My review of Ateneo BlueRep's "Spring Awakening" and 9 Works' "They're Playing Our Song" is in the lifestyle theater section of today's Philippine Daily Inquirer - here!
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'Spring Awakening' fizzles, 'They're Playing Our Song' sparkles
In terms of material, "Spring Awakening"
and "They're Playing Our Song" are polar opposites. The former is a
modernist rock musical populated by 19th-century German adolescents on the
brink of sexual awakening, while the latter is old-fashioned, feel-good fare
about a neurotic musician couple.
Yet, at the very core, both are quite the same
attempt to dissect the complicated matter of love. Both shows call for intimacy
in the production. And, bonus to the local playgoer, both marked their return
to the Manila in February (coincidentally, or not, opening around Valentine’s
week).
Between the two, “Spring Awakening”– the season
closer of student-run Blue Repertory of the Ateneo de Manila University –
certainly had more reason to be an intimate February experience. To begin with,
this Best Musical Tony winner (music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven
Sater) was already stripped to the bare essentials by its venue, the
university’s Rizal Theater, which resembles an underground studio. Trency
Caga-anan’s minimalist set design and Meliton Roxas Jr.’s evocative lighting
furthered the small-scale, intrusive atmosphere.
Right to the very last row (and it’s not that far),
the show was an open invitation to peer into the troubled lives that walk the
close-minded world that playwright Frank Wedekind created to much controversy,
a world centered on the intelligent, rebellious Melchior sexually ignorant
Wendla, and sexually tortured Moritz. With the audience so close to the action,
this “Spring Awakening” set out to be a see-all, hear-all experience.
What this look-through-the-spyglass experience did
achieve, however, was magnify the problems that hounded this production. For
instance, the venue that made it intimate also wrecked the sound mixing to some
degree, turning the theater into an occasional battlefield between performers’
low notes and the band (enchantingly creative musical direction by Ejay Yatco,
nonetheless).
Overall tentativeness
Issues of incomprehensibility also extended to no
less than the leads themselves. Gabriel Medina sure had the pubertal heft and
edgy voice to play Melchior, while Bernice Reyes was innocence incarnate as
Wendla. Yet, both performers were plagued foremost by diction problems, second
by an overall tentativeness in their attack on the characters. That left the
impression of performances wanting more time to bake fully.
The same tentativeness haunted the rest of the
cast. Certainly, they delivered those big numbers like “Touch Me” and “Totally
F*cked” with authentic rawness. Delphine Buencamino’s explosive choreography
became pounding anthems of angst and frustration through their hands (their
bodies, really).
It was when they weren’t clumped together – the
solo scenes, duets, nonmusical sequences – that you got this nagging feeling
that these performers were simply going through the motions, so to speak. More
so for Medina and Reyes, whose pivotal beating and hayloft sex scenes came
across as mere efforts to “get them done and over with.”
Unlike the Philippine premiere by Atlantis
Productions less than four years ago (with a stellar Joaquin Valdes as Melchior
leading a bevy of twenty-somethings), this BlueRep staging had the advantage of
a cast that’s just right for the characters’ age requirement.
How unfortunate, then, that this show failed to be
as involving as initially promised. The result was less a cohesive story told
through music, and more a bunch of musical numbers strung together, sprinkled
with line readings and acting choices that curiously sucked out much of the
book’s already spare inherent comedy.
When Melchior and Wendla sang “The Word of Your
Body,” the excitement of blossoming love could hardly be felt; when Melchior
breaks down at the graveyard upon realizing Wendla was dead, where was that
most tragic teenage heartbreak?
Flimsy connection
In the end, it all came down to how director Andrei
Pamintuan stirred this production. True, for an Ateneo production, this “Spring
Awakening” was unabashedly daring in its portrayal of sexuality. But despite
the audience proximity – the ensemble members were seated amongst them – the
connection between actor and performer was disappointingly flimsy.
The show’s one thespian salvation came in the form
of Maronne Cruz as the free-spirited Ilse. Undeniably this production’s
standout performer, she was all soulful, note-perfect singing and nuanced
acting that called to mind a similar achievement, albeit in a much larger role,
as Ivy in last year’s “Bare.” (She also played Wendla during certain
performances, and online word-of-mouth was all praise as well).
Boo Gabunada (Moritz), Lara Antonio (the abused
Martha), and Kenneth Keng (Adult Male) also delivered the steadier turns of the
night.
