Jett Pangan News

While the movie adaptation of Chris D'Arienzo's smash Broadway musical ROCK OF AGES is tanking at the box office, Atlantis Productions' local staging, which stars MiG Ayesa as Stacee Jaxx (a role he also played on Broadway) and Vina Morales as Sherrie (her professional theater debut), sells out!

How does a neophyte at Repertory Philippines, one of the country's pioneering theater companies, which is known to have molded world-class talents such as Lea Salonga, Monique Wilson, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Michael Williams, and Audie Gemora, among others, under the infamously stringent rehearsal and performance policies of the late stage director Zenaida Amador, fit in?

Summer Stages - Top 5 Picks for the Philippines

Theater actor, writer, and director Gerard Alessandrini's brainchild, the 30-year-old Off-Broadway hit parody series FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, finally premiered at Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza in Makati City last weekend. Joel Trinidad, Upstart Productions' president and the show's director, had picked FORBIDDEN BROADWAY'S GREATEST HITS, which has two volumes to date, and features some of the more popular spoofs of Broadway musicals and theater legends culled from more than a dozen FORBIDDEN BROADWAY editions.

Atlantis Productions (In the Heights, Disney's The Little Mermaid) has just released the poster for its upcoming production of Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage, starring Lea Salonga (Les Miserables, Miss Saigon), Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo (Next to Normal, Love, Loss, And What I Wore), Adrian Pang (The Full Monty, They're Playing Our Song), and Art Acuña (The Romance of Magno Rubio, Kitchen Musical). To be directed by Bobby Garcia (In the Heights, Disney's The Little Mermaid), God of Carnage will premiere in Manila in July, and in Singapore in November through a partnership with Singapore Repertory Theatre. Check it out below!

Joel Trinidad, Upstart Productions' president, announced at a press conference on Tuesday that theater bigwigs Lea Salonga, Aiza Seguerra, Nyoy Volante, Jett Pangan, Iya Villania, Nikki Valdez, Markki Stroem, and Gabe Mercado will guest star in the theater company's summer production of Off-Broadway parody "Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits," written and originally directed by Gerard Alessandrini, and top-billed by Liesl Batucan, Caisa Borromeo, OJ Mariano, and Lorenz Martinez. The musical will run at Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza on Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenue from May 11 to 27.

Atlantis Productions has just released the teaser poster for its upcoming production of Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play GOD OF CARNAGE, starring Lea Salonga, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Adrian Pang, and Art Acuña. To be directed by Bobby Garcia, the play will premiere in Manila in July, and in Singapore in November through a partnership with Singapore Repertory Theatre.

Repertory Philippines' current 45th theater season reaches fever pitch with the premiere of composer Frank Wildhorn and book writer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse's overtly melodramatic, pop rock-laden Broadway musical JEKYLL AND HYDE. However, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, director for JEKYLL AND HYDE, along with her team, seems to have been rising above the original Broadway production's bad reputation since the local production opened last weekend. Whereas American critics find Wildhorn's body of work as "gallumphing, dunderheaded musicals that make everything by Andrew Lloyd Webber seems like great art," says Linda Winer of 'Newsday'; Filipino critics find Repertory Philippines' stripped-down incarnation of Wildhorn's most popular undertaking as nothing short of a miracle. "By doing away with the stage spectacle [without the high-tech gimmickry that marked its Broadway run], the focus was redirected to the actors - and rightly so," says Vladimir Bunoan of ABS-CBNNews.com.

In Atlantis Productions Inc.'s upcoming musical NINE, which features Maury Yeston's music and lyrics, and Arthur Kopit's book based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8 1/2, Jett Pangan will portray the role of Italian filmmaker Guido Contini; Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo will play Contini's wife, Luisa; Cherie Gil will play Contini's film producer, Liliane Le Fleur; and Eula Valdez will play Contini's leading lady, Claudia Jenssen.

It's almost over! There's just THREE days of voting remaining for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 26, 2011. Voting ends at midnight on 12/31 so time is running out.

There's just TWO short weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 19, 2011. Voting ends at midnight on 12/31 so time is running out.

There's just a few weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 12, 2011.

There's just 4 weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Tuesday November 29, 2011.

Voting is now well underway for the 2011 Philippines Awards and here is the latest update! Now, it's time for you to get out and vote for your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Philippines Award. No time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday November 21, 2011.

The first-ever BroadwayWorld (BWW) Philippines Awards, an audience initiative project that encourages BWW readers from the Philippines to nominate and vote for their favorite plays, musicals, and theater personalities of the past year, revealed its list of nominees two weeks ago to an overwhelming response. Related web pages on my blog and BWW have around 2,000 hits, 100 comments, 2,000 likes, and 100 shares to date.

Congratulations to BroadwayWorld.com (BWW) Philippines Awards' nominees, whose names are below, and were shortlisted from around 500 nomination entries sent from October 6 to 31.

When esteemed actress-director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo visited the Big Apple a few months ago, she handed BroadwayWorld.com a copy of her latest CD album titled "Light," which contains recordings of some of the best Broadway musicals that she's been a part of; among the tracks, "Light" from NEXT TO NORMAL, whose positive message of family survival overrides the general downward spiral themes of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, was reassuring, and which Yulo (Diana Goodman) has recorded with co-actors, Jett Pangan (Dan Goodman), Jake Macapagal (Dr. Madden), Felix Rivera (Gabe Goodman), Bea Garcia (Natalie Goodman, and Markki Stroem (Henry), became our instant favorite.

Atlantis Productions brings to Filipino audiences the first licensed English language production outside the United States of rock musical "Next to Normal" at the RCBC Theater in Makati City from March 12-27.

Atlantis Productions, which celebrated it's 2010 Season with hit productions of AVENUE Q (the fifth run of the musical), LEGALLY BLONDE, XANADU and the Manila and Singapore runs of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, opens it's 2011 Season with the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical NEXT TO NORMAL.