[Ballet] Tales of the Manuvu (2019) Review (Ballet Philippines)

When Tobie and I sat down to watch Tales of the Manuvu last weekend, we weren't sure what to expect from the experience. While we had watched many theatrical productions in terms of plays and musicals, we had never tried to watch a ballet performance. So this was a major first but important friends had recommended that we go see the show and thus we shifted things around in our schedule in order to make it happen.

And while it took us a bit of time to fully acclimate to the experience, by the end of the show we were really happy that we had made the time to go and had so many moments that we just had to talk about and celebrate further. This is a great show.

[Theater] Waitress (Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group) Review

We had actually watched the local staging of Waitress during its opening weekend thanks to an ARC promo but I guess things got way busier than expected since I somehow forgot to write about the experience. And given recent plans to cut down on my Geeky Guide blogging time I guess it's a good thing that I've been able to squeeze this review in.

It's interesting how this musical has gained such a strong following since its release given it's based on a movie that may not be all that well-known even for a movie junkie like me. But stranger things have happened - just look at the likes of Hairspray, which was also based on a rather obscure cult classic film and yet became a Broadway success.

This local production was definitely a lot of fun to watch and made for a lovely evening for me and Tobie. By the time this review comes out the show will be on its closing weekend and I can only hope that enough people got to enjoy the show when they had the chance.

[Theater] A Doll's House Part 2 (Red Turnip Theater) Review

Red Turnip Theater has a tendency to stage plays with complex emotional subjects at the core of the story. And thus they tend to be plays that try to shake you out of your comfort zone, maybe even disturb you a bit, but all to convey some important bit of meaning or significance. And this play is no different.

A Doll's House Part 2 is the latest Red Turnip offering and one that I had quickly booked seats for even without knowing much about the play itself. It was to my surprise to find out that this is actually a sort of sequel to a book but written in a manner that doesn't require one to read the original book to get a better perspective on things.

I already had tickets in hand when I find out about this (as I was curious as to why it was a 'part 2') and that just got me more curious as to what it was all about. And over the weekend we finally out that book to rest and we came out better for it.

[Theater] M. Butterfly (Frontrow Entertainment) Review

I had long been curious about the Maybank Performing Arts Theater that's essentially just down the street. It isn't that big a venue and yet a number of interesting productions have been booking the venue and I wanted to see why.

We finally got our chance with the Manila staging of M. Butterfly, which is one of those stories that we've all vaguely heard about and yet I've never really sat down to explore and experience. And this is fully knowledgeable of the fact that there's even a David Cronenberg movie out there that I have yet to watch.

So it was generally nice to enter this experience not knowing too much about the story and getting to experience it for the first time. But at the same time it meant not being fully prepared for some of the more creative efforts to bring the story to life.

[Theater] Side Show (Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group) Review

Early in the year we end up watching a lot of different plays as part of the regular theater season. Later in the year other groups tend to put on more musicals (or at least that's how it feels like to me) and thus we schedule some shows of interest accordingly.

Side Show was our first musical as part of our personal "musical season" at the tailend of 2018 and our first Atlantis show for the year as well. And this wasn't a musical we had heard much about before but it's hard to resist a "freak show" right? And so we went.

The show was quite surprising in tone and pretty creative in its costumes and make-up in order to give that full freak feel realness. But it was also a little confusing with a lot of different story beats, which felt like a bit of a waste of the excellent talent that they had gathered for the production.

And this is one major cast.

[Movies] Endo (2007) Review

One of the best things about iflix is how their content library includes not just Filipino films but many award-winning films and interesting independent projects that debuted at this or that film festival. Having one place to find good (or at least interesting) local entertainment content is a blessing in itself. It's sadly difficult to legally get your hands on local content unless you catch their DVD runs at the right time.

Endo is one such independent project that debuted at the 2007 Cinemalaya festival and went on to win the Special Jury Prize along with a nomination for Best Film at the festival. The movie went on to win many other awards as granted by different award-giving bodies.

The movie is an interesting twist on what you could consider to be typical Filipino movie fare in the form of a love story. But it's not at all your regular romance and one that's framed by the challenges of contractualization that limit the progress of the Filipino labor force even today.

[Theater] Virgin LabFest 14 - Set D Review

The Virgin LabFest is an annual celebration of playwrights that stages at least 12 new original plays by those who find the nerve to submit their stories. It's definitely one of the more interesting festivals in the cultural calendar for the year and we've been doing our best to support the plays that involve contributions from friends whether in terms of the writing or the actual performances.

This year's festival is now in full swing and we've already manage to catch one of the sets of plays. This review is for Set C.

[Theater] Virgin LabFest 14 - Set B Review

The Virgin LabFest is an annual celebration of playwrights that stages at least 12 new original plays by those who find the nerve to submit their stories. It's definitely one of the more interesting festivals in the cultural calendar for the year and we've been doing our best to support the plays that involve contributions from friends whether in terms of the writing or the actual performances. 

