story of a girl

I watched Stages’ production of the West Side Story yesterday at the Meralco theatre with Shin and Kai. We were very lucky to have caught the show where Joanna Ampil was the lead. She was just effortlessly fabulous!

I actually rejoiced when I saw Karylle hosting SOP yesterday which eventually meant that she wouldn’t be doing West Side that afternoon. The play was really good. Stages did a great job bringing back Arthur Laurents’, Leonard Bernstein’s and Stephen Sondheim’s musical, which was based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, here in the Philippines. The show will have a revival in Broadway next year.

Christian Bautista also did well, even though his and Joanna’s voices are not in the same range, he was able to level himself with his partner’s performance. Not just that, the guy just looks adorable and his acting felt like he was a real to-die-for romantic, yes you can say I’m biased but really, he suited the role and character of Tony.

I am so proud of Joanna and I feel blessed to have been given that opportunity of seeing her perform in the country, for her fellow Filipinos, even after being the star of London West End for sixteen years.

The dances were entertaining, although there were not so good comments for the opening night about them, I think they were able to polish the acts and they just get better as the run continues. My favorites are Gee, Officer Krupke and of course, Somewhere.

You might also want to take coffee before watching the show because even for a musical aficionado like me, it was long. But oh, the set was really awesome!

All in all, West Side Story was worth the moolah and the effort of going out on a Sunday. I just regret not being able to buy the mint flavored souvenir chocolate barL.