Everyone's favorite ogre IN A MUSICAL

I was looking around Broadway.com once last year for theater news when I came across an article about the auditions for Shrek: the Musical. I had to wait at least a year to finally receive news from the show. I read that the cast would include Brian D'Arcy James as Shrek, Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona and much more.

Around two months ago, I found leaked songs from the show on Youtube. Here's one of them. It's called "I Know It's Today". In this song, young, teenage and adult Fiona are counting the days until they are rescued from their tower by their Prince Charming.



I also saw a video "behind the scenes" of the production which started previews in Seattle last month. I really like the Gingerbread Man (played by Haven Burton) puppet and the Three Blind Mice.



Lastly, I found a picture of the set. It looks amazing yet reminiscent of the flop musical, Tarzan.




Well that's all for now. The show looks great and seems very hilarious.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The Ateneo Men's Senior Basketball Team won the 2008 UAAP Championship against La Salle. I'm so proud! And happy that we get a victory holiday!!!

West Side Syndrome

Last Friday (September 19), I watched STAGES' production of 'West Side Story'.

Ever since the first ad was released, I was highly anticipating the production. I saw the movie when I was 8 and immediately fell in love with the memorable songs. I had unending searches for videos of different performances.

First of all, I was in a very good mood during the show because of the ushers. They were really attentive and kind to me. Probably because I was pretty much the only kid there and I entered alone. I sat patiently, admiring the set. A few minutes later, it was announced that the role of Maria would be played by Joanna Ampil. The whole crowd actually cheered.

The show skipped the (really long) "Overture" started right away with the "Prologue". James Laforteza's choreography was well performed by the cast but they sometimes lacked in unity. The rest of the show was dazzling. Powerful vocals from Joanna Ampil and Pam G (Anita), especially in the duet "A Boy Like That/ I Have A Love", left the audience in awe. Christian Bautista's portrayal of Tony was good overall but a bit weak in some numbers. Gian Magdangal was great as Riff. The only problem was that he didn't really maintain the New Yorker accent. Finally, Jeff Singson as the Sharks leader Bernardo was strong and convincing.

I actually noticed that many of the numbers followed the movie, rather than the 1957 version. "America", which was originally sung by Anita, Rosalia and the other Shark girls, included all the Puerto Ricans. The song "Somewhere", was sung in the show as a duet, while the original was sung by Consuelo, one of the Shark girls.

I applaud the creativity of the production crew. Resources are very limited for Filipino theatrical productions compared to the large glitzy sets on Broadway. However, they used all their resources to the fullest. The set was amazing. The buildings were rotated for the different scenes. The costumes, while somehow exaggerated, were colorful and really showed the difference between the Sharks and the Jets.

'West Side Story" has a very tragic ending, which brings me to my last point. Audience reactions. The audience was very appreciative of the musical. But unfortunately, the shocking and utterly LOUD gunshot made the tragic ending into a funny scene.

Overall, this production of "West Side Story" was one of the best musicals I have seen in Manila for a very long time, and it was a brilliant directorial debut for Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo.