CoverStory Feature: The return of 'Mula sa Buwan'

Second article for CoverStory PH is out today--here. 

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'Mula sa Buwan': In the spirit of defiance

When “Mula sa Buwan” returns on Aug. 26 at Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Makati, it will not be the same creature that played to packed houses every performance four years ago. 

In turning Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo’s Filipino translation of that play into a musical, director and co-creator Pat Valera recentered the story on college-age Filipinos whose lives are upended by World War II. But, while the pre-Covid-19 version of the show highlighted its romantic and spectacular elements, Valera says this staging will underscore the spirit of defiance coursing through the musical.

In part, Valera attributes this change in direction to what he calls the “great pains” inflicted by both the pandemic and the recent presidential election. The musical, whose score he wrote with William Elvin Manzano, will still be about “wide-eyed, idealistic misfits” who “cling to their friends and the power of stories and the theater”; this time around, however, the focus will be on how these misfits dream of a better world and fight for space for their future.

Deeper probe 

Anyone familiar with the musical or its source material will know how that future turns out to be anything but bright for its characters. Hence, Valera’s rewriting of certain lines and character motivations to be reflective of this age of disinformation: in place of mere escapist entertainment, a deeper probe into our ways of (mis)remembering the past, and, in the case of the titular character, questioning the very notion of (anti-)heroism. 

Of course, the changes may not be immediately apparent even to the most ardent fans of this musical, says Valera. Instead, for those who have seen the multiple hit iterations of this show that ran from 2016 to 2018, the most obvious change will be an old face becoming the new lead.  

From playing the handsome but vacuous Christian in the musical’s 2018 staging at Ateneo de Manila University, Myke Salomon will now assume the part of the poetry-spouting Cyrano, in addition to serving as the show’s new musical director. 

The decision did not come easy to Salomon, though. “It took me weeks to agree to play the part,” he says. “To be honest, I had lost hope. There was a point [during the last two years] when I kept asking myself whether I would still be able to do live theater. I did not want to leave the theater; theater left. That was the hardest part.”

Salomon describes the moment he agreed to do the role as a Moses-with-the-burning-bush situation: “I did not want to stay home anymore,” he says, so he decided to jump in and join the show—“atrophied” performing skills notwithstanding. 

Besides, it is an almost completely new show, says Salomon. For instance, among its cast of 27, only four performers will be tackling parts they had already played in the show’s earlier runs. Salomon also shares Valera’s recalibrated vision of the show’s characters as now fighting for their own safe spaces, and, in the case of his Cyrano, as someone fighting for the displaced artists and dreamers, arguably harking back to the earlier days of the pandemic that destabilized the entire theater community. 

1st since the pandemic 

When it opens, “Mula sa Buwan” will become the first Filipino-language musical to do so since the pandemic started. More significantly, it will be the first production to play the recently inaugurated, 1500-seat Samsung Theater. Gab Pangilinan will return to the role of Roxane, while Markki Stroem will be the new Christian.

This return engagement has been almost a year in the making, says Valera, beginning with industry and audience surveys he co-initiated with Philstage (or the Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group, Inc.) in late 2021. It looks like it has widespread audience support going for it. As of July 8, the show had  sold almost half the seats allotted for its 13-performance run, according to Valera.

“People are definitely coming, and because of that, we are definitely pressured.” This pressure, says Valera, has become the fuel that inspires everyone involved to give performances worthy of an industry reopening.

CoverStory Feature: Virgin Labfest 17

Hello, it's me. Good for you if you still visit this site. Some *personal* news: After 9-ish wonderful years, I have officially said goodbye to Inquirer-Lifestyle. I will now be writing theater-related articles for CoverStory PH under--surprise, surprise--dear old Gibbs. This one, on Virgin Labfest 17, was my first piece; came out two months ago. Click here for the website version. Since I have no photo to go with the piece, here, instead, is me with Art, Gibbs, Cora, and Emil--the final (and my fondest) iteration of the Inquirer theater critics team (2012-2020)--at Sentro in Greenbelt 5 last month: 

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Virgin Labfest: 'Untried, untested, unstaged' plays back on stage this June

Exactly two years and three months since Covid-19 shut down all of Manila theater, the Virgin Labfest will return on June 16–26 to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), marking the reopening of in-person theatrical performances in the capital region.