Yes, this “Spring Awakening” (which closed Friday
night) was thought-provoking; much of that owed to the material. But what
started out as a promising introspective dive into a confused hormonal universe
turned out to be quite a nonrouser – an uneven, disconnected experience.
Intimate, charming
On the other hand, rousing is definitely not an appropriate word for 9 Works
Theatrical's “They’re Playing Our Song," slated to close Sunday.
The musical is, first of all, the stage translation
of two of its creators’ real-life relationship. The book is by Neil Simon, an institution
in American theater and film; the music and lyrics by Marvin Hamlisch and
Carole Bayer Sager, respectively – and the two happened to be ex-lovers some
time during the '70s.
In the story, Hamlisch becomes Vernon Gersch, an
uptight award-winning composer, while Bayer becomes Sonia Walsk, up-and-coming
lyricist who also happens to be a scatterbrain.
Vernon and Sonia meet, work, fall in love, and find
themselves entangled in a messy relationship, with Sonia frustratingly unable
to run away from her former boyfriend Leon. Sounds like the perfect formula for
a date musical – and through Robbie Guevara’s careful direction, it becomes so,
at once intimate and charming.
And also, an affair we wouldn’t want to be involved
in. For therein lies the accomplishment of this production: It successfully
paints a picture of the kind of gritty, problematic relationship most of the
audience only know too well – and one that, in the hands of a less capable pair
of actors, would only be reduced to whimsy and vapid cuteness.
Whirlwind of energy
That does not happen, of course, and we have Nikki
Gil and Lorenz Martinez to thank for it.
Gil last graced a 9 Works production in “Sweet
Charity,” where she winningly sang, danced, and acted the title role to a Best
Actress honorable mention citation from this paper. The year before that, she
was also Elle Woods in Atlantis’ “Legally Blonde.” If she’s slowly being
typecast as “perky, vibrant but sweet,” consider her Sonia the epitome of
third-time’s-the-charm.
Here, Gil gives us a Sonia that’s always on the
edge, always a whirlwind of energy, you’d think she’d had one cup too many of
morning coffee. It’s the minor details – that unconscious flicking of the hand,
the unending shuffling of feet – that really define the performance.
But with every delightful storm of words that comes
out of her mouth, we find that this Sonia can also be a lady of thought and
feeling – through Gil’s poignant delivery of the classic “I Still Believe in
Love,” for example.
The more reserved, and in turn, powerful
performance belongs to Lorenz Martinez (whose impressive credits include a
stint as the Engineer in “Miss Saigon” in the Netherlands). With Vernon, what
he does is draw the audience in, effortlessly capturing our attention with his
very natural acting, every word uttered with clarity, every note sang with
admirable ease.
Highest point
The show’s highest point undoubtedly belongs to
this veteran stage actor, in an unpretentious rendition of the musical’s
oft-heard tune, “Fallin’.” In Martinez’s portrait of a high achiever finding
his way through the clutter, it’s the quieter moments that matter more.
The rest of the team can’t be more excellent
company. The Greek chorus, Sonia and Vernon’s individual inner voices, are a
joyful pair of trios (Reb Atadero, Noel Rayos, and James Stacey for his; Peachy
Atilaño, Anna Santamaria, and Jill Peña for hers).
Mio Infante’s scenography is a hodgepodge of
witticisms – the turntable, the moving background in the guise of a keyboard,
the half-a-car, the intricately designed apartments. Joseph Tolentino’s brassy
orchestrations, meanwhile, are a necessary infusion of life to the cliché
material.
The one problem this otherwise spotless production
encounters is in Chuck Ledesma’s sound design: With the loud instrumentation,
it can be quite a chore to hear the performers’ low notes (Gil in “Workin’ It
Out,” for instance). But a minor problem, still, when taking the show as a
whole.
Last time “They’re Playing Our Song” made the
national headlines, it was in 2000, with Lea Salonga and Singaporean actor
Adrian Pang playing the leads. (This dynamic duo made a hilarious comeback last
year in Atlantis’ “God of Carnage.”)
This time, it’s not as splashy. But the
believability is nevertheless there, whole and tangible.
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Also, check out "Red," John Logan's
Tony-winning play, mounted by Actor's Actors Inc.'s The Necessary Theater at
the St. Benilde School of Design and Arts Theater. Bart Guingona and Joaquin Valdes
(in the role that won Eddie Redmayne a Tony Award) bring the playwright's
"word-gasm" to mesmerizing life. Last performance is tonight at
7:30PM.
Photo from www.juice.ph
