May 11, 2024
Erik (Benedix Ramos) was the son of a single dad, security guard Paping (Juliene Mendoza). Chris (Alex Diaz) came from the US, raised by a single mom, abandoned by his father. Torran (Jerom Canlas) was the son of a single mom (Gimbey dela Cruz) whom he did not want to disappoint. Josh (Omar Uddin) was a free spirited young man who had the environment as his advocacy. The four friends all passed the exam to enter law school.
From we follow the experiences of the four guys from their first day in law school, all the way up to their graduation and bar exam. On their first day of school, their introductory talk was given by Justice Hernandez (Sheila Francisco), who did not sugarcoat the ordeal they were all going into for the next four years. On that day 1, there were about 1,500 days to go before the bar exam, and the musical counted the days down from there.
Myke Salomon was the musical director three consecutive big hit jukebox musicals, namely "Rak of Aegis" (with Aegis songs), "Ang Huling El Bimbo" (with Eraserheads songs) and ongoing now "One More Chance" (with Ben&Ben songs). It is hard to believe that "Bar Boys" is actually only the first very first all-original musical that Salomon had composed from scratch, and he has some musical gems in here, with both emotion and grit.
Pat Valera's ability to adapt a film into a play and musical had already been proven when he did "Dekada '70" to much critical acclaim. The original "Bar Boys" was a 2017 film written and directed by Kip Oebanda. While there were similarities between the film and Valera's musical version, like the difficulties in class recitations, grades and for the Bar, there were very marked differences in the personal issues faced by each of the boys.
The conflict between Chris and his estranged father Atty. Maurice (Nor Domingo) in the play was far deeper and more toxic than his secret girlfriend in the film. Gay professor Atty. Cruz (Topper Fabregas) was approached by was someone else in a different context in the play, not the grade-desperate Erik in the film. Torran's fraternity issues were not tackled as much in the play. The fraternity's Lord Master, a key character in the film, was not even there.
The cases tackled in the classroom scenes by professors (played by Kakki Teodoro and Carlon Matobato) were mostly the same ones cited in the film. The most hard-hitting scenes in the film were those with Prof. Hernandez, portrayed by Ms. Odette Khan, who won awards for her work. Ms. Sheila Francisco's plays this same role with her own brand of fiery passion, class, plus her signature singing intensity -- also very deserving of awards.
The role of Paping was expanded in the play, making him the client of a tough case for which the friends prepared the evidence for their professors who were prosecuting. Juliene Mendoza had this knack of drawing the audience to connect with his character emotionally, and same is true with his Paping. He even had a song about his late wife who loved zarzuelas like him. It was sentimental and felt out-of-place yes, but I'd give anything to hear Mendoza sing.
The four main actors (Ramos, Diaz, Canlas and Uddin) were all playing their first lead roles in a musical play staged by a major theater company. Their inexperience can still be evident in some dramatic scenes, but you can feel that they were giving their best efforts. The singing talents of these young men were quite evident from the very first song number. Surely their proficiency as actors will improve further with more performance days ahead.
The play runs for around three hours. Act 1 was a formidable 1 hour and 45 minutes, then an Intermission of 15 minutes, and an Act 2 of about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Certainly, some fat could stilled be trimmed (like the generic "coming out" scene, for instance) in order to streamline this musical for future runs. Fortunately, the scenes that describe and discuss the law, law school and the justice system, the true essence of this play, were riveting to watch.
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"Bar Boys: A New Musical" will be staged for three weeks only (no extensions!) from May 3 to 19 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater, Circuit Makati. The whole run has already been sold out since their opening night.
Completing the ensemble are: Diego Aranda, Joshua Ade Valenzona, Edrei Tan, Jannah Baniasia, Anne Cortez, Uzziel Delamide, and Meg Ruiz. The the creative team includes Jomelle Era for choreography, Ohm David for set design, Meliton Roxas Jr. for lighting design, Tata Tuviera for costume design, and Bene Manaois for video design.
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