This year's festival is now in full swing and we've already manage to catch one of the sets of plays. This review is for Set B.

[TV] Amo: Season 1 Review

So Netflix has finally started to include original Philippine content in their library. One such inclusion was the critically-acclaimed Birdshot. Another was the surprising choice of Brillante Mendoza's Amo.

Originally created for TV5, the 13-episode series is a rather controversial look at the current "war on drugs" in the Philippines from man who has been pretty vocal about being pro-administration. Had it remained on local network TV5, we probably would not have paid attention to it.

But now it has a much wider distribution thanks to Netflix and thus this particular take on the supposed drug situation and that has some people squirming in their seats. Duterte's war on drug makes a lot of assumptions about the state of affairs in the Philippines and this show perpetuates them and presents them as the truth, if you buy into the premise of the show.

And while I was not interested in supporting this particular project, I figured that I neded to see it in order to make a proper review with all the facts in hand rather than just rely on other opinions out there. I bit the bullet and watchced the series from start to finish between other tasks.

[Theater] Arsenic and Old Lace (Repertory Philippines) Review

Completing Repertory Philippines' season of straight plays is Arsenic & Old Lace, a surprising black comedy that uses the tropes of the farce to great comedic effect. I figured from the title alone that this would be a place involving murder somehow but the way things play out was beyond my wildest imaginations. And thus the source material alone already gave a great basis for a good comedic play.

The cast of talent brought together for this production was larger than most plays of this nature, at least versus prior productions in recent memory. But everything came together quite nicely and resulted in a highly entertaining afternoon for me and Tobie.

This just goes to show that investing in a season ticket for Repertory Philippines continues to be one of the best investments one can make when you're into live performances of this nature. Musicals are fun in their own right but these plays find ways to use their words and other methods at their disposal to deliver a pretty solid theatrical experience.

[Theater] Silent Sky (Repertory Philippines) Review

We nearly missed out on watching the Repertory Philippines staging of Silent Sky because of a last-minute work trip that had come up for me. Thankfully we had season passes so it was possible to just coordinate with the Repertory team to adjust our viewing dates.

I cannot recommend the Repertory Philippines season tickets enough, people. Their shows are already some of the most affordable in Metro Manila and the season bundle adds additional discounts. Plus this remains to be some of the best stage entertainment we have in the local theater scene.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this production, but I naturally had some Constellations vibes as it was yet another show with some ties to astronomy. However it's a completely different experience and one that I found myself enjoying very, very much.

Guys, this is now one of my favorite plays of all time. And it's probably because I'm a nerd and a geek.

[Theater] Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother (PETA) Review

It rather fascinates me how Eugene Domingo's theater work in recent years tends to be very different from her commercial movie work. Most associate her with her comedic movies like Kimmy Dora, but she's had some fascinating drama pieces as well. We had last seen her in PETA's Bona, and that role was serious but still light in tone when it needed to be. As is often the case with such works, the play  still had a largely sad tone to it that tempered the story.

This play, Masha Norman's 'night, Mother, is very serious on the whole despite some light banter woven into the dialog. It's a serious piece with the complicated concerns of mental health at its core. It's a show about suicide and that makes it quite dangerous if handled poorly. But the folks at PETA put a lot of thought into this piece and that made sure that they'd handle the subject as carefully as possible.

The result is quite powerful, very emotional, and still beautiful.

[Theater] A Comedy of Tenors (Repertory Philippines) Review

Kicking of the 81st season of Repertory Philippines is A Comedy of Tenors, a quirky little farce set in 1930's Paris. Now we've had a rather mixed experience Repertory's repeated attempts to perform comedies of this nature as sometimes the jokes just don't land well, mainly because of things feeling out of sync in terms of how the punchlines are delivered. But each new season is a new beginning an opportunity to hope for the best.

A Comedy of Tenors actually features a fairly large cast for a straight-up dramatic play and I was curious to see how things would all come together. The talent gathered for this show was a pretty diverse bunch that included some familiar faces we had encountered in many different places.

The overall result was pretty positive, and this was considering we had opted to watch the show during its opening weekend. Normally I try to buffer a bit more time to give the cast more opportunities to figure out their rhythm together but I guess it wasn't quite neccessary in this case.

[Movies] Ang Larawan (MMFF 2017) Review

Ang Larawan became the early "nominee" for one of the more serious films in the 2017 Metro Manila Film Festival that took to social media early to call for support in my book as by the even of Day One they were already  posting about which theaters would no longer be showing the movie. This isn't good or bad in itself - just a practice that has become a regular thing when it comes to independent movies.

The movie has managed to extend its life a bit more with the help of the many awards it won at the MMFF including Best Picture. But it doesn't change how the movie isn't necessarily "accessible" to a wider audience, nor should it have compromised on quality just to achieve that goal.

