Bravo! Best of theater 2024

Tanghalang Pilipino's "Pingkian," directed by Jenny Jamora —CREATIVE SENSE

Year 16

A gloomy, mournful haze greeted the local theater community at the dawn of 2024, with industry pillar Ricky Abad, Tanghalang Ateneo’s (TA) longest-serving artistic director and mentor to generations of students and theater artists in Ateneo and beyond, having passed away the day after Christmas. That void would loom even larger when, just four months later, Floy Quintos—celebrated playwright, director, and all-around creative polyglot for stage, TV, live events—also passed on, sending ripples of shock across the country’s arts and entertainment landscape.

Quintos died mere days before the start of rehearsals for his new play, “Grace,” a reexamination of the still-controversial “Lipa Apparitions.” His troupe of actors, blindsided by his sudden demise but determined to honor their departed playwright and mentor, forged ahead and mounted “Grace,” reaping acclaim and having sold-out runs at Ayala Circuit in Makati and at Ateneo’s Areté.

Quintos’ final legacy went beyond one play: Encore Theater, established by Stella Cañete-Mendoza, one of his signature actors, for the purpose of independently producing “Grace” and future Quintos plays, will now focus on staging the playwright’s works (and eventually other original Filipino material), offering the promise not only of an exciting new company enriching the scene, but, more crucially, that Quintos’ important contributions to the Philippine contemporary theater canon will continue to be seen and appreciated by new audiences, and savored by theater artists eager to be challenged by a “Quintosian” work.

Tribute productions

Likewise spurred by grief at Abad’s passing, the Ateneo theater community became one of the busiest this year, with a succession of tribute productions peopled by his favorite actors and creative collaborators, and designed to reflect the care, excellence, and artistic integrity that marked Abad’s lifelong labors: “Mga Multo,” “Sintang Dalisay,” “Medea,” and, in the case of Guelan Luarca, TA’s current artistic director and an Abad protégé, impassioned original works and/or adaptations about family—“3 Upuan” and its unsettling cousin “Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito”—written in the reflective spirit occasioned by the passing of his friend and teacher.

And, even as this was going to press, another painful departure was announced: veteran director-producer Bobby Garcia, gone at 55. Garcia had just made a comeback to the local theater scene with “Request sa Radyo,” starring Lea Salonga and Dolly De Leon, after an absence of four years due to the pandemic. In his early 20s, Garcia was a wunderkind, bringing to Manila and mounting—in tandem with Monique Wilson’s then New Voice Company—such groundbreaking shows as “Rent,” “Angels in America,” and David Mamet’s “Oleanna.” For his subsequent company Atlantis Productions, he directed the Philippine and sometimes international premieres of, among others, “Next to Normal,” “Hairspray,” “In The Heights,” “Jersey Boys,” “Matilda,” “Kinky Boots,” “God of Carnage,” and Jessica Hagedorn’s stage adaptation of her lauded novel “Dogeaters.”

Life, too

Amid death, there was life, too—abundant, profuse, plentiful, as local theater rode the ballast of last year’s cathartic release from the pandemic restrictions to mount many more productions and create even more varied fare for 2024.

Hardly a week went by throughout the last 12 months that was free of a running show, whether by established companies offering the latest jukebox musical or a new original work, or by small, intrepid outfits like CAST (Company of Actors in Streamlined Theatre) with an admirable three productions this year staged in a rehearsal studio, and the newbie company Mad Child Productions, put up by four former students of Luarca, with their own quirky suite of intimate shows. Luarca’s “3 Upuan” itself was staged in a dressing room in Areté—anywhere, any place would do, it seems, if hungry artists could help it, all to tell their story and get an audience of kindred souls to share in the communal live experience. Talk about grit. And grace.

Here is the 2024 Manila theater scene in a nutshell, with shout-outs to the standouts and a toast to all. Now, echoing Abad’s exhortation to his students to live life to the full: “Let’s dance!”

