Article:
World-class Cast for West Side Story
June 24, 2008 | Posted by Karla Maquiling
Stages’ major musical offering this 2008, West Side Story, brings together a strong cast of world-class talent that includes Christian Bautista, Karylle, and London West End’s Joanna Ampil. Gerard Salonga is the musical director and Audie Gemora and Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo team up as executive producer and director, respectively. (Interestingly, Audie and Menchu played the lead roles in the first production of West Side Story in Manila in 1982.)
The rigid auditions took two months, and aspirants came not just from the Philippines but from Singapore, Australia, the US, and the UK.
Christian Bautista, who makes a perfect leading man, takes on the role of Tony, while singer and actress Karylle becomes Maria.
Pinoys who have never watched Joanna Ampil onstage will finally get to see her in this first musical theater project in Manila after sixteen years of performing in London. A favorite of British producer Cameron Mackintosh, Ampil was handpicked by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to play Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.
Gian Magdangal as Riff returns to the theater after a three-year hiatus. He has recently been on the reality show Philippine Idol on ABC 5 and SOP Rules on GMA 7.
Another import, Filipino-Australian Rowena Vilar, who played Kim, Gigi, and Ellen in the recent Australian tour of Miss Saigon, joins the cast of West Side Story upon the recommendation of Leo Valdez, who played the Engineer in Miss Saigon. Vilar will be sharing the role of the feisty Anita with local theater and pop artist Pam G.
Since West Side Story is primarily a dance musical, the artistic team had to call professional dance groups and handpick very strong dancers for the supporting cast. The production will have a lot of great dancing, as jazz choreographer James Laforteza is tasked to reconstruct Jerome Robbins’ original choreography in the Broadway version.
Musical director Gerard Salonga, it was found out, had been wanting to do West Side Story for a long time. His participation in the production was made possible by brother-in-law Robert Chien, who now manages the FILharmoniKA orchestra under his firm, Ambient Media.
West Side Story is one of the best musicals of all time with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It is a beautiful, dramatic dance musical with many show-stopping numbers and immortal songs like “Somewhere,” “Tonight,” “One Hand One Heart,” “America,” and “Something’s Coming.”
Stages’ production of West Side Story is its third major musical production after Footloose in 2005 and High School Musical On Stage in 2007. It will run from September to October 2008 at the Meralco Theater.
For tickets, order online on Ticketworld or call (+63 2) 891 9999. You can also order from Stages at (+632) 818 1111 loc. 225. Tickets are priced from PhP 500 to 1,200.
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