Hot girls for Rent

Following the spectacular success of Rent in Singapore earlier this year, Bobby Garcia and his Atlantis Productions bring back to Manila the controversial and acclaimed Pulitzer prize and Tony Award-winning musical by the late Jonathan Larson.

"The Singapore run was truly quite an experience," says Bobby, beaming, "not only because the production managed to overcome censorship difficulties by drawing SRO audiences with every performance – prompting us, in fact, to extend the run by a couple of weeks – but also because we received fantastic reviews from the Singapore press. Some reviewers even called it a better production than the Broadway original."

First staged in Manila in 1999, the restaging that begins its five-week run at the GSIS Theater, Pasay City on Oct. 5 is closer to the Singapore production in look and feel than the original Philippine assembly. Besides featuring Calvin Millado as Roger, JM Rodriguez as Mark, Michael de Mesa as Collins, Lee Robin Salazar as Benny and Jake Macapagal as Angel, the upcoming Rent production has some of the hottest women in Philippine music: Rachel Alejandro as Mimi, Bituin Escalante as Joanne and Lana Jalosjos as Maureen. Completing the cast are Joel Trinidad, Carlo Ledesma, Gloria Sicam, Beatrice Gomez, Boyd Tinio, Arnold Reyes, and ManMan Angsico in the ensemble.

Rachel Alejandro, who essayed the same role in the Singapore run, is thrilled about taking her second shot at the award-winning musical. "I was anxious about not being able to do this Manila restaging because of some previous commitments I had abroad," she reveals. "And so I was relieved when they had to be rescheduled! I really wanted to do Rent."

Her enthusiasm for the musical is such that Rachel, who has a new album out under Viva Records, is working with Bobby on an album that evokes the spirit of Rent (Atlantis Productions also released early this year the Rent CD single featuring selected songs from Rent including a pop version of Seasons of Love interpreted by Martin Nievera). "It won’t be a recording of the songs from the musical," says Rachel, who is producing it for Atlantis, "but a collection of songs about love, inspiration, friendship and hope – the themes explored by the musical. These will be sung by the Manila and Singapore cast of Rent. It’s really exciting."

Unlike Rachel, Lana Jalosjos, who blew away audiences with her bravura performance in Bobby’s recent successful staging of the acclaimed Hedwig and the Angry Inch, is new to the musical and is assuming the role of Maureen. "To go from Hedwig and the Angry Inch to Rent is something many actors can only dream about and I’m here doing it," she beams. "It’s a huge challenge to be working with such an exceptional cast of actor-singers and that provides plenty of motivation."

Bituin Escalante, on the other hand, can be considered a veteran of the musical, having been part of the ensemble of the original production. For this Manila run, however, she relinquishes her ensemble part in the original production to take on the role of the funky lesbian Harvard lawyer, Joanne.

"To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed being in the ensemble because you get to sing a lot and, of course, I got to cover Seasons of Love, which has become like the signature song of the musical," Bituin says with a radiant smile. "But doing Joanne is quite exciting. I’m being given considerable room by Bobby to explore the character in ways different from the original production."

With such a stellar lineup of artists, the upcoming return of Rent in Manila definitely makes it the hot ticket of the current theater season. (Tickets, priced at P1,300, P1,000 and P500, are now available at Atlantis Production at 892 7078, and at Ticket World at 891 5610.)