Unbridled laughter in back-to-back musicals

Two comedic musicals The Producers and The Addams Family from the U.S.A.  with Filipino casts have been showing in a season strangely characterized by an inordinate number of musicals.

Repertory Philippines is closing its 76th season with the hilarious Mel Brookes classic: The Producers. This quick-humored musical comedy, based in New York City, tells of two con men (Carlo Orosa alternating with Robie Zialcita) as Max Bialystock, beleaguered producer scheming to swindle investors by producing a Broadway musical flop. Topper Fabregas is accountant Leo Bloom who joins Max in this web of deceit. Giselle Tongi is Ulla, the Swedish bombshell secretary to Max and Leo. Audie Gemora and Noel Trinidad alternate as the gay director Roger de Bris, with Noel Rayos as Roger’s flamboyant “common law” assistant Carmen Ghia. However, the untoward plan backfires and it’s up to you to find out why.

Originally a movie starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in 1968, The Producers hit Broadway in 2001 starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick and ran for 2,502 shows.

For the first time in Manila, The Producers, under the direction of Jaime del Mundo, fills the stage with parody and satire, bringing to life a delightful array of extraordinary comical characters. We encounter a chorus of single old women with large libidos and thick bank accounts, a casting couch that never seems to be empty, and a group of over-the-top gays that had us rolling in our seats.

This is Giselle’s debut with Rep and she recalls studying at Lee Strasberg in NY when the hottest show in town had prices way beyond a theater student’s budget. Also a first-timer to Rep is Carlo who was prepared to audition for the part of Leo Bloom, the mousey accountant who holds on to a security blanket when he gets panic attacks until director Jaime challenged him to do Bialystock where he was spot on, quick and unfaltering.

We took particular pleasure in watching Audie as Roger de Bris. Without giving too much away, their number Keep It Gay was by far our favorite, peppered as it is with silly stereotypes and raw humor.

Noel who takes over from Audie as Roger, admits it is his first gay role while quipping he didn’t realize it wasn’t easy playing gay. We remember Noel from Champoy with the late Subas Herrero, and now as grandfather in the ABS-CBN teleserye Be Careful With My Heart. The Producers runs until Dec. 8 at the Onstage Theater in Greenbelt 1.

Meantime, from Wikipedia, we get the following information: The Addams Family is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, book by Marshall Brickman, created by Charles Addams in his single-panel gag cartoons, which depicts a ghoulish American family with an affinity for all things macabre. The musical is based upon the cartoons rather than the television and film characters.

The Atlantis Productions’ Filipino cast under director Bobby Garcia has Eula Valdes and Arnell Ignacio as the married couple Morticia Addams and Gomez Addams. Their daughter Wednesday Addams, the ultimate “princess of darkness,” has fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family, which she begs her father to keep a secret from her mom. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.

Besides Eula and Arnell, the star-studded cast has K-La Rivera as their daughter Wednesday. She is an Aliw Award nominee for Best Actress for Atlantis’ In The Heights.

Ryan Gallagher plays Lucas Beineke, Wednesday Addams’ sweet and good-natured boyfriend, who triggers a series of unforgettable and hilarious events when he proposes to her.

Bobby says, “It has always been a great way for us to end the year and start off the Holiday season with a family musical comedy.” Obviously, The Addams Family is that show. For details, call Claire of Atlantis Productions at 892-7078.

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