by Repertory Philippines. I was in Grade Three. I still remember Javert’s inverted body on the barricade, the rotating stage, and I remember thinking that I’d much rather be Eponine than Cosette. Even if Cosette had the money and got the guy, Eponine got all the good songs. I distinctly remember my lola shaking Baby Barredo’s hand after the curtain fell and congratulating her on a show that was “as good as Broadway”. My lola had an apartment in New York so I knew she meant business when it came to theater.

When I was in high school one of my best friends came home raving about the latest hit on Broadway, Rent. She lent us her CD’s and got us started on the world of the ten gallon plastic pickle tub. When Rent opened in Music Museum a few months later, I saw it myself and fell in love (with Mark/JM who I’m still sad is gay). We watched it five times and would sing “Out Tonight”, “Light My Candle”, “Will I” and most of the other songs on our lunch breaks. In a school activity we were asked to give ourselves nicknames and naturally mine was Mimi (luckily my teacher was also a Rent-head and unfazed by how my alternate self was an HIV-positive stripper). That Manila production was my original Rent. I enjoyed it so much that even when I found myself in New York I didn’t feel the need to see it on Broadway.

I would consider those two experiences the biggest contributors to making me a bona fide theater lover, though I’ve been lucky to have had many wonderfully more since then.

Last Friday became another theater night, an impromptu plan to see the opening performance of In The Heights in Manila.

theater weekend!

Next to Normal on Saturday, 39 Steps on Sunday. Wish all weekends could be like this!

Schadenfreud

"Schadenfreud" - I think that was my favorite song!

Wasn't planning to write anything but realized that, when it comes to Manila theater, I tend to want to write more about the shows I wasn't completely happy with. I try to find nice things to say even if I really wasn't very happy and after I click "Publish" I always wish I had just written everything I really felt.

SO. Wanted to quickly write about Avenue Q because I thought it was awesome. Like seriously, flawless and awesome! (By the way the other show I recently saw and really enjoyed but didn't get to write about was Rep's Sweeney Todd.)

This also makes me wonder if I enjoy the shows I have no prior exposure to more than those that I already love, because the expectations are naturally greater for the latter?

But everything was awesome. All of the actors were awesome - and their voices were amazing. I guess that should be sort of standard in musical theater but that sadly has not been the case in 2 of the last 4 plays I've seen - I'm talking about YOU, Wendla and Mimi!

I had no favorites because everyone was amazing. Ok just kidding, extra props to the Felix Rivera and Rachel Alejandro because they performed two major roles each. And extra extra props to Calvin Millado just because he was also Roger.  No seriously, great great stuff.

I guess that this cast is also benefiting from the experience of three runs. But the play runs like a well-oiled ship. If I were Chari Arespacochaga I would be very happy to have a success on my hands after the last disaster she directed.

Haha ok it must be pretty obvious now that I have some hatred for Atlantis because of the mockery that was Spring Awakening Manila. Even if I enjoyed one out of three times I saw the show, really, they as theater professionals, lovers, veterans, should have had enough respect for the material and the art not to put on such a terrible show.

I had sort of sworn off Atlantis - what a joke given that there are only like two or three companies in Manila! - as a result of Spring, combined with the terrible Hairspray reviews. But I guess they have made me think twice with Avenue Q.



If you haven't seen this show it is an absolute and total MUST SEE: