Rocking the Stage-with a Dash of Horror

It’s official! Thanks to the staging of the Rocky Horror Show (which began last Friday and will run until Dec. 8 at the RCBC Plaza Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium), Halloween has been extended in Makati until the first week of December. How else do we describe the "tricking and treating" of the audience that transpires every Friday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon?

Rocky Horror was one of the first interactive stage plays of modern theater, way before the term "interactive" enjoyed popular usage. Brought to Broadway in 1975, a film version quickly surfaced in 1976. An instant cult classic, it gave Tim Curry celebrity status and made sidewalk shows of the queues all ready to view the play or film.

Slotted in for your midnight screening, a typical Rocky Horror run would have be-costumed night denizens lining up, dressed as their favorite Rocky character. Once inside the theater, it was interactive to the nth degree, as people would recite the lines along with the characters on the stage or screen. Groups would descend, each member given a different character to mouth. It was campy, it was fun, it was bordering on hysteria and slavish devotion–but it was all happening and it was the Rocky Horror phenomenon.

Anna Fegi and Mylene Dizon are two of the cast members of this year’s version of the Rocky Horror Show. They weren’t around when the whole Rocky thing began in 1975, but thanks to director Bobby Garcia’s enthusiasm, they had no second thoughts about signing up and joining the "circus".

Anna essays the role of Magenta, sister to Riffraff, and as she delightfully exclaims, "I really had no clear idea what Rocky Horror was all about. But Bobby’s description of my character as one who will deliver every instance of dialogue in an orgasmic manner assured me that this was going to be fun! It’s actually my third time out on the boards. I was alternate to Dessa in the role of Pontius Pilate in Bobby’s Jesus Christ Superstar, and was with him when he took Rent to Singapore, playing the role of Maureen."

Better known as a recording artist and singer with CDs and music videos to her credit, Anna was excited to also mention that she would be back on stage when Bobby’s Atlantis Productions stages Dreamgirls (a musical with veiled references to the Supremes and Diana Ross).

For Mylene Dizon, this is her baptism of fire in theater. A familiar face to the public, thanks to her film credits and television roles (she’s an excellent villain on the TV soap opera Sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan), Mylene did have a second-hand brush with Rocky Horror. "There’s this scene in the movie Fame when some of the students troop off to catch Rocky Horror, so I had some idea of how it was such a cultural reference for the late ’70s and ’80s. When Bobby invited me to join the cast, there was no question in my mind that I was going to say Yes! I checked with Biboy (her manager), and we agreed we would open up my schedule so I could do this."

A member of the chorus, Mylene plays it like no one else can. In Anna’s words, she’s a "scene-stealer" and Bobby readily agrees that this is "chorus as it’s never been done!"

The cast reads like a veritable who’s who of the current entertainment industry. Calvin Millado, Aiza Seguerra, Jett Pangan, Michael de Mesa, Bituin Escalante, Cathy Azanza, Joel Trinidad, to name a few. It’s interesting to note how even if it’s such an ensemble piece, Anna and Mylene were ready to shed their individual personas and join the cast.

For Anna, "It’s difficult to compare what we’re doing here with what’s happening in my own career. The rehearsal time, even the talent fees (they both raise their eyebrows and laugh knowingly) may make one wonder why we bother doing this at all. But you know, while it is a cliché, it really is for the love of Art. There’s a camaraderie that can’t be beat, and the pressure as opening night approaches is our form of adrenaline. Plus when you have the spontaneous reaction from the audience that we’re hoping to elicit right there in "our faces", as an artist, there"s nothing to compare with that!"

The original lyrics and music of Richard O’Brien were updated for the revival that was staged on Boradway a couple of years ago. This will be the first time that this new version will be presented in Manila.

For Mylene, this challenge of performing on stage was not without its lighter moments. "You should have been here the first days of rehearsal. I’m not known as a singer and well, look around and see who’s here!

They’d give my part to read and whenever the singing parts would come up, I’d hide behind the lyric sheets and hope no-one would notice me. Of course, with Bobby around, that’s like a death wish! He’d shout that they couldn’t hear me and slowly, what with the score being so much fun, pretty soon I’d be belting the songs along with everyone else. When we began blocking and they’d shout ‘Stage Left’ I was actually forced to ask Bobby, ‘Whose left, yours or mine?’" And Mylene dissolves into laughter at the recollection.

When I asked if Bobby was a Rocky Horror experience all by himself, the two had to smile. Mylene gushed, "He is a horror, but it’s my kind of horror, so I love it! The thing with Bobby is he’s so observant, he’s a perfectionist and he’s an alaskador. He’ll couch his criticisms with wit, so I die laughing each time he dishes out his com-ments. Of course, if I’m the butt of his comment..."

As for the other members of the cast, the two were uniform in extolling their virtues and waxing rhapsodic about the enjoyment they were experiencing working with them. Choice words were reserved for Calvin who, they exclaimed, was the "scariest fag" and the "ugliest bading" you’d ever see on Philippine stage.

"He’s tall, he’s constantly working out before we rehearse, so you can imagine how scary he’ll be in his tights and outlandish make-up!" And they conspiratorially giggle at the thought that this just might see the light of day–and in print.

Right after Miss Saigon, much was being made of the local theater scene’s renaissance. Companies were flourishing, new venues were being discovered and audience interest was at an all-time high. Unfortunately, things don’t last forever. The economic crunch has its repercussions–it’s not as easy to find sponsors and when you do, they’re looking for an X-deal arrangement. Theater viewing is still a luxury and so tickets now fall under the questionable column of where one spends one’s disposable income. It’s all part of the reality Bobby and Atlantis Productions now face on a daily basis.

"We are hoping things will turn around, but one can’t depend on that. In the meantime, we have to be very careful and numbers crunch. We have high hopes for something like Rocky Horror; it’s a unique theater experience and we’re crossing our fingers that the audience will know just how much a night of real fun is being promised."