#i love theatre so much

[lesmiserablol]

tramell tillman is the kind of actor that you expect to look up and find years of theatre experience with at least half a dozen shakespeare credits to his name but then on the severance podcast he’s like “yeah i didn’t realize i wanted to be an actor until a few years ago 🤗” as if his role as milchick isn’t the craziest/coolest/scariest performance you’ve seen

[tognaeg]

why are emotions

and why can a sheet of plastic, waved around on stage by lovable idiots I know, cause them

accursed theatre, beloved theatre

[love-little-lotte]

Miss Saigon in Manila!

Here in the Philippines, even if you're not a fan of musical theatre, you'd definitely know about Miss Saigon and Lea Salonga. That's how big this show is to many people here. The last time this show was in the country was way back in 2000, with Salonga herself playing the role of Kim. It also blessed us with a full pro shot available on YouTube, giving me and my fellow Gen-Z theatre fans a glimpse of Salonga in her most acclaimed role.

Fast-forward to 24 years later, and Miss Saigon is finally back, stopping in the Philippines for their international tour. My mother has been such a huge fan of Miss Saigon. As a child, I remember her playing her Original London Cast cassette (double tapes, of course, one of each act) and singing along to "I Still Believe." In 2014, she also bought me the cast recording of the West End revival, and I used to play this a lot because I was obsessed with Eva Noblezada's voice.

So, of course, there's no way we're going to miss Miss Saigon in Manila (even if we had to travel miles and ride a plane!) Along with us was also my older brother and his girlfriend. Watching this musical with my family was so, so exciting and certainly just too much for one heart.

This is my third show in the Solaire theatre, and so far, Miss Saigon has been the first to blow me away with its production. Don't get me wrong, the Phantom's Lair from POTO and the revolving stage from Hamilton were amazing, but Miss Saigon's production was so extravagant and spectacular that my mouth was just hanging open the entire time — especially during "Kim's Nightmare." That helicopter scene was just so fricking cool.

The story itself can still be a hit or miss. While some aspects are not as offensive as the original run (changing the lyrics in The Wedding Ceremony to actual Vietnamese words, for example), the show is still far from perfect and has so many dated themes... which I fear could never be corrected properly even in the future. There's simply no way you can make productions of this musical without including the problematic parts, so I understand why some people don't like this show. However, I'd argue that the show is not a white savior story. Is Chris really a white savior if he didn't get to save Kim in the end? He's not the hero of the story. (No one is; it's a tragedy.)

Nonetheless, there are still so many things to like about Miss Saigon, especially the score. Les Misérables is one of my favorite shows of all time, but Miss Saigon's music kicks its ass any day. While Les Mis has better individual songs, Miss Saigon's overall score always brings a chill up my spine. In addition to "Kim's Nightmare," "This Is The Hour" is one of my favorite moments and that's all because of the soaring music and the ensemble.

I also enjoyed the incredible cast during our show. Everyone was superb and amazing at bringing this show to life. Abigail Adriano, who played Kim, astonished me; how that powerful voice came out of such a small girl is beyond me! She's only 19, but wow, she commanded the stage like a pro and transported the audience to another dimension with her vocal chops alone. Her versions of "You Will Not Touch Him" and "I'd Give My Life For You" were too good. Her acting was also on-point. Adriano's Kim was so gentle yet strong and fearless. My family and I also got to stagedoor (my first time!) and when we approached her, I jokingly said, "You made me cry!" to which she replied, "I'm sorry!"

I was so looking forward to watching Seann Miley Moore as the Engineer ("EnginQueer," if you will). Instead, we got Nicholas Kong, who was such a great scene-stealer! His version of "The American Dream" absolutely gagged me — and not just because of the visuals. His Engineer also reminded me so much of the Thenardiers from Les Mis than other versions I've seen: funny but also a scheming menace.

Nigel Huckle played Chris in this performance and was also terrific. See, I've never warmed up to Chris in other versions. Some Chris actors are too aggressive, and I feel like they don't really care about Ellen in Act 2. But Huckle was different; he also even actually made me feel sorry for Chris. I can feel his desperation and confusion in "Why God Why." He also shared really good chemistry with Adriano; their "Sun and Moon" was too perfect.

Another performance that I was so looking forward to was Kiara Dario, who played Gigi. I've been seeing a lot of her tweets and simply loving her theatre-girl energy so much. A homegrown Filipina talent, she showcased everything: her impressive dance moves (no wonder she's part of a girl group here in the Philippines), her vocals, and of course, her acting. I'd love to see her in another big role soon or even grace the Broadway stage.

