Songs for a new world
A new world calls across the ocean. A new world calls across the sky. A new world whispers in the shadow. Time to fly. Time to fly.” Sometimes, life is all about that one moment — when you’re about to set foot into something unknown and you just know in a split second that things are going to change. And it’ll never be the same again. (Cue: Sarah Geronimo singing You Changed My Life.) There are moments or situations when the old rules just don’t apply anymore — when the formulae of yesteryear become obsolete in today’s rapidly changing world. There are times when you think you know, but in the end, you really have no idea. And that’s a scary thought. It’s disconcerting because we were born and raised to always strive for security and the certainty of knowing, to calculate our every move and plan ahead to avoid pitfalls. But it’s never the case. And that’s what makes life so exciting. You just never know from the get-go. And that’s where the journey begins.
9 Works Theatrical, the newest theater company in town, premieres with the hit Off-Broadway Musical Songs for a New World by Tony-Award winning American Musical theater lyricist and composer Jason Robert Brown. You may remember his work from a previous Manila production of The Last 5 Years, a download-worthy musical for theater or even non-theater aficionados out there. And of course, he was the brains behind 13 The Musical, a high school musical for tweens which was previously shown on the Great White Way. But common to both is the piercing truth that cuts across most of Brown’s poignant, witty and sophisticatedly crafted songs à la theater gods Dionysus and Stephen Sondheim. Brown’s songs seem to reflect the spirit and fervor of our generation and, to a real extent, our “emo-ness” which is really just an expression of who we are as an angst-ridden people. But take it or leave it, it’s what makes us undeniably unique, fascinating and irreversibly human.
Directed by Robbie Guevara who brought us Repertory Philippines’ Fiddler on the Roof, A Christmas Carol, and Gaybirds, Songs for a New World reunites theater’s Golden Boy Felix Rivera with Carla Guevara-Laforteza who you may remember from the successful Manila run of Avenue Q. While puppets are no longer center stage for the cool-some twosome, Rivera now plays the characters of Murray and Sam “Steam Train” Torres, the former a troubled man whose work may be getting the best of him and the latter, a troubled basketball player from the ghetto who at the height of his fame had to succumb to the authorities. This doesn’t spell G-O-O-D for Murray’s wife Veronica played by Laforteza. For a gal who has everything, she seems to have nothing — a pretext for wanting to commit suicide and jump off a building. But for people who live on the Upper East Sides of the world, this is really just a plea for help and some attention/affection from the people they love.
Joining them are Harold Cruz, Caisa Borromeo and Anna Santamaria, three actors from Rep’s stable pool of talent, and stars of the hit musical I Love You Because. Cruz (Mulan Jr, A Christmas Carol) plays David, a man who cheats on his wife Lisa, played by Borromeo (West Side Story, Hairspray) with his first love Amy, played by Santamaria (A Christmas Carol, Mulan Jr.) The lives of the three characters are ultimately intertwined and form a complicated love triangle that has ramifications way beyond death. As a twist in this version of Songs for a New World, their love triangle puts the rhyme and reason for one of the show’s other characters — which will be revealed towards the end of the show.
Whereas the story can get a bit heavy in the tradition of “theater that thinks,” stage veteran Pinky Marquez provides the comic relief in the show as Mrs. Claus — yes, the wife of Santa Claus. When the merry old man who kisses our mothers rides his sleigh on Christmas day, Marquez’s character is left alone in the North Pole where it’s cold, dreary, and downright depressing. Thus, she decides to file for divorce. While originally written to be a musical revue, Robbie Guevara works his genius to create a story that weaves the songs together, in a tell-all, gut-wrenching tale of love and reality lost and found, and essentially how people react to uncertainty, and function with the emergence of a “New World.”
Mio Infante joins Robbie Guevara as design consultant, with Martin Esteva on lighting design, Ceejay Javier as musical director, and Francis Matheu on choreography.
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Catch Songs for a New World at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater, RCBC Plaza, Ayala Avenue cor. Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati. Show dates are May 1 (8 p.m.), May 8 (8 p.m.), May 9 (8 p.m.) and May 10 (3:30 p.m.). For tickets and inquiries, you may text or call 0917-8908633 or call Ticketworld at 891-9999.
