Musicals and Plays to Watch - Arts & Culture Activities for the Coming Months

Theater Round-up: 10 shows to watch from January – March 2015

by The Click List

Good news theater aficionados! The first quarter of 2015 is packed with exciting productions; best of all, most of these productions are from our local theater groups. The Philippine theater scene is indeed continuously growing and now is the perfect time to broaden your artistic horizon and support homegrown thespians.

To help you plan your Arts & Culture activities for the coming months, here's a list of musicals and plays running from January – March 2015.

1. Disney's Beauty and the Beast 
   Run: January 10 – February 1
   Venue: Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater)
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Belle, Beast, Gaston, Mrs. Potts, Lumiere and other much-loved Beauty and the Beast characters come to life in this one of a kind Broadway musical.

2. Time Stands Still
   Run: January 30 – March 8
   Venue: Whitespace Makati
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Fresh off the critical success of the Pulitzer Prize winner Rabbit Hole, Red Turnip is capping off its second season with another heralded play from Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Donald Marguilles, Time Stands Still.
Time Stands Still is the story of Sarah, a photojournalist who must return home with her journalist boyfriend James after sustaining injuries from war-torn Middle East. The play follows their love story as they negotiate a more ordinary life, far from the thrills of a battleground. Yet the comforts of urban domesticity - the simple pleasures and small compromises - can be a minefield of its own.

3. PETA's FnL (Re-run) 
   Run: February 3 – 6
   Venue: SkyDome, SM City North EDSA
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Catch the re-staging of this PETA original that brings together an unusual encounter of Balagtas' language with contemporary Filipino slangs like Bekimon and Jologs.

4. In The Heights
   Run: February 3 – 21
   Venue: Rizal Mini Theater, Ateneo De Manila University
   

Ateneo Blue Repertory is staging the award-winning show written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Taking you from the beaches of Puerto Rico to the concrete sprawl of New York City, In the Heights is a show that’s equal parts foot-stomping and heart-warming.

5. MANHID: The Pinoy Superhero Musical
   Run: February 20 – March 8
   Venue: Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater)
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“MANHID: The Pinoy Superhero Musical” wraps up Ballet Philippines’ 45th anniversary season. Set in an alternate present day Philippines where the EDSA revolution failed, this musical features heroes and villains with superpowers, and a people sick with Kamanhiran.

6. Juego De Peligro
   Run: February 20 – March 8
   Venue: Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater)
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Adapted for the stage by Palanca Awardee Elmer Gatchalian, JUEGO DE PELIGRO explores the themes of desire, class struggle, and conquest in one of the tumultuous periods in Philippine history. Film actor, Iza Calzado plays the role made famous by Glenn Close in the film version. Also in the cast are TJ Trinidad and Isabel Oli.

7. Arbol de Fuego
   Run: February 20 – March 15
   Venue: PETA Theater Center
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Capping the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s 47th season is Arbol de Fuego, Rody Vera and Loy Arcenas’ reimagining of Anton Chekhov’s classic Cherry Orchard.
It is a tragicomedy about middle-aged matriarch Enriquetta Jardeleza-Sofronio, played by veteran actress Cherie Gil, who comes home after having squandered the family fortune on a long stay in Madrid. Buried in debt, she and younger brother Adjie (essayed by Jake Macapagal) is advised to sell the estate to avoid bankruptcy, but refuses, insisting on keeping their ancestral house and the flourishing rows of fire trees that frame the estate. The Jardelezas instead, throw party after lavish party, reminiscing their opulent past in an effort to forget their depleting wealth.

8. Hamlet
   Run: February 20 – March 8
   Venue: DITO: Bahay ng Sining
   For tickets: Contact Arion at (63 935) 966-8769 or email ikarus.ph@gmail.com
   

IKARUS, the official theater group of DITO: Bahay ng Sining is set to stage a re-imagining of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. “It is a story which must be told with the ferocity of its topic but with also the gentleness of its protagonist. Hamlet screams ‘Murther!’ but before that final scream was the million-billion struggles which comes from the meek heart of a boy,” Director Jay Crisostomo IV shares.
The director promises us a Hamlet which we will be able to relate to while not adhering to an Elizabethan museum piece, and there perhaps will be the magic of transformation, where for two hour’s passage we will be transported to the very core of that intrinsic question--- To be, or not to be?

9. La Cage Aux Folles
   Run: February 28 – March 29
   Venue: Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium
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9 Works Theatrical will stage this heartwarming dance musical that will surely give you a good laugh. La Cage Aux Folles by Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman, based on the 1973 French play of the same title by Jean Poiret, is a tale between two lovers, the manager of a drag-show nightclub, Georges, and his significant other/star of the show, Albin, and their hilarious adventures that develop when Georges' son, Jean-Michel, gets engaged to a girl named Anne Dindon.

10. Into the Woods
    Run: March 14
    Venue: Kasalikasan Garden, BGC
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A childless baker and his wife venture into the forest to fulfill a witch's demands. One of Stephen Sondheim's most well-loved and enduring musicals. Starring Rachel Alejandro, Shiela Valderrama-Martinez, Lorenz Martinez, Reb Atadero, Jillian Ita-as, Noel Trinidad (as the Narrator), and many others. Musical Direction by Dingdong Fiel. Directed by Joel Trinidad.