Care Divas

A performance of The Stars are Here Tonight by the main cast during the 2010 Gawad Buhay! Awards was my first ever encounter with Care Divas, which since has become a huge hit for Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). After seeing the production number, I’ve wondered if I’d ever see the whole show but a tight schedule and an unfamiliar location didn’t make it possible for me to me to see it despite the show having a very lengthy run. Thankfully, a collaboration between PETA and Repertory Philippines in celebration of their 45 years brought Care Divas over to Onstage at Greenbelt 1 for a very limited, one weekend, five show only engagement that I was very pleased to see.

Well, I was far more than just pleased with what I saw, heard and felt during the penultimate show. First of all, the music was first rate right from the beginning up to the end. The music and lyrics courtesy of Vincent De Jesus were so solid and memorable that I wouldn’t be surprised if people leave the theater singing Oy Vey! I really like how some themes recurred and went through some variations throughout the musical. This gave the show its own musical identity which is something that I look forward to in all musicals that I watch.

The musical, written by Liza Magtoto and directed by Maribel Legarda is basically about five transgendered caregivers in Israel trying to survive their difficult lives taking care of people in order to support their families back home. And to ease these hardships, they sideline as entertainers at night. The laughs are a dime a dozen when the five of them, Chelsea (Melvin Lee), Shai (Vincent de Jesus), Kyla (Ricci Chan), Jonee (Buddy Caramat) and Thalia (Dudz Teraña) join together to rehearse as they aim to make it vig in Tel Aviv but eventually ending up in bickering with each other and spouting lines that are currently a huge hit in the comedy bar scene in here. But show business also has its share of tears especially when reality (job security, difficult employers and even a potential love affair) threatens to tear the group apart. The musical shifts from funny to serious moments seamlessly and the laughs come out naturally and never forced especially whenever the ditzy Thalia, obviously the scene stealer, says a line or two.

The material is really good although there were some technical issues with the audio inside the theater that made some of the punch lines fall flat since they were barely heard at all. If I didn’t have the chance to hear the original cast recording, I wouldn’t have noticed the joke at all in the first place. One of the major changes in this special staging compared to the previous runs at PETA was the inclusion of additional cast members serving as the chorus. They were eye candy in various parts but I hope that their vocals were utilized a lot more during the ensemble numbers. I guess that this stemmed from the material not having a chorus in the first place and adding them proved to be difficult musically. This is just a minor gripe but I really did wish that there was a show stopping number featuring the whole company that had some wicked harmonization which is usually my most awaited portion in every musical that I see. Despite these reservations, Care Divas is still a very enjoyable musical that I expect will have more stagings in the future. My other disappointment was that the run was so limited that I didn’t have the opportunity to see the alternates like Jerald Napoles, Jason Barcial, Phil Noble and Cecilia Garrucho perform the other roles. Still, there was a good turnout in this joint effort that more collaborations between PETA and Rep Philippines are already on the works.