West Side's 'triple threat' a proud Cebuana

For its last weekend run, I took up an invitation to watch the Philippine production of West Side Story at the Meralco Theater in Ortigas, Metro Manila. Upon the recommendation of friends, I watched the Joanna Ampil-Christian Bautista-Rowena Vilar casting combo. And thanks to Oliver Oliveros of Stages—the company that produced West Side—not only did we secure good seats in an already fully-booked, extra show, we had a special backstage tour to meet the cast afterwards.

The highlight of the backstage tour was finding out that West Side’s scene-stealer is actually Cebuana—Rowena Villacastin Vilar. If you’ve kept tab of reviews and reports on the recently-concluded stage mega-production, everybody’s gushing about the Sydney-based Rowena, whose portrayal of Anita was hailed as one of the strongest performances in West Side. She brought real meaning to the phrase “triple threat” for being a captivating all-rounder.

I learned that while Rowena’s born in Australia, she’s pure Filipino. She proudly noted that her father is from Cebu City and her mother is from Carcar. She has visited our island-province for a number of times already—and she made no empty claims when she declared she understands the dialect very well. “I couldn’t speak Cebuano that well, but my parents made sure I understood the dialect well,” the 28-year-old thespian said.

Rowena worked alongside such Australian acting luminaries like Hugh Jackman (The Boy from Oz, 2006) and became part of the Australian tour of Miss Saigon, wherein Leo “The Engineer” Valdez first took notice of her and endorsed her to Stages big boss Audie Gemora.

Performing before Filipino audiences has been like a homecoming for Rowena. During free time, she’s been doing nothing except enjoying all things Filipino, especially the food.

Another cast member we met was the “star” of West Side, West End regular Joanna Ampil, who certainly endeared herself to the audiences as the female lead, Maria. With her affecting scenes mostly responsible for activating tear ducts during that late afternoon show, what impressed us more was the fact that she was actually nursing a flu during her performance! Gemora said that Joanna had to really cut down her talent fee just so she could be cast in West Side.    

Upon introduction, Christian Bautista, who essayed the lead role of Tony, immediately asked if his performance was alright. I have to say, that Christian occasionally appeared stiff onstage, but with his presence, heartthrob looks and vocal power, I couldn’t imagine a more fitting leading man than him.

We also met Christian’s father, whom we told that it was him who Christian takes after in terms of looks. “You should see the mother!” the proud father said, showing us a photo, tucked in his wallet, of his wife and three sons. “I always knew Christian had a talent in singing. He got his training through our church choir.” But guess who was conducting? His father, Ebert. 

Having been clueless beforehand of his theatre background, Gian Magdangal proved to be a revelation onstage playing Tony’s close friend Riff, but he said his love for acting will be confined to the theatre for the time being. Carrying it over to TV, as much as he’d like to, will have to wait. “For my TV work, I’ll concentrate first on my singing career and finishing my album,” the “SOP” fixture said.

West Side Story is Stages’ third successful production, following Footloose (2005) and High School Musical (2007).

While there are plans of re-staging West Side, the producers are eyeing a Cebu run as well, with Audie Gemora confirming that they’re talking with a local producer about its possibility.

Meantime, if you want to see Joanna Ampil and Rowena Vilar perform, they will be flying to Cebu come October 30 for a surely show-stopping performance at Ayala Center Cebu, together with international artist Billy Crawford. (The classical ballet trained Rowena said that she also does hip-hop.) Joanna, Rowena, and Billy—now that’s a triple treat.