Here are some pictures from my first stagedoor (I wish we'd had more but we got so overwhelmed and frankly, we got tired from the very long day):

Overall, just a really fun night in the theatre with my family and so many wonderful performances. Definitely one for the books!

[t4kispace]

falsettos!!

heres most of my falsettos art so far!!!! i love this musical so damn much . the characters are so unique and im in love w the songs. also christian borle is my girlfriend (im so obsessed w that man it actually hurts)

[deadpoets]

DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) dir. Peter Weir

[shawsimmer]

🏡🫶🏽

[itstatennant]

no you don’t understand i love them so much

[hasthecityrearranged]

Reciprocating face touches

[broadwaylewzur]

more college whizzvin for the soul

i imagine this is like the day after holding hands for the first time at a little friend get together and theyre both like WIGGING OUT

[strangely-epic]

outing myself as an ex theatre kid with this one

[clefadrylcorner]

He's goth. He's bisexual. He's a disaster. He's canonically a dilf. He's worked for Count Dracula (that one) for literal decades. He's part of a codependent relationship support group. He eats bugs. He makes snicker doodles. His studio apartment looks like it came out of a 70s tie dye event. He wears pastel square sweaters. He decapitated a man by punching him. He has self-help books lining the wall of his home. He cut off a guys arms with a cheap serving platter. He brought flowers to give a witness statement. He drugged and brought many people to their deaths. He doesn't like ska. He's covered in blood for half the movie. He even did coke. I didn't say his name but he popped into your head didn't he?

[strokingbooks]

Djo performing at Enmore Theatre

[marsmallowthecheeseqizaed]

sketched this todayyyye

while watching IN TROUSERS!!!!!!!!!!!

[ingravinoveritas]

Everything about this is a serve on every conceivable level and I am here for it...

[applepixls]

lizzie's special section of jimmy's castle actually is doing crazy things to my brain

like grian going "sounds like a job for bossy ol' me"

and the way grian said "impulse and joel turn around" and impulse immediately and literally blindly just went "turnin' around."

skizz trying to find grian so he could shoot him fdgujdf

[hgracieeees]

my thoughts on the australian hadestown cast!

n.b. these are MY thoughts on how i felt and percieved the australian cast's takes on characters that i've seen many versions of. personally, i felt this show presented similtaneously very fresh and very accurate versions of these beautiful characters <3 in this post, i focused more on the differences rather than the similarities to previous performances.

noah mullins' orpheus is very awkward but in such a sweet way. he's clearly autistic-coded - he fully jumped when he turned around during 'road to hell' to 'see' the audience (+ his wave is so sweetly shy rather than over-earnest) and at one point during 'wait for me (reprise)' he started stimming out of stress & overstimulation. he has less of the socially-inept earnestness than maybe reeve carney's oprheus had (more of a socially-inept awkwardness), but it came out properly in 'come home with me' towards eurydice - it seems like he's terrified of socialising with everyone except her. noah is incredibly lanky, and so their orpheus very much has the vibe of his legs and arms being so long that he never quite learned how to use them properly, which suits his orpheus perfectly. their 'is it true' is powerful not because of an extreme emotional performance (see donal finn's) but because he seemed comfortable and in control for the first time. his neurodivergency also feels a lot more pronounced during 'doubt comes in' - the loss of confidence and increased anxiety feels very natural for his orpheus, as devestating as it is. his awkwardness being said, he is very physically comfortable with eurydice - they and abigail were so adorable during 'way down hadestown', the two of them feel like teenagers who have just gotten into their first relationship. i've heard noah talk about how much they wanted to work with abi, and i'm so glad they got that chance!

abigail adriano's eurydice is a tough little thing. abigail is quite small in stature, especially next to noah, and so she seems to be twice as thick-skinned and aggressive during the opening couple of songs to make up for it. at the beginning she is flighty and quick with the way she runs away from the fates, hades & even orpheus at the beginning of their relationship, super determined to protect herself, but she's got a real baby face which makes you just ache for her and the pain she's clearly already experienced. it also means that when eurydice gets more comfortable during the summer (during 'way down' and 'all i've ever known'), this sweetness just blooms out of her. her and noah have incredible chemistry, and she just turns into a little schoolgirl with a first crush during 'way down'. her 'wait for me (reprise)' is INCREDIBLE, such a powerful voice out of this small girl, and her 'flowers' is SO emotional. also just before the turn, she is like swinging along the set, as if she has so much trust in orpheus and is so excited to leave hadestown and spend the rest of her life with him, which just makes the turn 100x more painful.

