gotta cut loose...

i love, love, love "footloose". ok, i'm old enough to remember the movie, and i must admit, i wasn't so sure how the musicale would turn out. as chance would have it, my former company manages jay-r and iya. thankfully, my former boss still remembers me (thanks, tinnie!) and got me a ticket. so i went to the saturday matinee and was, quite simply, blown away.

you already know i love plays, i love the theatre, i love musical theatre. i went into the meralco theatre without any expectations. i found that i appreciated the "broadwaydization" (i just coined that, of course) of "footloose". it's been a while since i watched audie gemora onstage. i think the last time was in the last "the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe". and he is superb. fantastic! as rev. shaw. it's the first time i've seen agot isidro in a play, and she's very good, i have to say. beautiful and very talented. why can't we hate her when she's married to manu sandejas??:P jonard yazon is wonderful! i last saw him in "beauty and the beast", but this is the best i've seen him...he makes his "bad boy" character charming. and his voice is amazing. carla martinez is really just a seasoned veteran. i knew iya villania had a nice voice, but she does so well in her first stage role, it's a pleasant surprise. here's another girl we can't hate. jay-r's voice is good also, and his acting is competent. i just have one problem with his performance: whenever he sings, it's like he's in a concert. he can't help it, i guess. but everyone else on that stage inhabited the musicale. he kind of made it into a concert. overall, it was really fun to watch though. and i have to say, very broadway--can't stress that enough. the story is very interesting, the characters are all "round" and have immense depth, and the songs are beautiful. jay-r and iya's voices blended well for "almost paradise". i love the ensemble's "somebody's eyes". over-all, it's a statement against being closed-minded and biased, and, for the optimist in me: reinforces the value of every person's efforts, however small they may seem.
anecdote: there's a part where iya's character asks: "you think of me?" (yeah, yeah, fishing) and jay-r's character says: "i think of you 24 hours a day."...and the audience snickered for a few seconds--you get the joke, right? though i'm pretty sure that's in the original script anyway.
"footloose" is really worth seeing. and i'm glad i went. it made my weekend brighter, for sure.