Oliver Oliveros News

Live performances, more specifically in-person theatrical productions, are slowly making their transformative presence felt once again, which was practically nil during the onslaught of the pandemic. One of these early curtain-raisers is the Philippine Stagers Foundation’s string of short plays on Saturday nights, which have launched both the theater group’s bar theater concept and a black box theatre venue located in the heart of Sampaloc, Manila.

We recently sat down with “Miss Saigon” alum Gerald Santos and his award-winning composer-writer-director-manager Rommel Ramilo to talk about their wins at the 2020 Aliw and BWW Philippines Awards, recent and upcoming works, finding the creative oasis and breaking new grounds on the virtual platform, and more. Dubbed ‘10 and 10,’ here are the excerpts of the conversations that focus on 10 questions that matter to each of them.

About seven months into the pandemic lockdown, Gerald Santos ('Miss Saigon,' 'Sweeney Todd'), together with his closest friends in the performing arts, is not missing a beat. He's now back on his feet, singing his heart out before an audience who are supposedly elsewhere a?' most likely in front of the computer screen.

The coronavirus pandemic may have caused stage productions to prematurely close, but Tanghalang Pilipino (TP), the resident theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), has prepared a slew of programs on its temporary home a?' the digital platform.

Given the recent developments on COVID-19 and the government's mandated community quarantine, GMG Productions, along with GWP Entertainment and Virtus Live, has announced that the remaining performances of Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical have been canceled.

Good musicals are like magnets a?' they attract crowds from near and far that not even pervasive talks of a global pandemic could stop them from inflicting their charm on their willing patrons.

When Matilda The Musical premiered at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End in 2011, The Guardian gave it five stars and described it as a?oeanarchically joyous, gleefully nasty, and an ingenious musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel of the same name.a?? About nine years after, now a beloved musical for all ages, Matilda The Musical finally opened at The Theatre at Solaire in Manila for a limited three-week engagement.

The best-selling book and winner of the National Book Award for Fiction Novel in Filipino in 2015, Si Janus Silang at ang Tiyanak ng Tabon, written by Edgar Calabia Samar, has been adapted into a stage play, bearing the same title, runs this weekend at St. Mary's College in Quezon City.

Winner of 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, The Band's Visit makes its international premiere in the capital of the Philippines on 13 March 2020. Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group's Bobby Garcia helms the production, which the Chicago Tribune describes as a?oeremarkable and boundlessly compassionate and humanistic piece of theater.a??

Winner of 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, The Band's Visit makes its international premiere in the capital of the Philippines on 13 March 2020. Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group's Bobby Garcia helms the production, which the Chicago Tribune describes as a?oeremarkable and boundlessly compassionate and humanistic piece of theater.a??

IT'S GONNA BE GOOD! Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal, which features the book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, closes Ateneo Blue Repertory's (BlueREP) 28th theatrical season.

Prinstar Music Philippines' San Pedro Calungsod The Musical, which stars Miss Saigon alum Gerald Santos, held a special performance at the Music Museum in Greenhills, San Juan, yesterday, 25 February 2020, at 7 p.m.

Repertory Philippines (REP) opens its 2020 season with the backstage comedy Stage Kiss, a straight play written by distinguished playwright Sarah Ruhl, who also wrote The Vibrator Play and Eurydice.

During the whole run of the play, after every end of the show, we will have debriefing and discussion with the audience, which will be facilitated by our actors and partners. We hope that it will further deepen the understanding of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus).a?? a?" Maribel Legarda, PETA Artistic Director

This year, 2020, marks the return of one of the more successful stage musical adaptations about the life and death of Saint Pedro Calungsod (1654 a?' 1672), a young Filipino missionary and the second Filipino saint. Prinstar Music Philippines' production of San Pedro Calungsod The Musical, which features the book and lyrics in English by Antonio Rommel Ramilo and music by Ramilo and pop star-thespian Gerald Santos, kicks off its Manila run this Friday, 24 January 2020, at 3 p.m., at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.

Lebo M., an additional music composer and co-lyricist; Omar Rodriguez, resident director, and Andre Jewson, a cast member who plays Mufasa's right-hand man [bird], Zazu, recently sat down with BroadwayWorld.

'The Happy Poor Guys gathers people from the old neighborhoods to share their stories; it's also our warm gathering this time in Hong Kong.' - Wong Chun Tat Ata, The Happy Poor Guys creative director

The Tony Award-winning musical Disney's The Lion King international tour plays in Hong Kong for the first time! The show runs now through 12 January 2020 at AsiaWorld-Expo Arena, an indoor arena that can accommodate a maximum capacity of 14,000.

Predicted as a strong contender at the 2019 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) for Best Picture is the historical period drama Culion. Stage-film actor Mike Liwag, one of the film's male leads, recently sat down with us for an exclusive conversation.

Disney's The Lion King international tour performs before Hong Kong audiences for the very first time and it's extra special because the Tony Award-winning musical is staged at the AsiaWorld Expo Arena (yes in an arena!).