April 12, 2024
Engineer Popoy Gonzales and Architect Basha Eugenio had been going seriously steady for five years, and they were already planning to get married in a year's time. Recently, Basha had not been happy about how she wasn't given any creative freedom at work and was felt trapped by Popoy's tendency to dictate what was "good" for her and their relationship. After a series of escalating arguments, Basha finally decided to breakup with Popoy.
In the following months, Basha met a fellow architect Mark, who invited her to join his firm, whose boss welcomed and appreciated her work. Meanwhile, Popoy wallowed in misery even as he had a new girlfriend Trisha, a nightclub singer. One day, Popoy's aunt Edith and her husband-to-be Willy insisted on hiring Popoy and Basha to work together on her dream house, as they promised before. Can the estranged couple work well together again?
"One More Chance" was a Star Cinema movie directed by Cathy Molina, written by Vanessa R. Valdez and Carmi Raymundo, and starring John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo. It was released on November 14, 2007, and grossed over ₱152.7 million nationwide. The film and its characters remained very popular well after its commercial run. It even spawned a sequel, "A Second Chance" (2015), an even bigger box-office hit. "One More Chance" is conveniently streaming on Netflix currently. But whether you have seen it already, or especially if you have not, it might be a good idea to watch the play first, without prior expectations.
Designed by Ohm David, the stage had a big rotating lazy Susan in the middle which was used extensively. It had a big framing structure around it where graphics can be projected to place the scene in the restaurant, office, house or the street during a rainstorm. The main set piece was a metal scaffolding which can be split in two, with stairs on both sides, which can look precarious in some scenes when actors were on the second level. Because several key scenes were set in cars, they devised a skeletal car that can actually move, which looked cool, but malfunctioned a couple of times, which caused unintentional humor and delays.
I watched this show during the Press Preview night, and it was Sam Concepcion and Anna Luna playing Popoy and Basha. Concepcion uncannily channeled JLC in the way he looked, and the way he delivered Popoy's acerbic lines echoed. In the film, Bea Alonzo made sure her Basha was clearly fed up with Popoy's controlling nature. However, onstage, it looked difficult for Luna to project the same exasperation because of certain limitations in staging. The chicken skin scene was only shown as a projection, with a distracting Max's Chicken product placement. Those who did not watch the film may not get the importance of that scene.
Among the supporting cast, two actresses really stood out. One was Via Antonio, who played Basha's friend Anj (Bea Saw in the film). She certainly livened up the show with her talent in delivering killer witty one-liners with perfect comic timing. The second was Neomi Gonzales, who played two roles -- Basha's mom Rose (Shamaine Buencamino in the film), and Popoy's irascible aunt Edith (Nanette Inventor in the film). It was with the second character that we saw Gonzales' gift for comedy (which we last saw in "Walang Aray" where she played Julia's mother). Edith had funny-sounding Korean neologisms, which had the audience tittering with laughter when Gonzales let them fly.
The roles of Jon Abella (as JP, Ahron Villena in the film) and Johnie Moran (as Chinno, Janus del Prado in the film) were expanded beyond what we saw in the film. They also prominent song solos to boot -- JP in "Pagtingin" and Chinno in "Leaves" -- even more than Poppert Bernadas (as blind pal Kenneth, James Blanco in the film) or Jay Gonzaga (as hunky rival Mark, Derek Ramsey in the film). Aside from playing Edith's fiance Tito Willie (Al Tantay in the film), Raul Montesa also played minor characters on the periphery of the main story, but he still managed to steal attention in every scene he was in, like when he played Sir Bert (Bodjie Pascua in the film) as a floridly gay boss, or that barely-awake drunk man in the next table.
Sheena Belarmino made the most of a most thankless role, that of Popoy's rebound girlfriend Tricia (Maja Salvador in the film). Anyhow, she got to sing her own new original song "Tricia's Song," composed by Paolo Benjamin Guico, with lyrics from the original screenplay writers Valdez and Raymundo. Rica Laguardia played the role of Krizzy (Dimples Romana in the film), Kenneth's wife and organizer of their gang get-togethers. Krizzy may have been given an extra subplot at one point, but overall, the role seemed diminished in favor of Anj, JP and Chinno.
23 songs by Ben &Ben were integrated into the storytelling here. It was amazing how these songs felt like were written specifically for the scenes where they were used. Unlike in "Ang Huling El Bimbo" which was an original story, musical director Myke Salomon had to fit the Ben&Ben songs within a previously existing story, which I felt was a more limiting scenario. However, Ben&Ben had songs like "Nakikinig Ka Ba Sa Akin" or "Masyado Pang Maaga" which already seemed to have been written with the plot of "One More Chance" in mind. It makes me want to review the lyrics of the other songs and see how well everything fit in.
*****
"One More Chance" runs from April 12 - June 30, 2024 at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City. The whole run is already sold out well before the premiere tonight. Break legs to the entire cast and crew!
There is an alternate cast for most of the roles. They are: CJ Navato (Popoy), Nicole Omillo (Basha), Kiara Takahashi (Tricia), Paji Arceo (Kenneth), Ada Tayao (Krizzy), Dippy Arceo (Anj), Jef Flores (Mark), Carla Guevara-Laforteza (Edith/Rose), Floyd Tena (Bert/Willie).
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