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 TeraƱa) 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.
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