Manila staging of 'A Chorus Line' to be led by 3 Fil-Am Broadway stars
In just a matter of days, Manila will be treated to the cut-throat spectacle of a Broadway musical audition. Sequences will be danced, notes will be sung, and world-class Filipino talent will be front and center at Theatre Group Asia's staging of the iconic A Chorus Line.
Perhaps the most honest Broadway production there is, A Chorus Line shows the literal audition for a musical where nervous actors try to snag a role by impressing the stoic director.
The actual director, who's not stoic at all, is award-winning choreographer Karla Puno Garcia. She counts her swing role in the Broadway hit Hamilton as one of her dreams come true, being the production's first Filipina cast member. Garcia was also the first woman of color to choreograph the opening number of the 2023 Tony Awards, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography.
Garcia, who is based in New York, spent eight months to a year casting the ensemble roles for the musical—a group of 17 eager dancers—beginning in New York and going all over the Philippines.
"Everything just fell into place the way it's supposed to be," Garcia told PhilSTAR L!fe during the production's media briefing on March 5 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater lobby. "The kind of artists we cast, it kind of doesn't matter how old, how young, how experienced, how not—everyone is bringing forward their own experience and their taste and opinions to the roles, and it's seamless."
Working with a Filipino cast added to the excitement.
"At the end of the day, it just became this magic algorithm of Filipinos who were really correct for the show, so I'm really grateful," she added. "It was actually empowering getting to breathe new life into these roles from the Filipino community...Filipinos are hard-working, resilient, and have undeniable charisma. We just had to put the puzzle pieces in the right places."
Playing Zach, the director and choreographer in A Chorus Line, is actor-singer-writer Conrad Ricamora. Having debuted in theater in his early 20s to play Ninoy Aquino in Here Lies Love, Ricamora, 47, has been making the rounds of television, film, and theater since then.
As Zach, Ricamora is not required to sing or dance throughout the production—the only such role in A Chorus Line.
"Immediately, when I walk onstage, my presence has to be big enough without singing or dancing, which I think is a great challenge for an actor in its own way. How do you command a room when you don't have a song [or] a dance to do?" Ricamora told L!fe.
He has to dig deep, then.
"I've been finding the power in stillness a lot of times. Just with a look to be able to direct somebody and get them to do what I want them to do... It's been a great challenge," he said.
Ricamora, a Tony- and Grammy-Award nominee, is known to TV audiences in the Philippines through his roles in the medical drama The Resident and the legal series How to Get Away with Murder.
Although his father is Filipino, this is Ricamora's first time in the Philippines.
"It's been healing in a big way," he told L!fe. "Growing up in the US, I didn't always feel like I belonged because I didn't grow up with other Filipinos. I grew up with white people all around me."
"When you feel like you don't belong, you feel like you have to work really hard just to be worthy of existing. And here, I feel like I can just be and just let myself be, and there's beauty in that; an ease in that that I've never experienced before. And I'm gonna take it with me everywhere I go from now on," Ricamora added.
Leading the "auditionees" in A Chorus Line is Broadway triple threat Lissa De Guzman as Cassie Ferguson.
The first Filipina to play Elphaba in the national Broadway tour of Wicked, De Guzman has an extensive theatrical resumé. She made her Broadway debut in King Kong, then went on to star as Princess Jasmine in the national tour of Aladdin. Regionally, De Guzman also appeared in Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, and Chasing Rainbows.
With a storyline many theater actors can identify with, Cassie is a seasoned professional dancer who just wants to regain validation for her craft.
"Carrying on the legacy of Cassie—there's obviously so many Cassies who've graced the stage and are incredible—but specifically the legacy here, the talent here is unreal. And the triple-threat of it all is absolutely unreal," De Guzman said during the production's media briefing.
"Karla has done an amazing job of honoring the story that we're gonna tell on the stage...and paying homage to the original but also not ignoring who we are," she added.
It takes a special kind of performer to combine the vulnerability and strength of a character, and De Guzman, herself a commanding force, has no problems with it.
"I will say I'm a strong female, and I plan on continuing to be a strong female...I plan to continue to be a leader in rooms and to continue to make change for other females to come," De Guzman told L!fe.
"What's really special about this experience is Karla has been our director and choreographer, and she's a Filipino woman. And I personally have never been in a room where there was a Filipino woman leading a show. So that's been really special for me, to witness that, and to be a part of that," she added.
Working hard in the wings are the production's creative leadership, including Jamie Wilson as associate director; JM Cabling, associate choreographer; Miguel Urbino, set design; Kat Ibasco, costume design; Cha See, lighting design; Megumi Katayama, sound design; and Farley Asuncion as music director.
A Chorus Line runs from March 12 to 29 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Makati, with shows scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets, priced from P900 to P5,500, are available via TicketWorld.
For more information, find Theatre Group Asia on Instagram and Facebook, or visit theatregroupasia.com.
