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Friday, August 26, 2005
Serna: Two shows clash
By Roger Serna
Sounds and images
When Mga Pusang Gala female lead Irma Adlawan was in Cebu for the promo of the movie (it’s now shown in Cebu movie houses), she emphasized that, first and foremost, she is a theater actress and that she was only enticed to join the movies not too long ago.
She even credited co-star Ricky Davao for her eventual entrance to the celluloid world from the legitimate stage. In that same encounter with the Cebu entertainment press, Irma wondered aloud on the state of theater in Cebu, to which my colleagues answered as only occasional and far in between.
Tomorrow, however, Cebu will not just have one but two big stage productions, both musical, in two separate venues. Unfortunately, the time slots will clash.
This may not be good news for Cebu theater enthusiasts but even the producers themselves admit that these things are beyond their control. Ah, okay…! I guess the Cebu audiences will just have to stretch their budget and divide their time in order to enjoy the best of both worlds, so to say.
Anyway, the first one is Out of the Box Theatre Co’s. production of Children of Eden, a two-act presentation originally written by Stephen Schwartz (of Godspell and Pippin) with the book done by John Caird (of Les Miserables).
This endeavor is in preparation for the Archdiocesan Eucharistic and Mission Congress on Oct. 3-4, this year, which is intended for families and communities.
With mostly, if not all, Cebuano artists and talents in the cast, Children of Eden is directed by well-known director Daisy Ba-ad. The musical will be shown at the Pacific Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.
It has a matinee and a gala schedule of performances. Check this out.
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The other production is dear to the Cebu theater-goers as well since it features one of its beloved daughters in the cast.
This one is Actors’ Actors Inc’s. and Silang Communication’s production of Once On This Island which has Born Diva winner Raki Vega playing the role of Ti Moune. Raki considers this production very important to her not only because this is her first major project after her triumph in the national talent search, but also because it is in this musical stage outing where she got to be personally coached by her idol Lea Salonga.
She was proud to say that she did not disappoint her idol and, in fact, made the latter proud of her performance.
Aside from Raki, the other members of the cast, all illustrious personalities in the Philippine entertainment industry, are Bituin Escalante, Radha, Jett Pangan, Jeffrey Hidalgo, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Michael Williams, Michael de Mesa, May Bayot, Bodjie Pascua and Cathy Azanza.
Once on This Island is an all-singing, all-dancing musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid composed by the Tony Award-winning team of Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (book and lyrics) who also composed the songs in the animated film Anastacia. The music is a mix of moving ballads and tribal dance numbers.
The musical has since received eight Tony nominations, including best musical, best score, and best book, and won the Laurence Olivier Award for best musical in London.
In this Cebu outing, Once on This Island will be staged at the SM City Cebu Theater 2 at 8 p.m.
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Do you still remember Mario Boy Abella, the ‘amateur’ composer who spewed quite a mouthful against the Cebu Arts Foundation Inc. for the latter’s decision to extend the deadline of submission of entries to the Cebu Popular Music Festival a good two weeks from its from its original schedule?
The name is fictitious, as Cafi exec director Philogene Florita said. Since the announcement of the 12 finalists, have we heard anything from him? Are we to assume his composition was included in the magic 12, then, to keep his mouth shut?
Hmmm… intriguing silence.
(August 26, 2005 issue)
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