Or so the plan goes, according to the organizers of the 17th edition of this annual festival of “untried, untested, unstaged” plays. 

“Of course, if a Covid-19 surge happens in June, the plan will have to change drastically,” says playwright and festival cofounder Rody Vera. As it stands, the Labfest is gearing for a hybrid approach: two weeks of in-person shows at the CCP, followed by at least another two weeks of streaming of the plays’ recordings. 

“This year, we hope to at least restore the thrill of performing live, [but] one thing we learned [in the past two years] is the importance of making good videos of performances,” Vera says. “Filmed well, these recordings can extend the festival’s life. The online setup may not be as thrilling as live theater, but the reach is so much more, given the short time frame.”

In 2020, the festival’s 16th edition saw the first large-scale effort in the country at virtual or “Zoom” theater, in reference to the videoconferencing software that swiftly became a lifeline for theater folk worldwide. Last year, the festival showcased no new works, opting instead to stream recordings of previous Labfest plays.

12 new works

This year’s edition will feature 12 new works: 10 from 2021’s call for submissions, plus two that were unable to mount online productions in 2020 (“Bituing Marikit” by Bibeth Orteza and “‘Nay May Dala Akong Pansit” by Juan Ekis).

Portions of the usual side events will also be returning to in-person setups, such as the Playwrights’ Fair (with four of 10 sessions to be conducted live at the CCP) and the Writing Fellowship Program (aiming for a live presentation of the fellows’ outputs on closing day). Others, like staged readings and the Revisited set, have been scrapped for now.

Also part of the Labfest’s pandemic-related precautions is a reduced seating capacity of 60 percent, or 136 seats of the Tanghalang Huseng Batute, where all performances will transpire.

As longtime festival production manager Nikki Garde-Torres puts it: “There is a semblance of normalcy, [but] we are also in an in-between where the pandemic and the possibility of higher alert levels remain. It feels like I am relearning how to do live shows.”

“Many are still scared of performing live,” Vera says, “and many members of the public will, presumably, still be afraid of returning to the theater—and I guess we just have to accept that.”

Giddiness, excitement

Despite that fear, the CCP these days is also abuzz with a kind of “giddiness,” to quote Garde-Torres, as face-to-face rehearsals go in full swing.

In the words of Marco Viaña, incoming festival codirector (alongside Tess Jamias), it’s the excitement of “once again being in the same room as your fellow theater artists, some of whom you’ve only seen or talked to online for the last two years.”

Viaña, who was initially apprehensive about taking the position—“I’ve only ever acted for the festival; I have no experience as playwright, director, or stage manager”—also attributes that excitement to the theater artist’s need to be with an audience: “These artists simply cannot wait to once again perform live before the public. For sure, punung-puno ng puso ang mga pagtatanghal na ‘yan” (the performances will be bursting with heart).

“What remains to be seen,” says Vera, “is whether the audience will match that excitement.”

The Year in Film and TV (2021)

In 2021, given the continuation of my work-from-home situation, my self-imposed non-socialization beyond my immediate family, and the almost complete absence of local theater, I set out to watch as much as possible. According to my Letterboxd, my final tally was 384--a new personal record. That number includes not only the full-length releases of the year, but also short films, limited series or miniseries, recordings of live theatrical performances, rewatches (hello, 'Phantom Thread' and 'Moonlight'), and old work that I was seeing only for the first time (more on this in the final section). 

On the other hand, that number excludes the television that I consumed--seven seasons of 'Veep'; four seasons of 'Better Things'; three seasons of 'This Country' (plus a special); three seasons each of 'Broadchurch' and 'Sex Education'; two seasons of 'Feel Good'; the second seasons of 'Staged' and 'The Morning Show'; the second half of the final season of 'PEN15'; the final seasons of 'Insecure' and 'Pose'; and a season each of the following new and returning shows: 'Dead to Me', 'Girls5eva', 'Hacks', 'I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson', 'Loki', 'Made for Love', 'The Other Two', 'Reservation Dogs', 'The Sex Lives of College Girls', 'Schmigadoon!', 'Succession', 'What We Do in the Shadows', and 'The White Lotus'. 

Moreover, that number fails to account for the shows that, for one reason or another, I couldn't stomach or simply didn't have the drive to finish beyond an episode or two, such as 'Bridgerton', 'Euphoria', 'Mythic Quest', 'Only Murders in the Building', 'Rutherford Falls', and the new season of 'Never Have I Ever' (whose first season I loved).

