Things about West Side you don't know

Oh Maria Maria

She reminds me of a west side

Inside West Side

Karyl story

Growing up in Spanish Harlem

She’s living the life just like a movie star

Oh Maria Maria

She fell in love in East L.A.

To the sounds of the guitar, yeah, yeah

Played by Carlos Santana

Maria Maria

By Carlos Santana, Karl Perazzo, Jerry Duplessis, Paul Rekow, Wyclef Jean

Just like the girl in the song above, I’ve been living the Oh Maria, Maria life in one of the most wonderfully and intelligently written (I am referring to the book, music, lyrics and choreography which are all written) musicals of all time — West Side Story. To say that I am excited and happy about playing Maria in the STAGES production of the musical is an understatement in the largest sense.

I’ve proven this to myself after reviewing our cast photos because even on Day One at the first reading, I had a huge smile on my face. It’s been years since I first did theater and I’m happy to be back home.

I’d love to invite you all to watch us on our final weekend. I bought my closing show which is on Oct. 12, 3:30 p.m. For tickets, text 0917-8123309 or e-mail [email protected].

For now, I’d love to invite you into our home for the past three months, I thought it would be fun to let you in on the crazy and cute little trivia on our little musical.

322 people auditioned for 37 roles. It was a Sunday afternoon in May, I came straight from S.O.P. and I had little sleep because I did an Amazing Race type event the night before. I was rattled and quite nervous.

When I got to Stand Studio where the auditions were held, there was a long line and I tried to peek at what was going on inside. I smiled at Bernice, our stage manager who told me in her low and authoritative voice that I should line up and fill up the form. It was nice to get no special treatment. It reminded me of exactly where I was and I loved it.

Five kapuso and four kapamilya actors. In the tradition of the warring families, the Capulets and the Montagues from Romeo and Juliet and the warring gangs — The Jets and The Sharks from West Side Story, our production is right smack in the middle of a network war between ABS-CBN where Christian Bautista (Tony) works and GMA 7 where I belong. Although the stage is neutral territory so to speak, there have been funny instances. For one, the fact that my voice teacher is Teacher Kitchie of an ABS-CBN show made the press laugh so hard during our first ever presscon. In my defense, she was my teacher long before that show. I’m actually reminded of a joke I always hear whenever the main hosts of A.S.A.P. and S.O.P. share the same stage, where they refer to their combination as ASOP. I guess that would make West Side, an ASOP musical.

In ASOP, we have ABS-CBN Talent Center’s Jordan Aguilar (Baby John) who played Tam, Kim’s son in Miss Saigon, London. A.S.A.P. Kool Chx Michelle Murenec and Guji Lorenzana, commercial model and singer who was recently nominated at the Awit Awards as Best Male Performer. From GMA 7’s S.O.P. are Gian Magdangal (Riff) and also members of the Speed Dance Group: Earl Baer, Lilibeth Munar and Noel Zabala.

West Side Story is a 51-year-old musical. West Side Story just passed the big 5-0 mark last year. This coming February, the celebration gets bigger by way of a re-staging of the musical in New York under the direction of the 91-year-old Arthur Laurents who wrote the book. Our director, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo shared with us how the play was received when it was first staged. Audiences who were used to the award-winning works of Rodgers and Hammerstein were shocked by the fact that there are two dead bodies in the end of Act 1. and that there is a mock rape. Some people actually walked out of the theater.

There are also interesting changes, such as the bilingual music and dialogue. But no matter how much the musical is adjusted to fit the call of the times, certain dialogue will make you scratch your head. Whether or not you can understand the following lines is a give-away of how old you are or if you are well-versed in the classics. If you come to watch this weekend, you watch your reaction as the cast says things like “cracko, jacko,” “you tell ‘em, Daddy-o” “whammo bamo,” hoodlum and “phone’ll jingle.” Before the song America, the Puerto Ricans were getting excited in their debate about material things that served as a measure of success: Air-conditioning, telephones, washing machine, televisions with compatible color whatever that is, and cars like buicks and cadillacs.

38 cast members. One of the beauties of the play is that there is no “chorus” role. If you are a cast member, you are not Friend #1 or something like that because every single person has a name and the names are interesting at that. From the Jets the best ones are: Snow Boy, Big Deal, Gee-Tar, Mouthpiece and Anybodys. From the Sharks, the names that stick out are Indio, Anxious, Nibbles and Toro. Majority of the credit of finding the cast goes to David Cosico who is the casting director and acting coach. He plays Glad Hand in the play, and to answer your question...no, he did not cast himself in the play.

Two non-winners in singing competitions. Christian and Gian play best friends in the musical. They have a great tandem and they do skits over PA system which is heard in all the dressing rooms backstage.