The movie also happens to be a muscal of sorrts, but one that doesn't quite follow the usual sort of Rodgers and Hammerstein format for such musicals in terms of having strong songs to balance out straight dialog scenes. If anything, the movie does attempt to be nearly sung through from start to finish but whether that was a good idea is something the individual viewer will need to decide for themselves.

[Movies] Dedma Walking (MMFF 2017) Review

With the success of Die Beautiful during the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival, I suppose it should come as no surprise that this year's "more commercial" MMFF still featured an LGBT comedy as part of the entries. The fact that both movies have death as a central theme does make for an odd coincidence though.

I went into Dedma Walking without any real  knowledge of the movie apart from (at the time) hearing that Edgar Allan Guzman had won the Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance. I had seen one of the early trailers and it didn't quite grip me nor did it seem to capture what the actual movie was about.

As with many local LGBT ventures, there's a heavy reliance on stereotypes in order to get the message across. I suppose this is somewhat of a necessary evil as it presents gay men in ways that most movie-goers can better understand. But at the same time you can't help but wonder if this will also hold the community back at the same time as not everyone fits the gay mold presented in most local movies.

[Movies] Smaller and Smaller Circles (2017) Review

Good Filipino movies are hard to find since it's a lot more cost-effective to invest mainly in popular stars while scrimping on story since you rely on the star power of the personalities to draw audiences. Movies that begin with interesting stories or explore difficult subjects struggle to find funding and get themselves out there. Completing the movie is hard enough, but then you have to fight to get screen time when cinema operators find it's more proftable to focus on international blockbusters or those aforemented star-driven movies.

Smaller and Smaller Circles is a good movie that's very hard to watch not because of its content but more because it's literally difficult to catch a screening. Case in point, the only theater in the BGC area showing the movie was Market! Market! and that one cinema only showed the movie in the afternoon, with a more mass-market movie taking the more lucrative evening slots.

But this is a movie that deseves to be seen. But by the time you read this review it may already be too late.

[Theater] Hair (Repertory Philippines) Review

Hair is one of those musicals that I had only seen as a movie up until this point. The 1979 film is a classic in its own right but of course it had a somewhat more controlled (and perhaps focused?) narrative as it was meant for commercial release bu even then a lot of what made the story such a representative of the era still sang through clearly.

But Hair as a stage musical is a completely different animal with a drastically different story. If the movie already felt rather fun and free, the musical is all that and more as it's certainly turned up to eleven. And that is both a great thing and possibly a confusing thing depending on your perspective.

It was interesting that a play that involves depictions liberal recreational drug use and a message of freedom and peace has been staged during a time when the government has been cracking down on illegal drugs with rather lethal results. Whether or not the message of the play directly applies to our country's situation I'll leave to you to determine for yourself.

[Movies] Justice League Spinners at 7-Eleven

Because fidget spinners are still a thing, at the very least it's nice to see interesting marketing tie-ups for the crazy little distractions. And given 7-Eleven's long history of some great movie tie-up promotional items, they now have a new line of exclusive fidget spinners for the Justice League movie debuting in the Philippines this November.

To find out how you can get your hands on these fidget spinners, check out the official press release after the jump:

[Theater] Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag The Musical Review (Grand Leisure Corporation)

I probably don't watch enough original local theater productions as it's admittedly more accessible to me to watch foreign shows being staged here, whether by local companies or touring groups. But I do make an effort to watch shows featuring friends when they reach out and ask for support for their shows.

That's what led me to Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag The Musical, an unexpected stage adaptation for a famous movie that I have also not seen yet. And given how  I usually try to keep various versions of a story separate in my head when writing a review, this helped me view this production solely on its own merits.

Admittedly there were weird circumstances around the viewing we caught as it started almost an hour late and it was our first time at the Kia Theatre, which is definitely not one of my favorite theaters now. So I'm saying I was not in the best state of mind at the start of this production's run.

[Theater] West Side Story (Lunchbox Theatrical Productions) Review

For most of my life, West Side Story was one of those musicals that existed in my mind as a movie. Yes, I know it was a Broadway musical first before it was adapted into a movie, but given the time of its release, the movie remains the easier way to get to experience this story. So when the news that a touring production was coming to Manila, I figured it would be worth the investment.

Now I'll admit that West Side Story may have a few great and memorable songs but it also has a lot of weird ones that felt almost extraneous to the larger plot. And thus it was never really a musical that I looked out for because of the songs and the singing. But I have always loved it for the dancing and the sheer rigor demanded of anyone choosing to perform in this production.

The talent gathered for the movie was pretty top notch and that will always set the bar pretty high for any theater production of the show. But this staging was pretty stellar in that regard and certainly helped make the most of the experience.