Busy Mark

Mark Bautista has been very busy these past months. So busy, in fact, that he missed a most important invitation for the callback audition for the title role in Aladdin. A callback is a very important call for an actor. It means that the people behind the show like him and that he is one step closer to bagging the role. But Mark missed that call.  Here’s hoping that he gets another one soon and that the date will not conflict with all that he is busy with these days.

Mark spent that latter part of last year in performing tours in Australia and the Middle East. After a brief respite during the Christmas holidays, Mark plunged into work. First,there is the new noontime show on Sundays on GMA 7, All Out Sundays. Hard work but he not only gets to sing, he also has fun with the games. And best of all, All Out Sundays has received excellent ratings that handily bested the competition.

He also got into promo and rehearsals for the pre-Valentine concert 1 For 3. This will be held at The Theatre in Solaire on the evening of Feb. 1. Mark will be sharing the stage with close friends Aicelle Santos and Christian Bautista. Directed by Paolo Valenciano with Mel Villena as musical director, 1 For 3 is a show about beautiful singing. Mark, Christian and Aicelle are famous for their vocal chops renowned for their recordings and the theater. The audience will be assured of a truly romantic evening of love songs. Aside from performing, Mark also composed the song Simula, which the three of them have recorded. He will also direct the music video.  

Now speaking about theater, Mark is also set to make a return to one of his great loves soon. Mark is in the cast of the Atlantis Twenty Twenty production of The Band’s Visit which stars Menchu Lauchengco Yulo and Rody Vera, and is directed by Bobby Garcia. This is one of the most charming, most touching shows to come out of Broadway in recent times. In fact, The Band’s Visit won 10 of its 11 nominations at the 2018 Tony Awards, including that of Best Musical. It also won a Grammy, plus the Obie, Drama Desk, Drama Critics, etc., etc. The Manila production will play at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium in RCBC Plaza from March 13 to 29.

The Band’s Visit tells the one-night only story of an Arabian Police Orchestra who gets stranded in a small town in Israel. As they wait for the ride to their destination, they had no choice but to interact with the town’s people.  Those few hours in forced togetherness produced invaluable insights about fellow human beings and about themselves and the way they deal with crises. Mark plays the young officer Haled, whose fault it was that the band got stranded. To prepare for the role, Mark is not only brushing up on his singing, he is also learning to play the sax just like the dutiful member of a band.

Coincidentally, The Band’s Visit has music and lyrics by the famous David Yazbek, who also did the music for Tootsie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Full Monty. It was in The Full Monty that Mark made his Atlantis debut in 2013. He co-starred with Arnel Ignacio, Marco Sison, OJ Mariano and Jamie Wilson as amateur strippers who won back their self-esteem for daring to let it all hang out in one grand show. Mark got to sing the lovely ballad Breeze Off the River. He also gets to sing the most beautiful song in The Band’s Visit, Haled’s Song About Love.

The Full Monty came after Mark made his theater debut as Crisostomo Ibarra at the Little Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Ryan Cayabyab’s Noli Me Tangere. After these, Mark auditioned for the West End production of David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim’s disco musical Here Lies Love and bagged the lead role of President Ferdinand Marcos. He starred in the entire London run and also later in the Seattle production. 

He would love to do another. Maybe, he will next fly off with a pretty princess on a magic carpet singing A Whole New World.