As The Sound of Music at Resorts World continues its extended run until Feb. 12, it only proves what lawyer Tony Pastelero once told us that the foolproof formula for success was a musical with children. Tony’s most successful production in the past was The King and I with Ricky Davao as the King at the Meralco Theater. Too bad Pastelero has given up producing.
It is fortunate that Resorts World picked on The Sound of Music (SOM) as its first venture into musical theater. After opening October of 2011, it is into its fourth month. The songs remain unforgettable, the orchestral music from the MPO under Maestro Rodel Colmenar is perfect, the direction of Roxanne Lapus impeccable, and the largest Led screen in Asia with its 3D effects a definite wow attraction. But over and above all these, the musical’s unending attraction still is the cast of cute and irrepressible Von Trapp children.
In Gossip Girl, Giselle Sanchez’s column, she noted that her daughter is always asleep by 9 p.m., but when brought to watch the musical told her, “Mom, in case I doze off, please wake me up when the children come out again.”
There have been many discoveries from among the children. Roxanne speaks of the youngest in the cast, Alexa Villaroel, then four “whom everyone wanted to take home” playing Gretl. Today, she is winning audiences at the Karlsberg Music Festival making aunt Pinky Marquez most proud for having brought her to auditions. The night we watched, Atasha Muhlach, Aga Muhlach and Charlene Gonzalez’s daughter, was the crowd favorite. She has since had to bow out due to schooling conflicts. Among Roxanne’s problems is that the foreign kids in particular shoot up so fast that in a few months they can no longer play little children.
But even as the major audience draw of SOM are the kids, Roxanne reports people who return as many as four times for the music, the staging and now the attraction of new members led by Ariel Rivera as Captain von Trapp and Leo Martinez as Max Detweller, then Fred Lo and Michaela Bradshaw as the lovers Rolf and Liesl, and Jeremy Domingo as Herr Zeller.
Leo recalls that the very first production of SOM in the Philippines was directed by Fr. James Reuter for St. Paul’s College in 1964 with Vic Silayan as von Trapp and June Keithley as Maria. He vowed to get into the next musical at St. Paul’s which was Carnival and one thing led to another until he was chosen with Subas Herrero and Noel Tolentino to appear with the First Lady of the American Theater, Helen Hayes.
On the first day Leo went on stage at Resorts World, Roxanne texted me, “Leo is on now. Fabulous!! Bow ako sa kanya talaga.” Even at the press briefing, she made no bones of her admiration of Leo’s talent. “At first-day rehearsals, drop script na siya kaagad (meaning he had the whole thing memorized),” she told us.
Leo reminisces, “Rep’s Sound of Music was in 1973 at the CCP and I played Max. No alternates. Capt. von Trapp was Chito Ponce Enrile, Baby Barredo was Maria, Cocoy Laurel was Rolf and Ria Barredo was Leisl. 1973 was the year Repertory started paying actors. P50 per night.” We have yet to watch Leo’s version today. We have no doubt that he will deliver even more than is expected.
Main attraction to the women is Ariel who hasn’t lost his sheen even if he’s in his mid-40s. If anything, he has become more “delectable,” says a female fan. The appeal of Ariel is also intensified by the fact that he is not easily available, and has always lived a private life. At the media conference, he affirms, “If there was one play I really wanted to do, it was The Sound of Music. Two previous ones I did, I was also passionate about were 1896 and Ramasita.”
Ariel’s tight taping schedules on E-Boy, a teleserye he topbills for ABS-CBN, has prevented him from rehearsing earlier for SOM. “I had always been a fan of The Sound of Music movie and that’s where the initial interest came from. I was also, and still am, a huge Joanna Ampil fan ever since I saw her in the Australian production of Miss Saigon. So to get a chance to work with a world-class theater veteran was a great opportunity for me and something I had always wished to get the chance to do, to say the least.”
Until Roxanne starts rehearsing Ariel, she shares her initial feedback from the vocal coach totally impressed with Ariel’s willingness to be directed. As for those female fans who have given Jon Joven (the other Capt. von Trapp) consistent applause in the love scenes, they can be expected to give Ariel standing ovation.
As audiences pour into the SOM performances Fridays to Sundays, already the ticket booth is getting requests for even more extensions, proving the existence of a theater audience in Manila. “We have had, as of this writing, over 70 well-attended performances, with 50 more scheduled! This leads me to believe that with the right material conceptualized properly, staged in an excellent but commercial way with the right actors and designers, backed up by a gutsy producer with marketing expertise, Manila can sustain a long-running play,” says Roxanne.
“Some 75,000 people have seen the show. By the time we finish the run, we would have done more than 100 shows. We want to stage long-running shows,” declares Kingson Sian, president of Travellers International which operates Resorts World. Damon Brooks of Broadway Asia, in charge of theater licensing in Asia, wrote upon viewing the show, “What I will remember most is the cohesiveness of the experience… from entering the Resorts World complex, to the show itself, to the curtain call… all top-notch talent. They say neon lights are bright on Broadway. Well, I’m here to tell you that they are far from dim at Resorts World Manila.”
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