christine anu is just the perfect choice for an australian hermes. she has a brilliant Aboriginal aunty vibe about her (we love seeing First Nations people in australian theatre!) - especially as some of the more spoken lines, she really leans into the aussie vowels (e.g. 'we're gonna sing it again' and 'don't come on too strong'). she's got an incredible voice & stage presence, and even though the way she holds herself onstage felt at times as if she perhaps has less musical theatre experience and more experience performing as a singer in her own right (i haven't looked at her resume), that seems to work pefectly for the narrator character, who straddles the fourth wall the entire show. it really has the vibe of her telling all of us a story around the campfire, and she really milked the beginning of 'road to hell (reprise)' for all it's worth. this hermes seems to LOVE telling this story, as painful it is - she's joyful & hopeful in her telling, it's much less of a tortured narrator and much more of a 'this is an important story to tell and it's a story of HOPE despite tragedy' type of vibe. her and elenoa's persephone are girl besties, and she has a real aunty type of love & care (like the aunty who you're not related to, but has always been there) for all the workers + orphy & eury (as noah & abi call them). she honestly feels like the oldest and most mature presence on the stage - older than hades & persephone (read on for my thoughts on a slightly younger-feeling seph & hades), and so able to tell this story from a more mature & knowledgeable position.

elenoa rokobaro's persephone is so much fun. she plays persephone a lot drunker (during 'our lady' and the other underworld scenes) than i'd seen before, which made her alcoholism a lot more obvious and powerful, especially the 'i've had enough' line in 'how long'. she feels a lot younger than amber gray's persephone, which i think makes her story a lot more powerful - almost like a younger sister to christine's hermes at times, and similarly, i felt more of a big sister vibe to eurydice rather than the aunty vibe which i get from amber gray's persephone. i think her overt drunkeness represents her take on the character well - she's a lot looser with her movements, less of the awkward jerkiness of amber's persephone and more of a free, all-encompassing movement (in my opinion). i loved it - her 'our lady' is so much fun, but also a lot more confronting (due to how clear her alcohol-induced numbness is covering up a pain). her and adrian seem almost playful during 'epic III - they danced', which i think contributed to the fun, younger vibe.

adrian tamburini's hades has a similarly younger vibe to him - almost sleazy but not quite (and by younger, i mean compared to patrick page, not to the rest of the characters - him and persephone are still clearly older than orpheus & eurydice). he gave real business ceo vibes at times. this hades really struck me with that insecurity leading to immaturity that every hades textually has, but the immaturity of his behaviour really comes out in adrian's choices. he seems really petty in the way he treats the workers & persephone while he's upset about her being away from him. also, his 'hey little songbird' is much more melodic than patrick page's, which is super powerful when you're used to the low growl, and is very alluring in a different way - a much more similar allure to orpheus'. his 'why we build the wall' and 'chant (reprise)' were SO powerful, though, a real power and anger present in that low voice. they were also slightly more explicit about the subtle sexual connotations of 'he closed the door behind' in 'why we build the wall' and 'the girl means nothing to me' in 'how long' which just made you the right amount of uneasy. i think overall, the younger vibe that adrian and elenoa both have leads to a real pettiness in their anger at each other and a real playfulness in their reunion (e.g. when he grows the flower in 'epic III'). they don't so much have that 'ancient' vibe that patrick & amber had, but i think it upholds the insecurity & immaturity in their actions rather than undermines it (which it absolutely could have if done wrong). i feel like instead of it saying 'here's this ancient couple who are failing at communicating and caring for each other in the way they should, an ancient couple who are still insecure and immature', they are an incredibly powerful couple who are still figuring out how to love each other, despite the length of their relationship and their ultimate power over the workers & the seasons.

conclusion: GO SEE THIS CAST. like i said at the top, these performances felt both new, as well as true to the text and to the original concepts for these characters. they didn't make a single choice that i felt undermined the characters or any other interpretation of them, and they all perfectly enhanced the themes & narrative of the story. by comparing this cast to the original broadway or to the west end casts, i feel like i just understand the chraracters and the text even more then i already did, bringing out new nuances or new ways of representing the same experiences within the same story. i'm going to see it again in april, so if i see these guys again (i would also love to see any of the swing's takes on the roles) then i might add to the post <3

professional photos of this cast: 1 | 2 b-roll: 1