Jojit Lorenzo, JC Santos, and Martha Comia in “3 Upuan,” written and directed by Guelan Luarca —RAFAEL CABRERA

Best Play (One Act)

“3 Upuan” (written and directed by Guelan Luarca). Ostensibly about three siblings coping with grief, distance, disaffection, the burden of things left unsaid and unreflected on, this extraordinarily personal and deeply felt work dramatically expanded to achieve a grandness of vision that was vital, vivid, moving. Acted with aching precision by the trio of Jojit Lorenzo, JC Santos, and—in a career-best turn—Martha Comia, “3 Upuan” is yet more proof that Luarca, 33, just this year already inducted into the Palanca Hall of Fame, is local theater’s most consistently outstanding young creative powerhouse.

Honorable Mention:

“Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito” (Sam Walsh’s “This House Is for Laughing,” translated and directed by Guelan Luarca); “Sa Babaeng Lahat” (Elise Santos, playwright; Caisa Borromeo, director).

Nonie Buencamino (right) and the Tanghalang Pilipino (TP) Actors Company in TP’s “Balete,” directed by Chris Millado —MAY CELESTE

Best Play (Full-length)

“Balete” (F. Sionil Jose’s novel “Tree” and autobiography “Promdi” adapted by Rody Vera, Chris Millado, Delphine Buencamino, Sabrina Basilio, and the Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company; Chris Millado, director). With its “astoundingly cohesive union of theatrical elements that evoked the grand sweep of the novel as a literary form,” as Vincen Gregory Yu put it, “Balete”—one of Tanghalang Pilipino’s (TP) two triumphs this year, the other being the original musical “Pingkian”—worked commandingly as an innovative, boundary-pushing piece of social-realist theater, featuring an indelible performance for the ages by Nonie Buencamino, with indispensable movement design by his daughter Delphine Buencamino and sterling ensemble work by the TP Actors Company.

Honorable Mentions:

“Mga Multo” (Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts” adapted by Ron Capinding and Guelan Luarca; Ron Capinding, director); “Medea” (Euripides’ “Medea” translated by Rolando Tinio; Ron Capinding, director); “Grace” (Floy Quintos; Dexter Santos, director); “Betrayal” (Harold Pinter; Victor Lirio, director)

Best Actor, Play

Nonie Buencamino (“Balete”). (See Best Play–Full-Length, above)

Honorable Mentions:

Joshua Cabiladas, Soliman Cruz (“Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito”); Leo Rialp (“Grace”); Jojit Lorenzo, JC Santos (“3 Upuan”); Reb Atadero (“Othello”); Zoë de Ocampo (“Patintero sa Ayala Avenue”); James Bradwell, James Cooney (“Betrayal”); Topper Fabregas (“Gruesome Playground Injuries”); Ice Seguerra (“Choosing”); JC Santos (“The Foxtrot”); Joshua Cabiladas (“Ang Munting Liwanag sa Madilim na Sulok ng Isang Serbeserya sa Maynila”)

Miren Alvarez-Fabregas in Tanghalang Ateneo’s “Mga Multo,” directed by Ron Capinding —ZOE TABABA

Best Actress, Play

Miren Alvarez-Fabregas (“Mga Multo”). Rarely appearing on the boards nowadays, Alvarez-Fabregas made a stunning one-two punch of a comeback this year with towering performances in “Mga Multo” and “Medea,” both productions directed by Capinding. In “Medea” Alvarez-Fabregas was an implacable force of nature, but in the less showy role of the proper matriarch slowly awakening to horrifying truths in “Mga Multo,” she was utterly shattering. She, and Buencamino in “Balete,” stand as the Olympian exemplars in a milestone year brimming with great Filipino performances.

Honorable Mentions:

Miren Alvarez-Fabregas (“Medea”); Martha Comia (“3 Upuan”); Thea Marabut, Peewee O’Hara (“Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito”); Dolly De Leon (“Request sa Radyo”); Stella Cañete-Mendoza (“Grace”); Kitsi Pagaspas (“Identité”); Liesl Batucan-del Rosario (“The Foxtrot”); Jam Binay, Francesca dela Cruz, Yani Lopez (“Sa Babaeng Lahat”)

Yan Yuzon in Tanghalang Ateneo’s “Mga Multo,” directed by Ron Capinding —ZOE TABABA

Best Featured Actor, Play

Yan Yuzon (“Mga Multo”). Yuzon’s “flamboyantly tragic” performance (Arturo Hilado’s words) as Oswaldo, the son of a fractured household haunted by dark traumas now coming home to roost, was the faultless complement to Alvarez-Fabregas’ exertions, making his character’s descent into bleakness as unbearably painful as his mother’s bewildered scramble toward epiphany and light. (Yuzon would go on to sear the stage again as Yason/Jason in “Medea.”)