The same annual disclaimer, then: This is a list of my favorite titles from this (2021) and the previous (2020) year, the latter to account for the "leftovers" that get *released* quite late in the Philippines or that I didn't get the chance to see during the previous year. If you're viewing my blog in desktop mode, the side bar on the right provides an exhaustive accounting of everything I watched in 2021. I always make a top 10, but of course it's more fun to have more than 10, and anyway, my top three, maybe four, are basically interchangeable. And one last thing: What a year for HBO!

1. 'Drive My Car' (dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

A modern masterpiece: cinema as a spiritual literary experience. 

2. 'The Other Two' Season 2 (HBO Max; created by Chris Kelly & Sarah Schneider)

Note-for-note and episode-by-episode a perfect season of television, its critique of gay, celebrity, and social-media cultures best epitomized by this singular, iconic passage: "I'm his son. I'm straight. And I'm from Kansas."

3. 'Bo Burnham: Inside' (dir. Bo Burnham)

In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Burnham gave me exactly the kind of unhinged I didn't know I needed: an existential meltdown in the form of musical comedy.

4. 'Succession' Season 3 (HBO; Jesse Armstrong, showrunner)

If Shakespeare featured UTIs, dominatrix-style role play, missent dick pics, Adrien Brody in elaborate layers, and the most erotic bathroom conversation between the guy from "Weeds" and one of the kids from "Home Alone."

5. 'Collective' (dir. Alexander Nanau)/ 'Flee' (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen)/ 'Procession' (dir. Robert Greene)

Three documentaries--on corruption within the Romanian health system, an Afghan refugee's arduous flight to freedom, and an art-therapy group among survivors of abuse from Catholic priests--proving how the pursuit for truth and the act of truth-telling can sometimes be the most cathartic and most frightening things.

6. 'PEN15' Season 2 Part 2 (Hulu; Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman & Gabe Liedman, showrunners)

This show starring two thirty-something women pretending to be teenagers around an ace ensemble of actual teenagers deserved to run forever. 

7. 'The White Lotus' Season 1 (HBO; created by Mike White)

In which grandpa is a power bottom, mother is a nymphomaniac, hotel manager gets to eat, Sydney Sweeney demonstrates how scary Gen Z can be, and the one and only Jennifer Coolidge teaches the world how to pronounce "chaise."

8. 'Red Rocket' (dir. Sean Baker)/ 'Titane' (dir. Julia Ducournau)

The closest simulations this year to being on uppers, each an absolute, exhilarating trip anchored by lead performances that would have been very worthy winners in their respective categories at Cannes 2021.

9. 'Judas and the Black Messiah' (dir. Shaka King)

Knife-sharp in its constant shifts between brash, electric psycho-thriller and states of fragility, tenderness, and loneliness. My pick for Best Picture from the contenders of the 2020-21 season. 

10. 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' (dir. Jonathan Butterell)/ 'Tick, Tick... Boom!' (dir. Lin-Manuel Miranda)

Two movie musicals that are nothing short of sublime miracles, each managing to expand upon, make sense of, and completely transform their source materials to become heartfelt, messy, flamboyant creatures pulsing with genuine life.

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Thanks again to Letterboxd for simplifying life for me. Here are the rest of my 5-star titles for the year, in alphabetical order:

'76 Days' (dirs. Hao Wu, Wuxi Chen & Anonymous)

Some of the most harrowing, heartbreaking 90 minutes of the year, plunging the viewer back to Wuhan at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, where health workers weren't so much glorified heroes as simply bodies in desperate need of rest.  

'Ascension' (dir. Jessica Kingdon)

Capitalism and unfettered consumerism in present-day China rendered in mesmerizing, almost-wordless sequences.

'Better Things' Season 4 (FX; dir. Pamela Adlon)

Every seemingly unhappy family is actually happy in its own, secret way.

'C'mon C'mon' (dir. Mike Mills)

Either the sweetest, most incisive portrayal of modern adult-children relationships, or the most convincing ad of late for not having kids.

'The Crime of the Century' (HBO; dir. Alex Gibney)

Outstanding investigative journalism, historiography, and qualitative research rolled into one as it dives deep into the opioid epidemic, medical authoritarianism, and a very specific brand of greed endemic to the U-S of A.

