Saturday, March 29, 2008
Jesus wants you to watch this musical (and so do I)
The gracious
Lorna Lopez invited me to the press conference of
Altar Boyz, the one production (I'll skip the lengthy synopsis and just tell you the short version -- it's about a Christian boy band) that convinced me to buy season tickets for this season of Repertory Philippines. I'd been nagging every theater geek I know, like, "EEEE LET'S WATCH ALTAR BOYZ" since I first heard it was coming to Manila. So when I got Lorna's email I was like "EEEE ALTAR BOYZ PRESSCON!" Haha. I'm so excitable.
EEEE NEXT PARAGRAPH! Sige na nga, I'll stop. Anyway, the press conference took place in MyCinema in Greenbelt 3, and it was catered by Bubba Gump, which I unabashedly took advantage of because OMG Bubba Gump. I laaav it. I didn't have to go through the "Waaah, I don't know anybodeeeh" wallflower wangsting process anymore because I was with my theater buddy Kathleen, and everyone else there was very friendly. I was first greeted by Rep veteran Joy Virata (which I proceeded to brag about to my dad when I got home), then I chatted a bit with some of the guests, including
AJ of BaklaAko.com, who once again looked
fieeerce, like, if only all men dressed like that! The world would be so much hipper. The room quieted down when
Gibbs Cadiz arrived, because he will always be the number one VIP in these things, I mean, even I get starstruck whenever I see him. Haha, go Gibbs! :D Not too long after that, the Altar Boyz themselves arrived, in full make-up and outfits, with a couple of them still smarting from getting their eyebrows threaded earlier in the day, to which I replied, "You get used to it. Eventually."
Sweet-faced TV actor
PJ Valerio is Matthew, the Timberlake-esque leader of the Altar Boyz (PJ, cutely: "He's sort of, um, the leader?"), and he totally looks like my
Spring Awakening crush, Matt Doyle, even sings like him a little bit, yiiiih! Charming, well-spoken
Red Concepcion, previously Rosencrantz in
Hamlet, plays Mark, the "sensitive" one -- read: the Carson Kressley, or, as the event host sighed in frustration, "Can we just say 'gay?'". Seriously, full-on fierceness in a pink shirt, tight jeans and bleached blonde hair, a la Jai Rodriguez in
Zanna, Don't!, and y'all know that musical was alllllll about dem gay peoplez.
Reuben "Ryu" Uy, who I got to talk to the most, is alternately kalog and siga and weirdo and sweet, and he plays Luke, the "bad boy" of the Altar Boyz (I know, right?). The Boyz claim that there isn't much of a difference between Ryu and Luke, and I kind of saw their point as I got to talk more with them, hee-hee. Not that it's a bad thing! Then there's
Reb Atadero, who, when I asked about how similiar he is to his character, Juan (as in, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
Juan," which will never ever not be funny) replied, "I guess I'm kind of a loverboy." Cutely corny pick-up lines and all. Hehe. But hey, corny boys are totally charming kaya! And rounding out God's Fab Five is the witty, infectiously hyper
Chevy Mercado as Abraham, who is not just "Abraham," but "Abraham -- he's Jewish!"
While chatting with the Boyz after their performance ("We are the Altar Boyz," "The Calling"), I candidly expressed that I was kind of sad to find out that Felix Rivera wasn't going to be one of the stars (remember
what I said last time?
"I can't wait for Altar Boyz
in April! If Felix Rivera is not one of the leads, I swear I will cry.") because I thought he would be so perfect for this musical, and then they were like "Okay, we're leaving, she doesn't want us here!" sabay getting
this close to walking out, which is why the previous paragraph is peppered with shining compliments for the Boyz. Now you know. Haha. But no, really, you're all very awesome! Promise! =D
You'd think that I would have been reduced to an unintelligible pile of squee in the presence of such cute guys (there ha, I said you were cute!), but PJ, Red, Reuben, Reb and Chevy were all so friendly that all the guests, myself included, felt comfortable talking to them. I realized then that
Jammoe (you should have been there!) was right when she told me that theater actors were surprisingly sweet and humble. Conniving
bastards. :)
Kathleen and I had to leave early because she had to meet with her thesis coach, but we both had a great time. Once we left MyCinema, I turned to her and squealed, "Wasn't this AWESOME?" although to avoid sounding too lame-o, I left out the
And we got freebies, yaaay -- they're my favorite part of press conferences! that continued in my head.
Needless to say, I'm even more psyched for
Altar Boyz than I was before, and trust me, these Boyz are going to wow you. I remember hearing Chevy say, "I could get used to this!" while they were having their pictures taken. And all I can say to that is: you'd better. :D
I'll be watching the dress rehearsal on April 3 since Lorna was kind enough to invite me -- thank you, you rock! -- and I'm thinking that the follow-up title for the review would be, "Jesus Approves of This Musical." (Although if things don't go as I'm expecting they will, that title might just be "Jesus Says 'Never Mind.'")
Altar Boyz plays at the Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1 from April 4 to 27, 2008. Shows on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:30pm. Tickets are at Php550, Php350, and Php 250. For tickets, reservations, and information call the Rep office at 8870710 or Ticketworld at 891999. You may also log on to the Repertory Philippines website or the Ticketworld website. Tickets are also available at the REP office located at 2316 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City and at the gate before every performance.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Snapshots flickering in the 3D iMAX of my mind
Yes, I know I haven't updated in ages, and I apologize for that.
