Oliver Oliveros News

Show partners Repertory Philippines (Rep) and BroadwayWorld.com (BWW) are giving away a pair of tickets to the former's production of Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY on Saturday, March 15, 8 p.m. at Onstage Theatre (2/F Greenbelt One, Ayala Mall, Makati City)

While emerald green confetti were slowly falling from midair and soap bubbles floated right near the stage door at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, photographer Jude Ng and videographer JM Ballaran, captured on their cameras on closing night, Sunday, March 9, a large crowd of Filipino fans of WICKED singing in unison one of most famous duets from the musical, 'For Good.' For the fans, it was their 'musical' way of showing how grateful they were for the Australasian touring cast, led by Jemma Rix (Elphaba), Suzie Mathers (Glinda), Steve Danielsen (Fiyero), Emily Cascarino (Nessarose), and Edward Grey (Boq), who starred in the sensational seven-week run of WICKED in Manila.

British playwright-director Mike Bartlett's COCK, 'a tense comedy about sexual identity,' which premiered in London in 2009, opened yesterday, March 7, at event venue Whitespace (2314 Chino Roces Ave. Extension, Makati City). COCK, directed by Rem Zamora--his directorial debut-- is the second offering of new theater company Red Turnip Theater. The show runs until Sunday, April 6.

9 Works Theatrical ('Grease,' 'You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown') held its first batch of auditions for its upcoming production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES at Opera Haus in Makati City last week. 42 dancers and 16 theater actors--who can dance--showed up at the auditions.

Show partners Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and BroadwayWorld.com (BWW) are giving away a pair of tickets to the new musical comedy RAK OF AEGIS on Saturday, March 8, 3:00 p.m. at PETA Theatre Center (No.5 Eymard Drive, New Manila, Quezon City).

Tanghalang Pilipino, the official theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), closes its 27th theater season with the revival of National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin's 1977 three-act play MGA AMA, MGA ANAK, at the CCP's Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theatre) running now until Sunday, March 9.

While the Filipino food pancit, lumpia, and balut are slowly breaking into mainstream America, Original Philippine Music (OPM) should not be too far behind—food and music go well together anyway, which has inspired Synergy Productions and Marketing Inc. to stage the concert “An Evening of Original Philippine Music with Cecile Azarcon and Sounds of Manila” at Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway and 95th Street) on Sunday, April 27, at 7 p.m.

BWAY-LIVE.COM, an online theater channel, announced today that it has launched the online streaming of Tony Award winner Lea Salonga's critically acclaimed New York show, 'Back to Before.' Re-titled for the webcast LEA SALONGA: LIVE AT THE ALLEN ROOM, JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER, the cabaret-style show was filmed in high definition (HD) before a live audience.

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is an American's perspective on life in the countryside. While most of us are thinking Americans are remiss in their family relationships, this play shows a very complex interaction among siblings, parents, and extended relations. Yes, very Filipino -- except maybe for the ending. Formula-Filipino-network stories would probably go another way in the end. What ending? Oh no spoilers, dear!

Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), the group behind recent theatrical hits 'Care Divas' and 'Bona,' is back with a new musical comedy, 'Rak of Aegis,' which features the music catalog of multi-platinum rock band Aegis--musically rearranged for the stage by actor-musician Myke Salomon.

Repertory Theater for Young Audiences (Rep Children's Theater) will hold auditions for the title role of Pinocchio for its upcoming production of Jim Eiler and Jean Bargy's musical stage adaptation of Carlo Collodi's fairy tale novel PINOCCHIO. Auditions are set Saturday, March 1, starting at 10 a.m. at Onstage Theatre, 2F Greenbelt One Mall, Makati City.

Show partners Dulaang UP and BroadwayWorld.com (BWW) are giving away a pair of tickets to the new musical ANG NAWALANG KAPATID on Saturday, February 22, 3:00 p.m. performance at University of the Philippines-Diliman's Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater (2nd floor Palma Hall).

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, February 16, 2014 - Sunday, February 16, 2014.

Atlantis Productions ('Addams Family,' 'Piaf'), whom Filipino theatergoers should thank for bringing the latest and hottest professionally licensed Broadway and London's West End shows to the Philippines for the past 15 years, will stage the Asia Pacific premiere of the Broadway and London's West End new musical GHOST on Friday, April 25, at Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City, where the show will run for three weekends until Sunday, May 11.

Dulaang UP (DUP), University of the Philippines-based student theater organization, officially closes its 38th theater season by retooling a three-year-old children's play into a more complex theater piece: ANG NAWALANG KAPATID, a Filipinized musical adaptation of ancient India's most revered epic, The Mahabharata, runs until Sunday, February 23 at Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater (2nd floor Palma Hall), featuring the Dulaang UP Ensemble led by Teetin Villanueva, Vince Pajara, John Abella, and Ross Pesigan.

It was an all-consuming rebirth in color as cascades of lush and textured emerald lights sprung to life in an intense surge from the heart of the stage, as a map of Oz, especially rigged as a stage curtain for the Cultural Center of the Philippines' (CCP) Main Theater, raised to unravel a fantastic tale: One told in the Philippine premiere of the blockbuster megamusical WICKED.

Dulaang UP (DUP), University of the Philippines-based student theater organization, officially closes its 38th theater season by retooling a three-year-old children's play into a more complex theater piece. ANG NAWALANG KAPATID, a Filipinized musical adaptation of ancient India's most revered epic, The Mahabharata, runs until Sunday, February 23 at Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater (2nd floor Palma Hall), featuring the Dulaang UP Ensemble led by Teetin Villanueva, Vince Pajara, John Abella, and Ross Pesigan.

Dulaang Kalay ('The Woman in Black') stages the Southeast Asian premiere of 2002 Best in Fringe (NYC) MATT & BEN, written by Mindy Kaling ('The Mindy Project,' 'The Office') and Brenda Withers ('The Office') from today, February 7, until tomorrow, February 8, at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at PETA Theater Center's Studios A and B.

Philantropic theater company Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF) is approaching the last leg of its Philippine tour of bookwriter and lyricist Atty. Vincent Tañada and composer Pipo Cifra's more recent stage collaboration BONIFACIO: ISANG SARSWELA from today, February 7 until Sunday, March 16. The original Filipino musical premiered in July 2013 at Tanghalang Pasigueño, and has been on the road for more than six months, garnering a total of 424 performances so far, a feat similar to PSF's previous national touring productions of 'Cory ng EDSA' and 'Joe: A Filipino Rock'sical.'

For a truly gifted musical theater genius, WICKED's composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz is picture-perfect as the laidback, generous, fun-loving avuncular figure that is the embodiment of all the high-spirited uncles that you've had as a kid growing up. Schwartz, comfortably (and most suitably for the occasion) clad in a black and green sports shirt, dressed-down gray jeans, well-loved sneakers, and seeming much more like the genial 'Wizard of Oz' than the green-skinned 'Elphaba' (which ironically, he admits, he is more like the latter), was the defining image of easy composure. Ready to bigheartedly answer questions from a select few media representatives, he cheerfully made his entrance onto the plush, intimately-set ambience of the conference room prepared by Concertus Manila and co-sponsor Diamond Hotel Tuesday, February 4.