Bare, A Pop Opera

The Ateneo blueREPERTORY took a huge step for the final salvo of its 20^th anniversary celebrations by restaging one of their biggest hits, Bare, A Pop Opera and bringing it out of the campus to reach out to a bigger audience. Previously staged back in 2009 in a sold out, three week run, the re-staging was brought over to T.E.A.T.R.I.N.O. at Promenade in Greenhills. While the production was brought out of the Ateneo de Manila University to a more accessible location, a production team of professionals was brought in as well to make sure that this revival would be top notch.

Bibo Reyes

Although I’ve never seen any of blueREP’s shows before, I’ve gotten word of their restaging of Bare when Markki Stroem told me that he wanted to be a part of it but his schedule didn’t permit him to do so. Since then, I took note of this musical and immediately grabbed the opportunity when I was given the chance to see a sneak peek and the whole show, not just once, but twice to boot. During the sneak peek, I was already impressed by how the chorus sounded despite some of them not being in a music or arts related program/degree. And this made me more curious to see how everything would turn out come actual show time.

Bare, A Pop Opera, written by Damon Intrabartolo (book and music) and Jon Hartmere (book and lyrics) tells the story about two boys, Peter and Jason, from a Catholic high school who are in a secret relationship. The shy Peter wants to come out in the open with the relationship and his sexuality but Jason, the popular one, is still hesitant to do both. Things get more complicated for the couple when Ivy, the promiscuous girl in class, pursues Jason and he inexplicably consents. The first time I saw the musical, Bibo Reyes played the role of Peter alongside Jaime Barcelon as Jason. Bibo was reprising the role he played back in 2009 and his grasp of the character was evident and he was one of the stand outs in the show. Jaime, on the other hand, started a bit rough but finally settled down during the second half when Jason's world started to unravel. Another notable performance was that of Cassie Manalastas, returning as Nadia, who exuded insecurity laden sarcasm as the fat and the less popular sister of Jason. Maronne Cruz, meanwhile, portrayed a multi-dimensional Ivy by making her a despicable and yet lovable character. But there was no doubt that it was Rem Zamora’s dual role of the Priest and Sister Chantelle who stole the show. While the Priest remained a stoic figure hidden behind a screen, Sister Chantelle was full of pizzazz and had the most memorable number and lines in the musical. Franco Chan as Matt, Jenny Jamora as Claire and Mark Bernardo as Lucas were the other members of the cast who had some featured numbers in the show.

Franco Chan (2nd from left) and the rest of the Chan family

During my second time to watch the musical, the role of Peter was played by Reb Atadero. I initially thought that seeing the show for the second time around would yield no more surprises but Reb’s portrayal was a huge surprise for me. I think that he was the strongest vocalist in the whole cast and he was very effective in conveying the emotions while hitting the notes at the same time. Speaking of vocals and the music, I’ve heard about how hard the cast and the band had to work in order to achieve what they’ve done in the show. I did have to take into consideration that none of them are music students and in most musicals, the band/orchestra were mostly composed of music majors. And yet they've come up with a decent effort which is not so bad considering that some of the band members didn't even know how to read music before. While there were still some stumbles and miscues (which does happen even in professional orchestras with seasoned musicians), the band members did well not to panic and they continued on without any incident that most of the audience probably didn’t even notice that there was something amiss.

Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and Jamie Barcelon

Like what I’ve said earlier, it was my first time to watch a blueREP production and with university/college groups, I’ve learned to lower my expectations and give them a bit of leeway in evaluating their performance. But the cast and crew of Bare, A Pop Opera somehow saw through me and decided to put up a performance and show that I was wrong to underestimate them in the first place. And I admit that is such a thrill whenever this happens. I think that credit should be given to director Ana Abad Santos and the rest of the production team who worked hard behind the scenes in order to make the actors look and sound good on stage. I feel a bit of regret when I read about the previous productions of Ateneo blueREPERTORY thinking why I wasn’t aware of them before. Thanks to Bare, I will be looking forward to see what they will have to offer for their next season. Lastly, I now see why Markki wanted to be a part of this and why he told me not to miss this musical.

The cast of Bare, A Pop Opera