'Exterminate All the Brutes' (HBO; dir. Raoul Peck)

A towering, four-hour distillation of the centuries-old White tradition of premeditated bloodshed. 

'The Father' (dir. Florian Zeller)

The most painful, truthful, and compassionate portrayal of dementia I've seen.

'Feel Good' Seasons 1-2 (Channel 4/ All 4/ Netflix; created by Mae Martin & Joe Hampson)

In which Mae Martin shows the world what genius can do with just 12 episodes.

'Girls5eva' Season 1 (Peacock; created by Meredith Scardino)

These girls are on fire! 'Cause if you plan on telling a joke, why not make ten? And then a hundred?

'Hacks' Season 1 (HBO Max; created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky)

At first glance the Jean Smart show, but obviously so much more than that. The epitome of comedic spark.

'Insecure' Season 5 (HBO; created by Issa Rae & Larry Wilmore)

A balm of a show that allowed its characters to just be real people--grappling with low-stakes situations, navigating relationships, muffling their hurts, finding success.

'Mare of Easttown' (HBO; created by Brad Ingelsby)

Incest, but make it an entire town. If you've seen this show and think of it as primarily a whodunit, you probably need to see it again. 

'Minari' (dir. Lee Isaac Chung)

This is how you do metaphors. This is how you do endings. 

'Nomadland' (dir. Chloé Zhao)

An evocation of loss--and the quiet, almost imperceptible sadness it engenders--that deserved every bit of attention it received last awards season.

'The Queen's Gambit' (Netflix; created by Scott Frank & Allan Scott)

Fairy tale, sports thriller, bildungsroman, redemption story, addiction narrative, and superhero saga whose underlying credo appears to be the subversion of expectations.

'Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)' (dir. Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson)

Film as hypnosis. Hypnosis as documentary. Documentary as music. Music as stand-in for the cadences of history. 

PLUS--20 more titles not to sleep on, listed alphabetically:

'Allen v. Farrow' (HBO; dirs. Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering); 'Bad Trip' (dir. Kitao Sakurai); 'City So Real' (National Geographic; dir. Steve James); 'The Green Knight' (dir. David Lowery); 'Hive' (dir. Blerta Basholli); 'Holler' (dir. Nicole Riegel); 'It's a Sin' (Channel 4; created by Russell T Davies); 'Life' (in 'The Year of the Everlasting Storm'; dir. Jafar Panahi); 'Luca' (dir. Enrico Casarosa); 'The Power of the Dog' (dir. Jane Campion); 'Prayers for the Stolen' (dir. Tatiana Huezo); 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' (dir. Jasmila Žbanić); 'Riders of Justice' (dir. Anders Thomas Jensen); 'Romeo & Juliet' (dir. Simon Godwin); 'Schmigadoon!' Season 1 (Apple TV+; created by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio); 'The Sex Lives of College Girls' Season 1 (HBO Max; Mindy Kaling & Justin Noble, showrunners); 'Shiva Baby' (dir. Emma Seligman); 'This Country' Season 3 (BBC Three; created by Daisy May & Charlie Cooper); 'The Underground Railroad' (Prime Video; created by Barry Jenkins); 'Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy' (dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

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My contribution to perpetuating our actor-centric film culture is this list of *45* performances that I truly enjoyed/ loved/ still can't stop thinking of (and where absence is of course not in any way a measure of *quality*):

