Next to Normal and Peter Pan in Manila

My friend, Cherish Maningat-Bae is in town right now for a short vacay. As some of you may know, she’s a professional musical theater actress in Korea, the first Filipino to ever be cast in a lead role at that, and I thought it would be great if she could watch some locally-produced musicals. Little did I know she has never seen a musical in the country before she left for Korea and it was her first time! We watched Next to Normal and Peter Pan, and though I don’t blog about theater normally, I felt compelled to share my views about both plays.

ATLANTIS PRODUCTIONS’ NEXT TO NORMAL

“Do you have tissue?”

Those were the first words that my friend, Claire (who’s with Atlantis) said to us before we went inside the theater. What kind of a lame warning was that, I thought. I merely LOL’d at her and shrugged, thinking that she was hyping up the story too much. Fast forward to two hours later and I walked out of the theater with swollen eyes and a runny nose. In fact, my eyes were still puffy until the next day.

Prior to us watching the play, I looked the musical up online and learned that it’s about a family that’s trying to deal with a bipolar mother. Or maybe she’s just plain crazy. She lost her first-born 18 years before but still believes he exists. Her condition is breaking them apart and the husband tries many ways to find a cure for her mental illness.

You know, I’m not gonna pretend that I’m a theater afficionado. I didn’t even know who Menchu Launchengco-Yulo was before this production so everything that I would say here is but an observation of a random outsider and most certainly comes from the heart. My heart, which was torn into little pieces even before the curtains rolled down. Next to Normal is an amazing play with a very tight script. Mental disorders are very alien to me and I expected that I won’t be able to relate with the characters, but the actors were able to grab me by the neck and pull me into the lives of the individuals they were portraying!

I’m not the biggest fan of their lighting though as there were too many shadows and I couldn’t see their faces at times. However, I am willing to brush that aside because EVERYTHING ELSE WAS JUST SO POWERFUL. Powerful acting, powerful voices, powerful emotions. And mygehd the music was just… it was… I don’t even. It really touched my soul.

Next to Normal was indeed a roller coaster ride and I’m pretty sure the guy beside me was annoyed like whoah because I was literally sobbing, shaking and blowing my nose halfway until the end of the play. Especially with this song, which IMO, is one of the best songs from a musical that I’ve heard. I died in this scene. SPOILER ALERT!!!

I highly recommend Next to Normal, guys! Please do yourselves a favor and go to RCBC on October 15 or 16 and watch it. Enjoy it. Learn from it. Yes, it has a limited run so make sure you reserve your tickets already and please, bring loads of Kleenex!

~~~

REPERTORY PHILIPPINES AND STAGES PRODUCTIONS’ PETER PAN

We all know who Peter Pan is. If you don’t, well, you probably had a bad childhood. Since I wasn’t a big reader when I was a kid, my fondest memory of Peter Pan was when ABSCBN aired the animated series in Tagalog and the voice was dubbed by my crush from Tropang Trumpo, Earl Ignacio.

But Repertory and Stages’ Peter Pan is much cuter and I suppose, more charming. I mean, how can you go wrong with Sam Concepcion? He’s not only talented and good looking, he’s very bankable and I wasn’t a bit surprised when I saw his fangirls (from exclusive all-girls school) gushing in the audience!

We were invited by Kakki Teodoro aka Tiger Lily to watch the musical. I knew it was gonna be a good show but had no idea it was gonna be THAT great! I can say the same about Sam because I only know him from his TV appearances and music videos but why didn’t anyone tell me that the young man was bursting with awesomeness?! And you too, Wendy! And Capt. Hook! And that crocodile! Everyone was just mind-blowingly spectacular!!! And they were flying like wuuuuuuut??? WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THAT TALENT COME FROM?!

Since it’s a family musical, about 60% of the audience were kids. Cute, English-speaking kids. It may not work for everyone but you gotta deal. The musical was such a visual treat and because my background’s TV, I was taken aback by the way they utilized the stage and the lights. Did I already mention they were flying?

I super enjoyed the play. It did not change my life or leave a mark in my person but I had a blast! More importantly, Cherish was blown away. She was almost starstruck! I asked her, “so, are they better than the Koreans?” and she replied, “You cannot even compare! Don’t get me wrong, the Koreans are really good actors with fine techniques but the Filipinos have unbelievable raw talent. World-class performances and the voices, the songs, the words just come from the heart.”

If that won’t get you to watch both plays, I don’t know what will…

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