The Best of Manila Theater 2019

[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Has it really been a decade since I saw my first show in Manila? This used to be Gibbs' signature annual piece, but now that he's gone (not for good, I hope), someone has to do it. The website version of this piece here--and also, i must insist you get the print copy.

SEE ALSO:

1. Our Best of Manila Theater 2018

2. My Best of Manila Theater 2017

3. My Best of Manila Theater 2016

4. My Best of Manila Theater 2015

5. My Best of Manila Theater 2014

6. My Best of Manila Theater 2013

7. Compilation of links to my theater reviews

*     *     *     *     *

No less than 14 previously staged, full-length Filipino productions returned this year.

9 Works Theatrical brought back its APO Hiking Society musical "Eto Na! Musikal nAPO!". The crowd-favorite Eraserheads show "Ang Huling El Bimbo" played three sold-out runs at Resorts World Manila. Floy Quintos'"The Kundiman Party" moved from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman to the Peta Theater Center, and "Himala, Isang Musical," coproduced by 9 Works and The Sandbox Collective, reappeared even better than its already perfect form in 2018.

Two perennials also turned up--a record-setting seventh run of "Rak of Aegis," and the fourth (and inarguably best) version of Tanghalang Pilipino's (TP) "Mabining Mandirigma"--alongside smaller but no less absorbing fare such as Sandbox's redesigned "Dani Girl."

Even the splashy foreign visitors were repeats: an nth dose of the interactive Harry Potter parody "Potted Potter"; and, at The Theatre at Solaire, updated productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera," both having debuted locally at the Cultural Center of the Philippines earlier this decade.

Which is not to say 2019 was lacking in terms of new and/or original work--quite the opposite, actually.

The near-synchronous arrival of three pieces by American legend Stephen Sondheim was nirvana for the geekiest of musical theater geeks.

But Sondheim wasn't the only one all over town. The Spanish playwrights somehow invaded the campuses. Dulaang UP (DUP) staged English and Filipino versions of Federico García Lorca's "The House of Bernarda Alba" and Lope de Vega's "Fuente Ovejuna"; MINT College did Lorca's "Yerma"; and the Theater Arts program of De La Salle-College of St. Benilde had "Ang Dakilang Teatro ng Daigdig (in part, Calderoón de la Barca's "The Great Theater of the World") and "El Mar de Sangre" (Lorca's "Blood Wedding," which Artist Playground deconstructed into "Buwan" for its actors' recital).

88 productions

Our schools, in fact, proved to be fertile ground, as evidenced below by our picks for the year's crème de la crème.

Of the 88 fully staged productions we saw in Manila--including 28 musicals, 44 straight plays, and 20 new one-act plays--39 were staged by students or student-run companies.

University production or not, however, success was never a guarantee--not just in quality, but also in economic terms.

For every surprise hit, such as "Ang Pagsalubong sa Apatnapu" by the Marikina-based community outfit Teatro ni Juan, there were the likes of "Aurelio Sedisyoso" and "Guadalupe: The Musical," neither planned rerun of which materialized.

FrontRow Entertainment's "M. Butterfly" folded abruptly midway through its national tour.

And, most conspicuously, the London-based Rose Theatre canceled its repertory productions of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" less than a week before the intended opening.

What follows is by no means an exhaustive appraisal o the 2019 Manila theater scene. Take it, instead, as our personal roll call of those we'd most welcome to see again onstage.

The most accomplished entry of Virgin Labfest 15 turned the seemingly ridiculous phenomenon of pop-culture fandom into compelling comedy, buoyed by richly detailed writing, airtight direction, and a tireless trio of actresses playing longtime friends fighting tooth and nail over a concert ticket.

Good news to those who missed it: "Fangirl" will be back next year in the Labfest's "Revisited" section.

The best production in Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group's season heralded Garcia's return to nonmusicals after "God of Carnage" seven years ago, and, more significantly, his second stab at part one of Kushner's magnum opus, 24 years after premiering in the Philippines all two parts and seven hours of it.

In his script, Kushner writes that an "epic play" such as "Angels""should be a little fatiguing." Garcia's production was perceptively paced and rendered, with astonishing emotional precision, the unraveling lives of its eight main characters in the 1980s AIDS crisis. It made you laugh, broke your heart, and left you with a renewed sense of hope and possibility.

In an interview last year, Luarca, then newly appointed artistic director of Tanghalang Ateneo (TA), said: "Theater [should be] agitating and ever-questioning, ardent in its pursuit to challenge the status quo."

That, he achieved irrefutably with this unflinching, contemporized take on De Leon's classic tale of a bunch of fraternity neophytes during the Marcos years.

Performed almost entirely by a student cast, "Alpha Kappa Omega"--yet further proof of the prolific Luarca as one of our most astute artist-critics--was at once a fiery indictment of strongman culture and a subtle middle finger to the sycophancy and depravity now symbolic of Duterte-era politics.

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 "Himala, Isang Musikal," September 2019.

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LIGHTING

SET

COSTUMES

SOUND

MD

CHOREO

PROJECTION

TRANSLATION

BOOK

COMPOSITION

BRIEF