Sandosenang Sapatos

Trixie Esteban

There was hardly a dry eye inside the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Huseng Batute (CCP Studtio Theater) during the curtain call of Sandosenang Sapatos, Tanghalang Pilipino’s opening production for its 27^th Season entitled MensaHEROs. A musical adaptation by Layeta Bucoy (libretto), Noel Cabangon (music) and Jed Balsamo (music) from Dr. Luis Gatmaitan’s children’s book, Sandosenang Sapatos is the bittersweet story of Susie (Trixie Esteban), a young crippled girl who feels inadequate believing that she is unable to fulfill the dream of his shoemaker father (Jonathan Tadioan) to have a daughter who is a ballerina. Her lack of legs also meant that she would never be able to wear her father’s shoes. This led her to retreat in her world of dreams where the shoe fairy lives and the shoes are alive. The shoes are portrayed by members of the Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company who donned rollerblades in this production.

Trixie Esteban already showed promise when she played the young Oryol in a previous Tanghalang Pilipino production, Ibalong, but her exposure there was limited. This time around, the spotlight was really on her since she never exited the stage and remained there for the whole duration of the musical. The most impressive part for me about Trixie was when she did the a cappella song during a very emotional scene. The subdued and understated treatment of this scene made it a very powerful and heart tugging moment.

The rollerblading cast gave the musical a very dynamic and momentous feel despite the theater’s limited space which should be credited to choreographer Gerald Mercado. The various personalities of the shoes were also reflected by the costumes by James Reyes that they wore. It still felt a bit odd that this is probably the most wholesome production that I’ve ever seen coming from director Tuxqs Rutaquio. I think that it’s nice to have a change of pace from his usual disturbing and shocking plays that I’ve seen before.

The cast of Sandosenang Sapatos

In the few years that I’ve seen Tanghalang Pilipino productions, I’ve noticed that the TP Actors Company often pale vocally when compared to cast members who perform in musicals by other companies. The recent musical productions that I’ve seen lately like Noli Me Tangere, Walang Sugat and Ibalong have the cast fortified by guest artists who are exceptional singers. But now with Sandosenang Sapatos, they had to step up since there were only few guest artists in this musical. And I was indeed able to notice major improvements considering that the chorus parts had some counterpoint in it. I wish that the vocal parts, especially the chorus, was more intricate but considering that this is a children’s play, the music didn’t need to be that complex.

Sandosenang Sapatos, running a little over an hour, is indeed a nice addition to the Philippine theater repertoire for children. I’ve heard that Tanghalang Pilipino plans to have this as their touring children’s production instead of the Pinocchio adaptation that they’ve been staging for quite some time now. TP’s next offering will be the return of Ibalong which was their big hit from last season. It will run from August 30-September 15 at the CCP’s Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater).