GMG: Review of CIRQUE ALICE in Manila: Astounding Aerial and Acrobatic Adventures

October 17, 2026

The wistful underground world Lewis Carroll described in his 1865 children's story "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is the home of a number of wacky colorful denizens. This out-of-the-box quality made this classic book a natural theme for a theatrical production rendered in the style of Cirque de Soleil, where acrobatic and strongman feats are incorporated with music, dance and special visual effects to create one dazzling extravaganza. 

"Cirque Alice" by Tim Lawson and Simon Painter had its world premiere in April 10, 2025 in Brisbane, Australia, and had since been brought around the world.  The creative team of this touring production is led by creative directors Ash Jacks McCready and Kirsty Painter, with choreography by Dane Bates, costumes by Angela Aaron, lighting design by Hugo Mercier, and musical arrangements by Martin Raabe-Olsen and Marius Christiansen.

When we entered the Theater at Solaire, the stage is already adorned with garlands of small blue lights suspended above it. There was a raised rounded platform in the middle, with steps of both sides. There was an arch at the back where the actors would make their entrances. On either side of the platform were three rows of chairs with tables, to seat those who bought the premium VVIP tickets, giving them an ultra-close-up view of the circus spectacle. 

Mad Hatter, White Rabbit and Alice with the dancers 

The show started with the White Rabbit (Raphael Papo) skillfully playing Monti's "Czardas" on his fiddle, then an entranced Alice (Layla Schillert) responded by singing "Flower Duet" from the opera "Lakme" with her soaring soprano. She went weaving around a group of dancers before deciding to follow the White Rabbit go down a hole in the platform, and then her big adventure begins. Variations of this sequence -- violin playing, operatic singing, ethereal dancing -- would serve to smoothly transition one act to the next for the rest of the show. 

The first act started with the Mad Hatter (Darren "Dizzy" Partridge), who picked volunteers from the audience to help him with his funny magic tricks, spiced with pickpocketing finesse. Tweedle-Dum used his powerful legs to flip his partner Tweedle-Dee around in the air. March Hare used a large hoop called a Cyr Wheel to spin around using centrifugal force. There were also a quartet of contortionists (Caterpillars), a power aerialist on a suspended pole (Butterfly), and a couple in white rapidly spinning on roller skates (White King and Queen). 

The Caterpillars curling up

The Butterfly soaring high

The White King and Queen spinning on their roller skates

The second act had one breathtaking highlight after another. The Dormouse showed off his skills in balancing on an unstable pile of moving tubes. The petite Queen of Hearts who slinked around a crescent moon displaying unreal feats of strength and flexibility. The Flamingos were a glamorous couple in pink leotards who regaled us with their death-defying yet romantic aerial ballet. The Knights were a strongman act where one precariously balanced his partner head upon head while going up and down steps -- twice!

The Dormouse's delicate balancing 

The Queen of Hearts graceful display of strength and flexibility 

Crowd favorites The Flamingos in full flight

This is only the third Cirque production I have seen in Manila. My first one was "Kaos" at the Newport Performing Arts Center in 2011 (MY REVIEW). The next was "Cirque du Soleil's Toruk - The First Flight" at the MOA Arena in 2017 (MY REVIEW). Compared to those two, "Cirque Alice" is of a smaller scale and more intimate in atmosphere, which gives it a unique charm all its own. This show gathered the best specimens of human athleticism and provides them a grand beautiful showcase to display their talents. We watch, enjoy and gasp in collective awe. 

A final look at the whole Cast

***********

CIRQUE ALICE runs from October 16–25, 2026, at The Theatre at Solaire. There are shows from Tuesday to Friday (8 pm), Saturdays (3pm and 8pm) and Sundays (1:30 pm and 6pm). Ticket prices range from P6,500 to P2,000 for Tuesday to Thursday shows, P7,500 to P2,000 for Friday to Sunday shows. 

Teatro Marco: Review of TENTENTENEN: Ludicrous Live-Selling Lampoon

October 17, 2026

From her humble beginnings as the daughter of a fish vendor, Betty a.k.a. Miss Bu (Janine Lloce) is the CEO of Bubu Beauty Company on the Tuktok app. Board member Atty. Dick (JP Ortiz) and marketing guru Mama J (Yan-Yan Gervero) wanted to boost the sales of Ms. Bu's products in her upcoming 6.6 Live Selling event by inviting Ms. Bu's fan club president Trixie (Abby Reynes) and hunky underwear seller Tom Rodrigo (Rem delos Reyes) as guests.

Newly-hired marketing assistant Cindy (Hannah Salvan) idolized Mama J as a pillar in the industry. However, she soon saw how unscrupulous his gimmicks were from behind the scenes. He saw nothing wrong about abruptly cutting off the segment of Ms. Bu's BFF Trisha (Joni Gee) from the live show. He scoffed at Cindy's promotional ideas as silly and low class, but never acknowledged her efforts when they actually worked.     

This new play was the first full-length play written and directed by Filipino spoken-word artist Mark Ghosn. Ghosn and his group had been doing "Ampalaya Monologues" since 2015, so this one was a very big step up for them. In an interview, Ghosn revealed that he had personally experienced going viral with his online content, and had once worked in the marketing team of a company. This insider-view made him the ideal creative to come up with the exposé aspect of this play. 

The cast and crew behind this play is very Gen Z (and young Millennial), so the style, language and humor Ghosn used in writing his script reflected their high-speed culture very much. I have to admit that I am not exactly the target audience of this material. A good percentage of the Tiktok live-selling jargon and online influencer references went right over my head. Don't get me wrong, there were jokes that I did get, and they were very funny. And of course, under the laughs, there's that biting message.

Since this is the first show I had seen from this company, I did not know any of the young cast. It did seem that the other people in the audience already knew them well from the previous shows. They were very much into the satirical nature of their play, and were gamely giving it their all with their over-the-top performances, especially Janine Lloce as Ms. Bu and JP Ortiz as Atty. Dick, who never broke character even as their scenes got chaotic.

The Cast at their Curtain Call

***********

TENTENENEN runs from October 10 to 25, 2026 at the black box studio of Teatro Marco, located on the third floor of #65 Maginhawa St, Diliman, Quezon City. The show runs for almost 2 hours without an intermission. Tickets are selling at P999 each, at Ticket2Me. 

PETA: Review of MGA KUWENTO NI LOLA BASYANG (2026): Energetically and Enthusiastically Educational

October 15, 2026

Lola Basyang was the pseudonym of short story writer Severino Reyes who wrote classic tales for children first published in Liwayway Magazine in 1922. This legendary storyteller and her stories  had been adapted in comics in 1949, as a film in 1958, as a ballet in 2008 and as a TV series in 2015. For the stage, she was adapted by the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) in 2005 as part of their continued advocacy to educational theater. 

This current 2026 revival run of PETA's "Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang" was launched last September for a limited run, but has since been extended into this month (last show today). Like its previous incarnations in the past 20 years, this is targeted for school children as their introduction to the theater as an art. When I watched this afternoon, the theater was full of excited youngsters, mostly from Grades 5 to 10. There is said to be a planned longer run in February 2027, when the show will likely be open to the public. 

The Colorful Set

This present version of the show is still directed by Phil Noble, but with a new cast and creative team -- choreographer Gio Gahol, set designer Julio Garcia, costume designer Carlo Pagunaling, musical director/arranger Kabaitan Bautista, composer Noel Cabangon, and lights designer Satya Edilo -- who have updated the staging style to cater to the distinct personality of Gen Alpha kids. Two of the three tales from the original 2005 staging, as originally adapted for the stage by renowned children's book author, Christine Bellen. 

The first story was "Ang Prinsipeng Mahaba ang Ilong," with Yhuan Gatbonton in the title role. This was about how the prince with the long nose get teased by two guys named Bungal and Duling (Leo Lapitan and Thor Ganchero). The prince's long nose would later prove instrumental in rescuing the two rogues when they fell into a ditch. There was also a love story angle about the prince and a girl he met in the forest named Gracia (Belle Mendoza). 

The second story was "Ang Binibining Tumalo sa Hari," with Nyla Festejo as the title character named Sharay, a daughter of a palace servant. When Datu Abdul (Roi Calilong) found out from his spy Lamucot (Mico Esquivel) that his son Prince Pido (Leo Lapitan) was in love with Sharay, he challenged her with three tasks to prove her worth. The tasks all seemed impossible to achieve, but Sharay eventually figured out how to get around them.

The third story "Ang Bantay ng Huling Buwan" was a new one written by J-mee Katanyag to unite the stories, and to bring folklore into the digital age. Here, a power outage gave Lola Basyang (Kiki Baento) a chance to tell her restless grandchild, online content creator Uriel (JC Sunto) the first two stories. A lunar eclipse that night led to the story about how six out of the seven original moons of Earth were eaten up by a monster called the Bakunawa.

The Cast gamely poses for photos

The cast and crew really tailored the show for kids of the present generation, from the brightly colorful sets and costumes to the energetic acting style and comic timing. They were successful in getting the kids to enthusiastically react and interact to what was going on onstage. Throughout the play, the kids were told to do various tasks, and they were all very excited to follow and deliver. Three lucky kids were even called onstage to help in a scene.  

In between each story, Lola Basyang and Uriel talk to the audience about the valuable life lessons which they hope the kids have learned from each lively story. A person's worth should not be judged solely by how he looks like. Keep your wits about you when you are facing oppression, and you can overcome the odds. Critical thinking is required to navigate the online jungle full of bashing and fake news. Theater more than just fun and games after all. 

**********

The production will also be available for school and community touring, in either excerpt or full-length show. For school bookings and touring information, contact King Joshua Nalupa via email kingjoshuanalupa@petatheater.com. 

The Necessary Theater: Review of A NUMBER: Contemplating Clones

October 10, 2026

A Son (JC Santos) just learned that he has had "a number" of clones created from him, 20 of them. His Father (Bart Guingona) admitted that he was so devastated when his wife and 4 year-old son died from a car accident, so he hired doctors to clone his son for him. Father said he did not know there would be more than one clone created, so he thought they should sue the doctors. Son thought it would be good to meet at least one of the clones. 

This was just the first scene of five father-son conversations as they reflect about the dad's decision to have his son cloned. However, in the subsequent scenes it would be revealed that there would be much darker developments that stem from what we heard in the first scene. We meet two of the other versions of the Son see how they reacted to the multiple cloning situation they were in, as their selfish Father struggled to get through to them. 

The sparse, eerie set and atmosphere 

The Necessary Theater (previously Actor's Actors) is known for staging wordy discourse dramas, plays that rely more on intellectual debates or extensive discussions to drive the plot, with hardly any physical action nor visual spectacle. I have seen a few of them before: "The Normal Heart" (2015, MY REVIEW), "Blackbird" (2017, MY REVIEW) and "Red" (2023, MY REVIEW) -- all intense affairs, tackling unconventional, uncomfortable topics.

"Red" was also a two-hander starring Bart Guingona and JC Santos, with Guingona directing.  "A Number" also only had Guingona and Santos, but they play four characters. Guingona played the Father, while Santos played all three versions of the Son. However, this time, it is Santos who took the reins as the play's director for his very first time. His challenge was how to present a sci-fi-based drama in a small intimate venue with minimum props, and Santos certainly took the bull by its horns. 

Having seen many of their other plays before, I knew how Guingona and Santos were skilled actors who always delivered the goods in a stark "no-acting acting" style, long lines of dialog notwithstanding. Guingona was a natural fit for flawed elder characters who were abrasive, perverse, or arrogant.  Santos is a natural fit for vulnerable younger characters, who were despondent, difficult or damaged. It was no surprise that they nailed their roles here. 

The set consistent of four suspended translucent mirror panels, and a heavy square ottoman that Guingona can move around. Each clone wore a different costume to distinguish one from the others, each lit in different colored spotlights -- blue, red and yellow. It was a rather puzzling costume choice for the second Son to be most formally dressed and styled one, with his wool coat and neat man-bun, considering his more disturbed and violent personality.

The play itself, as written by British playwright Caryl Churchill in 2002, was a talk-heavy piece that demanded the audience to pay attention listen to every word as the deeper layers of the story were slowly uncovered with every conversation. The rapt audience was so tense with the dead-serious acting and atmosphere here, they seemed intimidated to laugh at hints of dark comedy sprinkled in parts, even when the mood lightened up in the final scene. 

Curtain Call with Bart Guingona and JC Santos

***********

This limited engagement of "A NUMBER" runs from Oct. 9 to 18 at WhyNotMNL, 4th Floor, Karrivin Plaza, Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Makati City.

It was my first time to watch any show at Karrivin that afternoon. There was a very strong downpour en route there, such that Chino Roces Ave. was rendered unpassable because of flood. I had to turn around to go back to the expressway to reach the area another way. It turns out that Karrivin Plaza had very limited parking. The guard told me to go to Alorica-MJ Plaza for pay parking instead (I paid P80 for the duration of the play). 

I decided to watch this show on the fly just for the star power of its 2-man cast. I went without reading any info about it, so I was taken aback that a ticket costs P2,800 each. Thanks to my discount card, my ticket cost me P2, 240, but still that was quite a steep price hike for this production company. Tickets for "Via Dolorosa," Bart Guingona's 2025 one-man show also held at Karrivin only cost P1,200 each. Inflation is real, but I felt this sting. 

NWR: Review of BONGGA KA, 'DAY!: THE ANNIE BATUNGBAKAL MUSICAL: HIgh on HOTDOG Hits

October 3, 2026

It was 1979. Suzy Batungbakal (Air Paz-Pablico) had been raising her two daughters by herself by being a dressmaker in their house. Her eldest Annie (Atasha Muhlach) a fashion design school dropout now working as a salesgirl in House of Pasion, a fancy couture shop owned by socialite Aurora Pasion (Jackie Lou Blanco).  At night, Annie would try to enter the exclusive disco Coco Banana with her work buddy Toots (Gerhard Khrysstopher), but was repeatedly denied entry by its proprietor, Tarurit (Dindo Divinagracia). 

One day, two men arrived at the Manila International Airport from abroad. Romer Pasion (Anthony Rosaldo) was an airline steward with a passion for photography. However, his mother Aurora wanted him to take over the management of their business, an idea which he did not relish. Burn Rivera (Rapah Manalo) was a folk singer who just came home after working in Japan for a number of years. He had a serious crush on Annie since before he left, but she was still sore at him because he left without letting her know. 

Like "Bagets The Musical" in January this year, this latest show at the Newport Performing Arts Theater was once again a jukebox musical produced by the Newport World Resort in cooperation with the Philippine Star and Viva Communications. This new musical uses the catchy songs composed and performed by the iconic 1970s Manila Sound band Hotdog, founded by Dennis and Rene Garcia. Annie Batungbakal was the title character of one of their songs, which had been adapted into a 1979 film starring Nora Aunor. 

The creative and artistic direction of this project was care of PETA Plus, led by Program Director Melvin Lee. The playwright is Liza Magtoto, guided by dramaturg Eric dela Cruz. The stage direction was by Chris Millado, while the musical direction was by Vince Lim, who also did the arrangements and sound design. As the show about 70s fashion and dance, the throwback costumes by Hershee Tantiado and choreography of Stephen Vinas were front and center. The lighting effects of John Batalla enhanced the grandness of that stage and set.

