Not rivals to rivalry

I was walking down the aisle of the empty Meralco Theater when I saw Eddie Gatchalian, an old friend from my high school days.  Suddenly the memories came flooding back.  How old was I then?  Fourteen or 15.  Recovering from my first major heartbreak.  I had a shirtwaist dress whose print was all stuffed olives.  We used to hangout a lot together — Eddie, Albert, Bing, my classmate, and Pilot, her sister.  I invited them to our farm. It was still there and not yet grabbed by the Marcos government.

In the end of that era, Eddie and Bing got married and stayed married.  Tonight was a preview of the Pinoy musical Ed had written titled Rivalry – Ateneo-La Salle The Musical- Second Round.  On the surface it’s about school rivalry — Ateneo vs. La Salle and the NCAA basketball games.  And the girls came from my school that has fallen off the face of the earth.  They were from Maryknoll. 

Ed was always an imaginative and very talented musician.  He played a mean piano.  You could ask him to play any tune.  He would play it for you in any key.  It was our time.  Our music was Neil Sedaka’s Stairway to Heaven and Honeycomb by Jimmy Rodger’s, among others.  I always liked my mother’s music better and he could play those songs for me.  Those are my teenage memories of Ed and the gang, the Loonilarks, which included Noel Trinidad, Resty Lerma, who has passed away, and Joe de Guzman.  I hope I did not forget anyone, but if I did, I’m sorry.  We are, after all, all approaching 70 and our memory is fading.

If you want a night of laughter, go see this musical.  It is set in 1968.  Ateneo and La Salle are still part of the NCAA.   The story revolves around two families.  The Basilios, whose son Tommy, is the star basketball player of the La Salle Senior basketball team and the Valencias, whose son Paco is the star player of the Ateneo team.  Between these two teams is Reena San Jose, a Maryknoller, who also begins a rivalry between the La Salle star basketball player and his cousin, Quito, younger brother of Paco, the star player of the Ateneo team.

Here you see the rivalries between cousins, therefore families, schools, and desire for a girl, who at the time has her defenses up as she is recovering from a guy who just left her high and dry.  Sounds like me at the time but I’m sure it was not but hey, I, too, fell for a La Salle basketball player at some point in my spotted love career.

This is not the story of my life.  It is wonderful to watch, a really good funny Pinoy musical not without it’s wonderful touches.  One of the fathers looking for a green shirt he bought at Syvel’s.  That set me giggling as I recalled the old department store on Mabini street.  That is so part of our culture.  The show is written in the kind of English we spoke then, mostly English but with a sprinkling of Tagalog, before we called it Pilipino.  It was life in 1968.  I spent the whole evening giggling or laughing out loud.

But this is the second round of this production.  I overheard walking out of the theater that the first round was edited to produce this and they got a new choreographer whose choreography was outstanding, particularly that one about the rumble.  Rumble is what we called the gang fights then.  After West Side Story. 

I would love to tell you the story but it will reduce your fun when you go and watch.  For me the best point was Noel Trinidad’s role, which he played with such mastery.  He played the wheelchair-bound, forgetful grandfather, who explains to his daughters (one married to a La Sallite and the other to an Atenean) and their husbands why all this rivalry.  It was the highlight of the show for me.  Gorgeous!  Terrific!  Wonderful!  Bravo for Noel’s performance.

For me this play was terrific on many levels not the least of which was that most of my old dear friends were there.  It was the fabric of my childhood – my first cousin Didit who lives in Barcelona went to see the play with me; Bing Obieta Gatchalian, Eddie’s wife, and Marilyn Trinidad Mapa, Noel’s only sister, were my classmates at Maryknoll since Grade 3.  Then the vestiges of my teen-age-hood.  Lally Laurel Trinidad I met in high school before she and Noel were married.  Carolina Padilla Roy, who I saw while waiting for the car, was my high school classmate.  Edwina Nepomuceno Leung, looking gorgeous that night, would have been my classmate had I gone to college at Maryknoll.  Had I gone to college at all.

 Go see this musical.   It will be showing at the Meralco Theater until Feb. 17.  Get your tickets at Ticketworld now.  You will really enjoy it.

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