Since I'm not feeling coherent enough to write in my usual looong paragraphs and pretentious ruminations (ah screw it, despite the bullet points, I ended up writing looong paragraphs anyway), allow me to humbly present My Life in Bullet Points:
- Sweet Jesus, money's been pouring out my nose lately. Ever since getting a job I've been spending a whole lot...shoes, more shoes, some cute tops, DVDs, CDs, magazines, movies, food, treated my family to a bloody expensive dinner at Mr. Rockefeller today...need to curb my expenditure, like, seriously.
- I finally found a Taco Bell dish that I actually like: it's some tater tots thing with cheese and cream on top, and it's fucking tasty. Too bad it's P40 for a cupful that's like this small.
- Been working out every morning from Mondays to Fridays at Gold's Gym, and I feel better than ever! I can leg press 105 lbs. now, which is up a good 45 lbs. from two weeks ago. I know too much muscle is unattractive, but I want some big, powerful thighs, man. Like Elliot from Scrubs!
- Can't say the same about my eating habits. :( In the spirit of pakikisama I went out with some co-workers to have breakfast at Aplaya, and it was this big buffet of taaaasty-looking food at P100 only. I unfortunately had to break my pesco-vegetarianism to partake of it, but it was pretty worth it.
- Speaking of good food that's really cheap, you all seriously have to check out Tides, which is this nice little bar on Aguirre St. in BF Paranaque. Huge-ass platter of nachos, P85 lang. Chicken tenders at P55. Quesadillas at P55. Amazing, y'all. I'm so going back!
- Good food that isn't so cheap? My family and I had the dinner buffet at Paseo Uno in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, which tragically was on the same day when I had the breakfast buffet. So I'm like twice my size now. I would've said no, but it was seafood night, and I can't ever say no to seafood. Glad I didn't, though, because DAMN it was goooood.
- Back to where I was before I went on that "Waaah, calories!" tangent: ever since I started going to Gold's, I've decided that I need an iPod. The elliptical is super boring when you hear the same techno music every morning. My N70 Music Edition would have sufficed, but I lost my earphones and I can't be arsed to find them. Now, I just need to decide on which one to get: the convenient, cute iPod Nano (it comes in pink, yay!), the trendy iPod Touch, or the dependable iPod video? I'm leaning towards that last one, just because of the ginormous capacity (160GB = awesome). I can't get anything below 15GB, because that's about how much music I have on my laptop right now, and this number only gets bigger every month. All suggestions are welcome.
- And now on the gadgets tangent, I also need a new laptop. My current laptop and I are having relationship problems (I'm talking slam-my-fists-repeatedly-on-the-keyboard kind of hatred, here). It overheats and dies out at random moments, and it's basically falling apart. An iBook is the popular choice, apparently, but I'm completely drawn to the Sony Vaio. It comes in pink! (Why yes, I am massively shallow. Thank you for asking.)
- I'm so glad I got Repertory Philippines season tickets. I get to watch in the front row at every show! Mini-recaps of what I've seen:
- Tuesdays with Morrie was fantastic. Wala pang 15 minutes and I was already in tears; it's that good, thanks in large part to stars Jose Mari Avellana and Bart Guingona. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to bring tissues to this show.
- The critically-acclaimed Hamlet was a snooze-fest for me, I'm sad to report. Maybe I caught a bad show? Although it was a nice surprise to find that Felix Rivera was in the cast, adorable as always and quite the scene-stealer. Cris Villonco was also a stand-out performer. Girl is amazing, y'all.
- Just came back from watching Romance in D, which utterly charmed me. The first part was a little meandering, but the later parts were laugh-out-loud funny, and all four leads (Audie Gemora, Ana Abad-Santos Bitong, Chinggoy Alonso, Pinky Marquez) were extremely likable in their roles. I found it a little awkward when Bitong and Gemora's characters started making out, though -- I've always felt a little discomfort on the actors' part when it comes to kissing scenes in Repertory Philippines shows. They seemed hesitant to even let their lips touch. It was almost like that other time when Felix Rivera and Cris Villonco had to kiss in Fiddler on the Roof -- I could actually see like three centimeters of space between their faces as they pretended to kiss. Upon consulting with fellow theater geek Jam on this, she explained that Rep is a pretty conservative company, so they try to scale back on those scenes.
- I can't wait for Altar Boyz in April! If Felix Rivera is not one of the leads, I swear I will cry.
- Did I tell you about this really bad day I had this week? In the morning, right after work, I headed to Shaw Blvd. in Pasig to take the TOEFL test for my New York University application. It was fairly easy, but I was so wiped out from the graveyard shift that I zoned out a few times, and I'm sure it cost me some points. By the end of it, I was slumped over, asleep on my desk. I didn't know my way around Pasig, so I just took my father's advice to ride the jeep to EDSA Central and then take the MRT. I did, but since I have shitty navigational skills, I totally missed my drop-off point and somehow wound up in Pureza instead. It didn't help that the jeep was blaring, at full fucking blast, remixes that butchered classic songs that I really liked, such as Queen, Nirvana, and Radiohead. I was probably distracted by it because I had to hold my hands to my ears the whole time, all, "Make it stoooop!" So there I was in the middle of some seedy street in Sta. Mesa, sticky, sleepy, hungry and cranky, and feeling like I wanted to cry. And there was no signal, too. I eventually made it home by taking the Pureza LRT2 to Gil Puyat LRT1, and then taking a bus to my place. To cap off my astoundingly crappy day, I came home to find out that my favorite little fairy Danny Noriega was voted off American Idol this week. Ah, crap. I love that kid so, so hard. I feel like Ramiele. DANNEEEEEH!