Honorable Mentions:

Joseph Dela Cruz (“Mga Multo”); Nelsito Gomez (“Grace”); Yan Yuzon (“Medea”); Marco Viaña, Earvin Estioco, Jonathan Tadioan, Gelo Molina (“Balete”); Vino Mabalot (“Sa Tahanan ng Aking Ama”); Mark Aranal (“Mga Multo”); Dennis Marasigan (“Grace”); Jigger Sementilla (“Nanay Bangis”); Mark Lorenz (“Ibon ng Lawa”)

Maronne Cruz in Company of Actors in Streamlined Theatre’s “Othello,” directed by Nelsito Gomez —MAY CELESTE

Best Featured Actress, Play

Maronne Cruz (“Othello”). Both ferocious and vulnerable, contained and headstrong, Cruz’s maidservant Emilia in Nelsito Gomez’s updated take on the Shakespeare tragedy was, to quote Yu again, the play’s “most consummate vessel, the actress intelligently communicating, through superb command of affect and language, a trapped existence between the old world of patriarchal submission and the possible new world of feminist defiance.”

Honorable Mentions:

Shamaine Centenera Buencamino, Frances Makil Ignacio (“Grace”); Sabrina Basilio (“Mga Multo”); Lhorvie Nuevo, Toni Go-Yadao (“Balete”); Khay Eva (“Nanay Bangis”); Gabby Padilla (“Tiny Beautiful Things”)

Best Musical (Original Filipino Material)

“Pingkian” (book/lyrics by Juan Ekis, music by Ejay Yatco; Jenny Jamora, director). Showcasing the strongest vocal ensemble assembled for a Filipino musical since the original run of the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s (Peta) “Rak of Aegis” in 2014, “Pingkian,” which celebrated the life and ideas of young Katipunan general Emilio Jacinto, was an electrifying production that gleamed with polish and finesse across the board—Juan Ekis’ deftly structured libretto, Jamora’s lucid direction, above all Ejay Yatco’s barnstorming rock-tinged score that soared to life by way of glorious voices led by Vic Robinson as Jacinto, transforming the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ compact Black Box Theater into a grand pantheon of sound.

Honorable Mention:

“Bar Boys: A New Musical” (book by Pat Valera, music by Myke Salomon, lyrics by Pat Valera and Myke Salomon; Pat Valera and Mikko Angeles, directors).

Marvin Ong, Gian Magdangal, Krystal Kane, and Gabby Padilla (with Barbara Jance as swing) in Repertory Philippines’ “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” directed by Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo —REPERTORY PHILIPPINES

Best Musical (Non-Filipino Material)

“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” (book/lyrics by Joe DiPietro, music by Jimmy Roberts; Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, director). How to transform a so-so musical into a superb little gem of a show? Take a cue from what director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and her cast and creative team did to this vintage Off-Broadway four-hander, which benefited handsomely from the fresh touches and thoughtful retooling applied to it. In a season bursting with big broad-strokes musical productions, this one went down as a welcome tonic.

Honorable Mention:

“Little Shop of Horrors” (music by Alan Menken, book/lyrics by Howard Ashman; Toff De Venecia, director)

Best Actor, Musical

Sam Concepcion (“One More Chance, The Musical”). Long a lanky child and then teen star on stage, Concepcion was handed this year arguably his first full-fledged adult role as Popoy in Peta’s musical adaptation of the classic rom-com “One More Chance,” challenged to inhabit—and reinterpret for the stage but without straying too much from—the role made emblematic by John Lloyd Cruz. What he unveiled was a dreamboat presence, in a stellar performance that emphatically reimagined his character’s iconic persona into a still familiar but altogether fresh creation.