1. Bob Balaban ('The Chair' Season 1)

2. Murray Bartlett ('The White Lotus' Season 1)

3. Mayra Batalla ('Prayers for the Stolen')

4. Nicolas Cage ('Pig')

5. Pauline Chalamet ('The Sex Lives of College Girls' Season 1)

6. Jodie Comer ('The Last Duel')

7. Jennifer Coolidge ('The White Lotus' Season 1; 'Single All the Way')

8. Penélope Cruz ('Parallel Mothers')

9. Ariana DeBose ('Schmigadoon!' Season 1)

10. Kaitlyn Dever ('Dear Evan Hansen')

11. Chase W. Dillon ('The Underground Railroad')

12. Aunjanue Ellis ('King Richard')

13. Isabelle Fuhrman ('The Novice')

14. Andrew Garfield ('Tick, Tick... Boom!'; 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye')

15. Renée Elise Goldsberry ('Girls5eva' Season 1)

16. Kathryn Hahn ('WandaVision')

17. Keeley Hawes ('It's a Sin')

18. Marielle Heller ('The Queen's Gambit')

19. Anthony Hopkins ('The Father')

20. Jayne Houdyshell ('The Humans')

21. Oscar Isaac ('Scenes from a Marriage')

22. Matthew Macfadyen ('Succession' Season 3)

23. Kych Minemoto ('Masalimuot ya Tiyagew ed Dayat')

24. Ruth Negga ('Passing')

25. Dev Patel ('The Green Knight')

26. Jesse Plemons ('The Power of the Dog'; 'Judas and the Black Messiah')

27. Simon Rex ('Red Rocket')

28. Natasha Rothwell ('The White Lotus' Season 1; 'Insecure' Season 5)

29. Molly Shannon ('The White Lotus' Season 1; 'The Other Two' Season 2)

30. Samantha Sloyan ('Midnight Mass')

31. Jean Smart ('Hacks'; 'Mare of Easttown')

32. Kodi Smit-McPhee ('The Power of the Dog')

33. Lakeith Stanfield ('Judas and the Black Messiah')

34. Dan Stevens ('I'm Your Man')

35. Jeremy Strong ('Succession' Season 3)

36. Lili Taylor ('Paper Spiders')

37. Emma Thompson ('Cruella')

38. Mia Wasikowska ('Bergman Island')

39. Aimee Lou Wood ('Sex Education' Seasons 2-3)

40. Steven Yeun ('Minari')

41. Brittany S. Hall & Will Brill ('Test Pattern')

42. Carey Mulligan & Bo Burnham ('Promising Young Woman')

43. Julianne Nicholson & Evan Peters ('Mare of Easttown')

44. Kieran Culkin, Adrien Brody, & Justin Kirk ('Succession' Season 3)

45. Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann, & Woody Norman ('C'mon C'mon')

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A list of 15 where the sound, score, music, or musical rendering rocked:

1. 'The Winner Takes It All' needle drop in 'Bergman Island'

2. 'The Killing of Two Lovers', sound and music work

3. 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' in 'Encanto'

4. Jonny Greenwood's scores for 'Spencer' and 'The Power of the Dog'

5. 'Saint Maud', sound and music work

6. The use of the spiritual 'Were You There' in 'Midnight Mass'

7. Dan Romer's central motif for 'Luca', the best for a Pixar movie since 'Up'

8. 'Zola', sound and music work

9. Emilia Jones performing Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides, Now' in 'CODA'

10. 'When the Sun Goes Down' sequence in 'In the Heights'

11. 'Shiva Baby', sound and music work

12. Hans Zimmer's score for 'Dune'

13. 'Obituary' by Alexandre Desplat in 'The French Dispatch'

14. The soundscape and score for 'C'mon C'mon'

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The best use of black and white:

'Passing', dir. Rebecca Hall; cinematography by Eduard Grau

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5-Letterboxd-star, non-2020/2021 titles that I saw for the first time in 2021:

'4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' (2007, dir. Cristian Mungiu)

'Asako I & II' (2018, dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

'Barking Dogs Never Bite' (2000, dir. Bong Joon-ho)

'Capote' (2005, dir. Bennett Miller)

'Farewell My Concubine' (1993, dir. Chen Kaige)

'Happy Hour' (2015, dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

'Himala' (1982, dir. Ishmael Bernal)

'How to Survive a Plague' (2012, dir. David France)

'Moral' (1982, dir. Marilou Diaz-Abaya)

'Mother' (2009, dir. Bong Joon-ho)

'Letters from Iwo Jima' (2006, dir. Clint Eastwood)

'Little Children' (2006, dir. Todd Field)

'The Lives of Others' (2006, dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

'Quiz Show' (1994, dir. Robert Redford)

'Rosemary's Baby' (1968, dir. Roman Polanski)

'Sense and Sensibility' (1995, dir. Ang Lee)

'United 93' (2006, dir. Paul Greengrass)

'Yi Yi' (2000, dir. Edward Yang)

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A link to my past lists, which are best read as time capsules of what I'd seen so far when I wrote each of them, and what I thought about the stuff I listed in those particular moments in time:

The Year in Film and TV 2020/ 2019

The Decade in Film 2010-19

The Year in Film 2018/ 2017/ 2016/ 2015/ 2014