Gian actually does a great impersonation of Mike Enriquez and Jiggy Manicad. The cast who laughed and laughed in the makeup room played a trick on them. After their skit, they all pretended that nobody found them funny. I had to leave the room because I’m really bad at stopping the giggle.

The two boys felt so bad that they weren’t well received but we confessed to the joke minutes later. Their “joker” act doesn’t end there as I’ve heard the two teasing each other in a very spirited manner about not winning Star in a Million and Philippine Idol. They never let their “defeat” stop them which is evident in the many victories they’ve had long after the contests.

Three people are in other plays at the same time as West Side. I’ve got my hands full with one play which is why I have so much respect for fellow cast members Caisa Borromeo, Red Concepcion and Pom Docena who are all in Repertory Philippines Mulan, Jr. Apart from the two plays, Caisa did a third one called Songs for a New World.

Seven cast members from dance group Airdance. Jay Ann Tensuan, Marielle Alonzo, Vinia Peralta, Jed Amihan, Carlos Prudencio, Sam Prudenciado and JP Martir are all part of the new, young and hip dance group that has been winning awards in dance festivals.

Five ballerinas in the cast. There are five ballerinas in the cast: Mica, Jay Ann, Marielle, Joann and I. I danced ballet for 10 years. In fact, the first time I ever stepped on the Meralco stage was as a ballet dancer. I’ve actually worked my way from the dressing room upstairs as a ballerina and then a choir member in Grade 7 and in high school. And then to Room No. 4 during Little Mermaid and finally to room No. 1 in West Side Story. If you’ve ever performed in Meralco theater, you would understand the joy I felt when we were given our room assignments given that I wasn’t a lead three times.

Two West Side Story babies. Bobby Superales (Toro) who taught free dance classes every day has a new baby. His wife gave birth to Maria Anita just as the play premiered. The oboe player, Rommel Gragera, also has a new West Side baby but didn’t name him after any of the characters.

Six musicians and actors with Jekyll and Hyde roles. Rizza Ribo and Marielle Alonzo play both a Shark and a Jet a.k.a. “Jerks” and ___ (you’ll have to guess the second name for yourself). In the orchestra, JD plays both the baritone sax and bass clarinet, Frenvee plays alto sax and bassoon, Raymundo alto sax and clarinet, and Donna plays the synthesizer and percussion (castanets, triangle, gourd, tambourine, maraccas, wood block, whistle, claves, cowbell).

Eight cast members who were in Little Mermaid. In my first ever play, I played Princess Sapphire in Little Mermaid. Other West Side Story cast members who were also in the play was our director Jaime del Mundo, David Cosico, Nap Ching (sailor), Gian (seahorse), Rizza Ribo (siren) and Pom Docena.

Pam G who plays Anita played a siren and Princess Sapphire. It is my third time to work with Pam. We were also together in Seussical the Musical where she played the Kangaroo and I played the Cat in the Hat. Pam is also part of Wanders at the Casino Filipino.

Christian prays 21 times before climbing the fence in every show. Christian actually makes a lot of people nervous whenever he has to climb the fence. In one show, he got hurt and scratched his hand. There was one show where I freaked out when we stepped out of the stage because his hand was bleeding. He also had an injured wrist and ankle.

Christian gave three people cellphones. He gave three cast members cellphones to cheer them up after their cellphones were stolen. Up to 11 people would carpool with Christian in his van during rehearsals.

Christian wears six pieces of clothing all at the same time. Christian is not a fan of quick changes so he wears all his costumes at the same time. He wears two pairs of pants, one sando (undershirt), one polo shirt, one long sleeves polo with tie and jacket. Why he does this, I really don’t know.

The two Marias have 3 pasa (bruises). Joanna and I usually get all bruised up in the final scene of the play. I had an additional one, when I banged my knee as I climbed out of the window in the balcony scene.

Lea Salonga visited us three times. I studied grade school at O.B. Montessori and of course I grew up looking up to Lea. My admiration doubled because I would see her once in a while in my dad’s dental clinic together with Tita Ligaya. I watched Cinderella on the closing day to be inspired because we were going to open our play soon. On the next day, we had our Sitzprobe which is the fancy word for orchestra rehearsal. I was so nervous because previous to that, we had just been singing with our wonderful rehearsal pianist Jojo Malferrari. Out of the blue, somebody was waving at me with a big smile on her face. I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I couldn’t really see who it was. When I walked up to her, it was Lea. I must confess that I had a huge headache that whole day from all the nervousness that I felt. She was kind enough to pull me aside to give tips. I saw her twice more at the Meralco Theater during our Meralco Tech week where she gave me breathing exercises to help me for the run. She boosted the morale of the entire cast just by hanging out with us so many times before she left for the Cinderella tour.