PHILIPPINES THEATER REVIEWS

Touted as 'the first Filipino-produced musical for the world,' SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER kicks off its new Asian tour in a strictly limited one-month run in Manila playing all weekends at The Theatre in Solaire Resort and Casino from July 3 to 26. Performances are also set at Istana Budaya (Jalan Tun Raz...

After kicking off her world tour in Seoul just a over a week ago, followed by a total of four shows in Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo, Idina Menzel held Sunday her one-night-only performance in Manila capping the Asian stretch of her 53-city concert performances....

Repertory Philippines (Rep) and the City of Makati present Ray Cooney's 1983 farce RUN FOR YOUR WIFE at OnStage (Greenbelt 1, Makati City) now through Sunday, May 3. It's Rep's third time (the first one was in 1986; the second, 2001) to stage the show, directed by Miguel Faustmann....

9 Works Theatrical's production of one of Broadway's all-time biggest musical comedy hits, 'La Cage aux Folles,' which features book by Harvey Fierstein ('Kinky Boots,' 'Newsies') and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman ('Hello, Dolly!' 'Mame'), opened Saturday, February 28, and will run through Sunday...

Manila, Philippines--The first-ever international touring production of the Broadway hit musical Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast,' based on the 1991 Oscar-nominated full-length animated feature film, and now--after 20 years--has reunited its original 1994 Broadway collaborators: director Robert Jess ...

The much-anticipated Manila premiere of Broadway's longest-running American musical, CHICAGO, razzle-dazzled audiences with its hard-hitting numbers (All That Jazz, Cell Block Tango, Razzle Dazzle), which speak of passion, treachery, murder, and glossed-over celebrity, on opening night. Leading the ...

9 Works Theatrical ('The Last 5 Years,' 'Sweet Charity') brings back one of its hit productions last year, GREASE, to relive the teenage '50s at Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, in Makati City until Sunday, December 7....

CHICAGO on Broadway's Terrra C. MacLeod and Bianca Marroquin are back on the road as the accused celebrity killers and reluctant vaudeville partners Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, respectively, whose combination delivers equally strong lead performances....

I was able to watch the unstoppable, nearly nine-year-old touring production of two-time Olivier Award nominees Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner's parody POTTED POTTER: The Unauthorized Harry Experience twice: the first time was at Little Shubert Theatre Off-Broadway, which starred Clarkson and ...

The long awaited return of the country's first full-length grand opera NOLI ME TANGERE (a full stage production of the opera* was last seen in Manila 27 years ago), inspired by Jose Rizal's 1887 classic romantic novel 'Noli Me Tangere' ('Touch Me Not'), featuring music by National Artist Felipe de L...

So how do you sell a show that was conceived and first staged more than 50 years ago--an opera at that --to a younger audience who probably haven't even heard of Verdi, Puccini, or Maria Callas? The much-awaited return of the Filipino stage classic seems to be tackling just that....

RABBIT HOLE, a David Lindsay-Abaire opus, presents a story about a wife, Becca, and her family, struggling to get past the loss of Danny, Becca's son, who was killed when he was hit by a car. Red Turnip Theater does not "squeeze blood" from this play, but it definitely paints the turnip red. Red T...

DANI GIRL, a musical about a nine-year-old cancer-stricken girl Dani Lyons, created by the writing team of Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, is not to be missed....

Tap dance on 'roids and LSD* -- that is what STOMP is....

Dulaang UP, together with UP Dulaang Laboratoryo, brings to the stage HARING UBU, a Filipino adaptation of French symbolist writer Alfred Jarry's 'Ubu Roi,' a precursor to the Theater of the Absurd and surrealism, at Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, University of the Philippines (UP)....

Seldom do you see a play mounted on an almost bare stage, but delivers big impact to its audience--that's what GAMES PEOPLE PLAY does, written by Glenn Sevilla Mas, a Ford Foundation International fellow who earned his MFA in Playwriting from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC....

There is something amazing about a playwright who can create a play that has an entire act in mime. There is something more amazing about a theater company who can pull off that play....

The word 'cock' can be described in many different ways: the alternative term for a certain kind of bird; a male reproductive organ; or a certain kind of overconfident man who thinks he knows everything. Red Turnip's COCK presents all those in less than two hours....

Despite fear and stress that Philippine cinema icon Cherie Gil had to go through producing and starring in FULL GALLOP, a play based on the life of Diana Vreeland (1903-1989), noted fashion columnist and editor of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, Gil manages to depict Vreeland as a funny, rapid-fired talk...

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 offer...

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) runnin...

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 endin...

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...

To talk on the big white phone (to vomit into the toilet), a slang term, has inspired composer and lyricist Ejay Yatco ('Sa Wakas,' World Championships of Performing Arts) to create the new musical titled TOILET. If young audiences enjoyed 'Grease,' Disney's 'High School Musical,' Disney's 'Camp Ro...

Approaching its third weekend at Onstage Theatre, Rep's staging of the 2003 London revival version of Frederick Knott's 1966 classic thriller, 'Wait Until Dark,' which was originally set in Greenwich Village, New York (The London revival was set in Notting Hill), has been reaping generally favorable...