Honorable Mentions:

Vic Robinson (“Pingkian”); CJ Navato (“One More Chance, The Musical”); Benedix Ramos, Jerom Canlas, Alex Diaz (“Bar Boys: A New Musical”); Gian Magdangal, Marvin Ong (“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”); Reb Atadero, Ian Pangilinan (“Rent”); Nyoy Volante, Reb Atadero (“Little Shop of Horrors”); Shaun Ocrisma (“The 35th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”)

Nicole Omillo and Sam Concepcion in Peta’s “One More Chance, The Musical,” directed by Maribel Legarda —PETA

Best Actress, Musical

Nicole Omillo (“One More Chance, The Musical”). Nothing is more thrilling to watch than the emergence of a bright new young star, especially if that newbie smashes through in her very first lead role. Omillo was supposed to debut four years ago in a musical production that was throttled by the pandemic, but all that waiting would lead to her being cast as the Bea Alonzo character in “One More Chance, The Musical”—like Concepcion’s Popoy, a pre-cast part that she honored but eloquently redefined as her own.

Honorable Mentions:

Tex Ordoñez (“Buruguduystunstugudunstuy: Ang Parokya ni Edgar Musical”); Krystal Kane, Barbara Jance (“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”); Sue Ramirez, Karylle (“Little Shop of Horrors”)

Juliene Mendoza (in white shirt, with Benedix Ramos) in Barefoot Theatre Collaborative’s “Bar Boys: A New Musical,” directed by Pat Valera and Mikko Angeles —KRIS ROCHA

Best Featured Actor, Musical

Juliene Mendoza (“Bar Boys: A New Musical”). At the heart of this absorbing, kinetically staged story about four young men taking on law school (adapted from Kip Oebanda’s 2017 Cinemalaya film) and confronting notions of justice and privilege in the system was Mendoza’s glimmering performance as the tender-hearted father of one of the boys, a blue-collar worker whose basic goodness and groundedness—and Mendoza’s ability to wring poignant truth from that part with the tiniest change in tone, the littlest inflected line—lent the material its most resonant moments.

Honorable Mentions:

Omar Uddin, Nor Domingo (“Bar Boys: A New Musical”); Pepe Herrera, Noel Comia Jr. (“Buruguduystunstugudunstuy: Ang Parokya ni Edgar Musical”); Paw Castillo, Joshua Cadeliña (“Pingkian”); Audie Gemora (“Little Shop of Horrors”); Johnnie Moran (“One More Chance, The Musical”); Lorenz Martinez (“Once On This Island”); Floyd Tena (“Going Home to Christmas: A Jose Mari Chan Musical”)

Sheila Francisco in Barefoot Theatre Collaborative’s “Bar Boys: A New Musical,” directed by Pat Valera and Mikko Angeles —KRIS ROCHA

Best Featured Actress, Musical

Sheila Francisco (“Bar Boys: A New Musical”). Lord, this woman. If Mendoza was the heart of “Bar Boys,” Francisco was unimpeachably its formidable spine. Playing Justice Hernandez, a rampart of rectitude and brilliance who mentors—more like goads and terrorizes—her students into learning how to become stewards and practitioners of the law in the grand manner, Francisco was never less than sensational in every scene she was in. We have a verdict, Your Honor: Francisco is guilty of prowess in the first degree.

Honorable Mentions:

Bituin Escalante, Gab Pangilinan (“Pingkian”); Julia Serad (“Little Shop of Horrors”); Sheena Belarmino, Via Antonio (“One More Chance, The Musical”); Kakki Teodoro (“Bar Boys: A New Musical”); Carla Guevara-Laforteza (“Going Home to Christmas: A Jose Mari Chan Musical”); Lance Reblando (“Rent”)

Artistic and technical standouts

Clint Ramos’ mammoth set for “Request sa Radyo”—shipping containers, a fully functioning hyperrealist New York apartment (echoed on a smaller scale by “Tiny Beautiful Things”), airport seats and signages—was easily the most imposing scenery one saw in many years, but for our money the season’s most compelling sets were exercises in restrained, imaginative resourcefulness: the young Wika Nadera’s round center dais in “Balete,” first of all, flanked by four shadowy pillars of fraying jute bags, the space then becoming a playfield for limitless scene permutations.