Ohm David really stepped up with the nostalgic set pieces for this show, big and small. He made a movable wall that covered the whole expanse of the stage, with each box containing a vintage television set. One back-to-back set piece was that of the Batungbakal home in Frisco, QC. One side had their cramped living room, while the other side was Annie's messy bedroom. The grander back-to-back two-tier set piece had the elegant House of Pasion on one side, and the lavish Coco Banana complete with grand staircase on the other. 

In Act 1, we hear them sing the ever-exuberant "Manila" upon the arrival of Romer and Burn at the airport. "Totoo Ba ang Tsismis" was heard during a gathering of neighborhood gossipmongers. "Kulang" was first sung by Annie with Toots while dressing up, then later used to humiliate Annie about her fashion sense at the disco. "Pandesal sa Umaga" was the song Annie shared with her "sidecar fairy" adviser Amor (Akie Cedilla). The hilarious "Badaf Forever," a Garcia composition originally recorded by Charing, a gay Hagibis clone, fit right at home among the parade of drag queens of Coco Banana.

I liked the flow of the story in Act 2 more, as well as the choice of songs for the supporting cast to have their featured solos. "Panaginip" became a mother's promise of dedicated lifetime support to her daughter. "Parang Robot" was Aurora's acceptance about the change in direction her store should take. "Bitin sa Yo" was the resignation of Iste (Andrea Babierra) that her crush Burn loved her sister more. On the debit side, I felt "Beh Buti Nga" was awkwardly used in a squabble between two supposedly English-speaking Coco Banana denizens.

The Triumphant Curtain Call

The matinee show we caught today featured actors who were not among the cast members we see in the show's advertisement videos or read about in reviews, like Sam Concepcion, KD Estrada or John Sweet Lapus. Instead, we got to see Anthony Rosaldo as Romer, Rapah Manalo as Burn and Dindo Divinagracia as Tarurit, which I welcomed as this variation gave us another perspective to the show. Part of me was actually curious to see understudy Iya Villanueva (Maggie Winslow in the recent staging of "A Chorus Line") play Annie, but no such luck. 

I have seen Anthony Rosaldo before as Roger in "Rent" (2024) so I knew he had soaring vocals, best heard here in his rendition of "Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko." He actually had more of that flashy playboy rascal vibe the role of Romer needed, worthy of that "high waist na, see-through pa" outfit. I have seen Rapah Manalo before in "A Chorus Line" (2026) so I knew he could sing and dance very well. He was able to showcase his strong vocals best in the love song "Langit na Naman," which his Burn supposedly wrote for Annie.

Atasha Muhlach has been Annie for two weeks already when I watched. She is no doubt charming, actually proficient in the quiet dramatic scenes. Her major solo number "Pers Lab" was noticeably given a lower arrangement. Her very slender frame made some movements she had to do look ungainly. Nervous jitters were still there as she sometimes felt dwarfed or drowned out by everything going on around her in those ultra-busy group numbers. She has the talent, just needs to build up more confidence so can she sell it and stand out. 

**********

"Bongga Ka, 'Day!: The Annie Batungbakal Musical" runs from September 18 to October 31, 2026 at the Newport Performing Arts Theater in Pasay City. Tickets can be bought via Ticketworld at the following prices: SVIP P4,500, VIP P4,000, Gold P3,400, Silver P2,400 and Bronze P1,300. 

Jeff Moses also alternates as Romer. Ring Antonio alternates as Aurora Pasion. Yani Lopez alternates as Iste. Other covers and swings include Tep Logmao and Jannah Baniasia. The female ensemble include Chez Cuenca, Abi Sulit-Racho, Abegail Turiano, Mica Fajardo, Coleen Paz, Mia Bella, Misha Fabian, Sam Marasigan, Yna Arbiol and Paui Luzariaga. The male ensemble include Mark Panganoron, Gerald Magallanes, Dan Wesley, Jay Cortez, Yahweh Sangalang, Vyen Villanueva, MC dela Cruz, Moi Gealogo, Richardson Yadao, and effortless standouts Bombading and Franco Ramos.