Bar Boys: A New Musical Will Remind You of Your Fresh Grad Self
It's loosely based on the 2017 movie of the same name.
(SPOT.ph) We've all been bright-eyed fresh graduates at some point. We dreamt of changing the world and providing a better life for our family. At the root of it all, we were fed the belief that if we studied hard enough, we could make a difference. But was this enough to get us through the pressure, stress, and the struggles of higher education? This is the question Bar Boys: A New Musical asks audiences, and it turns out the answer is not as black and white as we think.
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Bar Boys Musical: Ticket Prices, Schedule, Cast and Crew
Bar Boys Synopsis:
Bar Boys: A New Musical is an adaptation of the 2017 film Bar Boys starring Rocco Nacino, Carlo Aquino, Enzo Pineda, and Kean Cipriano who play four friends with different motivations for becoming future lawyers. The film was first released for the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino in August 2017 and has gone on to win nominations in different award-giving bodies: the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Gawad Urian Awards, and the FAMAS Awards.
In the movie, directed by Kip Oebanda (Liway, Nay), the "bar boys" come from varying backgrounds ranging from working class to society's elite. Each has their own personal struggle but together they find friendship to be their anchor amid the tumultuous, high-pressure backdrop of law school.
It's all pretty much the same for Bar Boys: A New Musical. But it's in the story's finer details where one finds what makes the stage version different. Without giving much away, there are characters from the movie that didn't make it to the play, and there are storylines that have been abandoned, with some replaced with more in-your-face social commentary. Don't worry, though: if you're a fan of the flick, the play is still a lighthearted coming-of-age friendship story loaded with Filipino values. It's just peppered with more bite and 2024 "wokeness." TBH, something you would expect from a movie about bright-eyed fresh grads all hoping to change the world.
Bar Boys: A New Musical Theater Review
The staging by Barefoot Collaborative features young performers Benedix Ramos, Alex Diaz, Jerom Canlas, and Omar Uddin as the titular Bar Boys. None of them are exactly newbies in the theater scene. They're all clearly talented. But when you put them alongside more seasoned performers such as Juliene Mendoza, who plays Paping; Sheila Francisco who plays Justice Hernandez, and Topper Fabregas playing Atty. Victor Cruz, it is obvious the boys have a long way to go before they could be as good as the veterans.
One of the vets, Nor Domingo, for example, plays Atty. Maurice Carlson, the musical's big baddie. Although he is alluded to many times in the play, the guy only really gets a couple of minutes on stage. But that's really all the actor needs to cement his character's motivations. Once he belts out the words from the number "Cross the Line," you know you had to watch him. Sure, Ramos, Diaz, Canlas, and Uddin have talent —no question about it—but they have yet to acquire that certain je nais se quois only years in theater and years of performing could give.
It doesn't help the boys that the venue is the very intimate Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater. With such a small, bare stage, all your attention is on the performers. Every mistake, every bead of sweat, everything is seen.
This is of course great for those with the better acting chops. Of the boys, it's Ramos who gets a standout moment: the heartwrenching scene towards the end of the second act when his character Erik struggles to come to terms with a family tragedy. Ramos here brings out the guns and delivers a performance that gave this writer chills. It was a simple scene—no songs, just minimal props—but you could feel his character's loss, pain, anguish. Heck, you can even see the vein in his temple throbbing from the sheer instensity of his performance.
But the real star of Bar Boys is the story's relatability. We didn't all have to go through law school but we all know the feeling of being pressured to perform, of meeting our parents' expectations, of wanting a better world where our education matters and can bring about change. The play knows this is where its real power comes from. The music and dialogue work hand in hand to drive home the point: We've all been fresh, bright-eyed graduates once full of hopes and dreams.
For some reason, it's the stage version that really brings out the struggles and the feels. Whether it's the callbacks to real issues happening in society or the extra pizzazz brought about by the musical numbers, Bar Boys has more grit and passion on stage than onscreen.
When the idea for the play was first floated to the public, it promised to be "an engaging blend of drama, comedy, and soul-stirring music," and that is what it's become. But much like any first staging, there's plenty of room for improvement. It could benefit from a bigger stage with a more striking look. It could trim a few numbers to make them tighter, more punchy. Story-wise, it's done a lot to distinguish itself from the movie but it's managed to retain the source material's charm. All in all, Bar Boys: A New Musical has many things going for it, but it also has many things to work on before it can count itself as among great original Filipino musicals.
Bar Boys: A New Musical runs for three weekends from May 3 to 19 at Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater, Circuit Makati, Makati City.
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