Ditto for the sets of “Pingkian” (Carlo Pagunaling), “Bar Boys: A New Musical” (Ohm David), “Betrayal” (Miguel Urbino—that sleek, immaculate gallery!), “Mga Multo” (Gino Gonzales), “Nanay Bangis” (Mark Daniel Dalacat), “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” (Joey Mendoza’s jazzy panels of New York silhouettes).

Projection design, which continues to level up beyond merely background flourishes to becoming a driving or distilling element in productions, was exceptional in “Balete” (JM Jimenez) and in two shows by GA Fallarme—”Pingkian” and “Buruguduystunstugudunstuy: Ang Parokya ni Edgar Musical” (with Joyce Garcia).

For costume design—”Balete” (Carlos Siongco), “Nanay Bangis” (Carlo Pagunaling), and—a contest in lavishness— “Buruguduystunstugudunstuy: Ang Parokya ni Edgar Musical” (Raven Ong) and “Sintang Dalisay” (Tata Tuviera, building on the original work by the late Salvador Bernal).

For lights, Monino Duque once again showed his preeminence in this field in “Mga Multo.” Also, Roman Cruz for “Balete,” John Batalla (“Grace” and “Betrayal”), Elizabeth Mak (“Request sa Radyo”), D Cortezano (“Sintang Dalisay”), Meliton Roxas Jr. (“Bar Boys: A New Musical,” “Buruguduystunstugudunstuy: Ang Parokya ni Edgar Musical,” and “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”), Joseph Matheu (“Little Shop of Horrors”).

Delphine Buencamino’s movement design for “Balete” felt fresh, bold, revelatory. The other notable choreographic works this year were by Jomelle Era for “Pingkian” and “Bar Boys: A New Musical,” and Dudz Teraña for the Far Eastern University Theater Guild’s “Ang Pinakamakisig sa Mga Nalunod sa Buong Daigdig.”

For musical direction, Ejay Yatco set a scorching pace with his work across five (!) productions: “Pingkian,” “Buruguduystunstugudunstuy: Ang Parokya ni Edgar Musical,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” and “Going Home to Christmas: A Jose Mari Chan Musical.” Daniel Bartolome conjured rousing calypso music for “Once On This Island,” while Myke Salomon did yeoman’s work adapting Ben&Ben’s discography to the stage for “One More Chance, The Musical” and creating his first original score, for “Bar Boys: A New Musical.”

Sound design was a critical element in the alienating cityscape of “Request sa Radyo,” courtesy of Bradley Ward. More: Fabian Obispo (“Betrayal”), TJ Ramos (“Pingkian”), Aji Manalo (“Little Shop of Horrors” and “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change), Myke Salomon (“One More Chance, The Musical”).

For both music and sound design, Teresa Barrozo (“Balete”) and Arvy Dimaculangan (“Grace”). Of particular gorgeousness was the live neo-ethnic instrumentation for “Sintang Dalisay,” with music, orchestration, and sound by Edru Abraham and Jayson Gildore.

In translation/adaptation, “Mga Multo,” the Capinding-Luarca Filipino translation of Ibsen’s “Ghosts”; “Ibon ng Lawa,” Jovi Miroy’s translation of Chekhov’s “The Seagull”; and Luarca (again!) translating Sam Walsh’s “This House Is for Laughing” into “Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito.”

Finally, two “outliers” that deserve official remembering: Ryan Cayabyab’s magnificent, instant-classic score for Ballet Manila’s “Florante at Laura,” a vast orchestral work that harks back to the old Hollywood sounds of Miklós Rósza and Elmer Bernstein; and Kanakan Balintagos’ “Ang Paraan ng Paglipad,” whose chanted-through retelling of a rediscovered Palawan legend was a mesmerizing, hypnotic experience, staged early this year on a patch of open ground on the UP campus and featuring splendid work by its creative team and an all-student cast from Guang Ming College. It’s unclassifiable as a “musical” for this list, but something more archetypal, primal—certainly an artistic high point for 2024.