Jory Rivera News

Directed by multi-award winning stage and television director Floy Quintos, Philippine Opera Company's ANG BAGONG HARANA, a musical production featuring the best works of noted Filipino composers, returns to Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium for the third time starting tonight, October 19 until Sunday, October 28.

Directed by multi-award winning stage and television director Floy Quintos, Philippine Opera Company's ANG BAGONG HARANA, a musical production featuring the best works of noted Filipino composers, returns to Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium for the third time starting this Friday, October 19 until Sunday, October 28.

All good things must come to an end: after Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, David Atkins Enterprises, Hi-Definition Radio Inc., and Concertus Manila's latest import, Andrew Lloyd Webber's mega musical 'The Phantom of the Opera,' made a big stir in town, these theater producers - who also brought 'Cats,' 'Mamma Mia!' and 'Stomp' to the country ¬- have to finally drop the final curtain on 'The Phantom…' on Sunday, October 14 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines' (CCP) main theater. Tickets are sold out.

There are no small parts, only small actors; and Art Acuña, a US-based theater, film, and television actor, whose recent performance as restaurant manager, Harry Shaw, in the television series THE KITCHEN MUSICAL received an International Emmy nomination announced just yesterday, is anything but narrow-minded or narcissistic.

More than 250 children from the marginalized areas of Cavite and Quezon cities were treated to a charity performance of Repertory Philippines' current children's musical offering, THE WIZARD OF OZ, at Onstage Theatre, Greenbelt One, Makati City on Sunday, September 30.

Ballet Philippines closes its new full-length ballet production, NEO-FILIPINO: ANTING, today at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

In its 43rd season, Ballet Philippines presents its second offering titled ANTING, based on preeminent Filipino dramatist Tony Perez's libretto, which explores mystical amulets and talismans that come from Filipino folklore, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines' little theater from Friday, September 14 to Sunday, September 16.

Broadway's longest-running mega musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, which came on the heels of the international touring productions of CATS and MAMMA MIA! in Manila, finally made its Philippine premiere on Saturday, August 25 at the main theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Nearly 100 tons of set pieces and props; more than 700 stage lighting equipment and accessories; and around 230 Victorian style costumes by the late production designer Maria Bjornson were shipped from South Africa, where the international touring cast last performed. Seasoned South African actors Jonathan Roxmouth (Phantom) and Anthony Downing (Raoul), and Australian soprano Claire Lyon (Christine) headline the Manila production, which runs until Sunday, September 30.

Philippine Educational Theater Association's (PETA) stage adaptation of the late Filipino film auteur Lino Brocka's "Bona," starring award-winning film actors Eugene Domingo and Edgar Allan Guzman, written by Palanca winner Layeta Bucoy, and directed by theater stalwart Soxie Topacio, opened last Thursday, August 23 at the PETA Theater Center.

A day before the musical opened, Repertory Philippines' THE WIZARD OF OZ held a press preview at Greenbelt One's Onstage Theatre with Cara Barredo as Dorothy Gale, along with James Stacey as the Scarecrow, Hans Eckstein as the Tin Man, and Oliver Usison as the Lion.

Tanghalang Pilipino, the resident theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) opened its 26th season with Severino Reyes' immortal sarsuwela WALANG SUGAT last Thursday, August 16 at CCP's Tanghalang Aurelio V. Tolentino. Highly esteemed film director Carlos Siguion-Reyna helms the production, and makes his stage directorial debut.

Award-winning film actors Eugene Domingo and Edgar Allan Guzman, who are currently in the thick of rehearsals for Philippine Educational Theater Association's (PETA) new production of BONA, a stage adaptation of the critically-acclaimed motion picture of the same name, directed by the late Filipino film auteur Lino Brocka, met members of the press and performed excerpts from the play on Tuesday, August 14 at PETA Theater Center.

BroadwayWorld photographer Jory Rivera brings you more photos taken at the recent press launch for Resorts World Manila's upcoming grand production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's beloved Broadway musical "The King and I" at the Newport Performing Arts Theater, BroadwayWorld Philippines' 2011 Best Theatrical Venue, beginning Saturday, September 15.

Philippine Stagers Foundation, the creator of original Filipino musicals 'Cory ng EDSA' and 'Enzo Santo,' comes up with another captivating production in 'Joe: The Filipino Rock'sical,' which opened last weekend at St. Cecilia's Auditorium, St. Scholastica's College, and will continue to run there on Saturday, July 21, and on Sunday, July 22, and at the Tanghalang Pasigueño on Sunday, July 29.

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?

Philippine Opera Company's ANG BAGONG HARANA, a musical revue featuring traditional and contemporary Filipino love songs and patriotic anthems, continues to tour nationally, and will open Silliman University's 50th Cultural Season on June 29 to 30 at Luce Auditorium in Dumaguete City.

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.

"Care Divas," Philippine Educational Theater Association's (PETA) newest hit musical about five overseas Filipino male caregivers who transform into drag performers at night, written by Palanca Award-winning playwright Liza Magtoto, wowed theatergoers anew during its three-day run held recently at Repertory Philippines' (Rep) Onstage Theatre in Makati City. Both PETA and Rep are celebrating their 45th anniversary this year.

Considered as pillars of Philippine Theater, Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and Repertory Philippines (Rep) - coincidentally, both theater companies celebrate their 45th anniversary this year - are joining forces to bring one of PETA's highly successful original Filipino musicals, "Care Divas," to Rep's home at Greenbelt 1's OnStage Theatre on April 27 to 29.

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.