Bongga Ka, ’Day!: When Atasha Muhlach proved detractors wrong

‘Bongga Ka, ’Day! The Annie Batungbakal Musical,’ based on the songs of Hotdog, runs at the Newport Performing Arts Theater until Oct. 31, 2026.

The late American journalist and book author P.J. O’ Rourke once wrote, “We’re always tempted to impute, unlikely virtues to the cute.”

He was describing the American people’s fascination with the charismatic Kennedy clan, the closest to American royalty they could get, and the political satirist used these cautionary lines to describe celebrity culture. 

We are reminded of this because of the ongoing show Bongga Ka ’Day! The Annie Batungbakal Musical at Newport Performing Arts Theater (NPAT). With the creative team from the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) Plus, the co-producers are Newport World Resorts led by executive chairman Kevin L. Tan, VIVA Communications Inc. led by founder and chairman of the board Vicente “Boss Vic” del Rosario Jr., and the Philippine STAR led by president and CEO Miguel G. Belmonte. This marks the second major theatrical venture among the three companies after Bagets The Musical.

Months before the Bongga Ka, ‘Day! opening on Sept. 18, 2026, there was negative criticism against its lead star, Atasha Muhlach, daughter of entertainment royal couple Aga Muhlach and Charlene Gonzales. 

The usual nitpickers and theater lovers dismissed Atasha as just another “nepo baby” trying her luck in musical theater. This, after her fraternal twin brother Andres debuted as lead actor in Bagets the Musical, which required a triple threat, but Andres seemed to need more workshops and exposure on the live stage as dancer, actor, and singer.  

Stunt casting is a pretty obvious reason why Andres got the role—to draw in a bigger crowd, the showbiz fans, more than theater regulars. Bagets, after all, was the 1980s coming-of-age sing-and-dance romcom youth-oriented movie that cemented the national heartthrob status of Aga.

Aga can’t sing even if his career depended on it, but he has been a convincing, graceful dancer and a versatile, credible, much-awarded actor. It is this inherent expectation to be goodlooking and talented all the time that made Andres and Atasha favorite targets of online ridicule, the prevalent cancel culture. They are the “nepo kids” who have to step up and carry the torch of the Muhlachs. 

Speaking as a father after the gala performance of Bongga Ka Day! last Sept. 18, Aga defended Atasha against her detractors. 

He said he’s aware how negative criticism affected Atasha, and so he buoyed her spirits up, telling her that’s how it is in showbusiness. “I’ve been quiet about this but at home, I saw what she went through. I told her, ‘Hayaan mo na sila. Haters are gonna hate. If you’re doing a project as big as Bongga Ka ’Day!, it’s common to have people who would drag you down. ‘Pag may nangyayaring maganda sa buhay mo, kaiinggitan ka talaga. Pero, konti lang naman sila. Patawarin sila ng Diyos. So, be nice always,” Aga, smiling with his killer dimples, said in an interview before the gala show.

He added, “I know Atasha’s got this. I know my daughter so well. Sparring partner ko ‘yan.  She’s doing her best to do the role. We are entertainers and we are paid to perform so I told her, just do the job, not to prove anything but to have fun.” 

In another interview, he also shared how Atasha asked her brother Andres what to do. Quoting Andres, he said, “Why ask me? You’re better than me. You know you can do this.”

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Suffice it to say, the “nepo” modifier has been a cruel one for Atasha and earlier, for Andres. In the latter part of 2025, “nepo kids,” “nepo girlfriends,” and “nepo mistresses” referred to children of, or those associated with, corrupt government officials and contractors involved in the flood-control scandal who flaunted their luxury bags, travels, and P1-million dinner tabs on social media. 

It is a sad and inappropriate label for children of showbiz royalty, because for all we know, the backlash may affect their mental health and well-being. Should they just stay in romcom and fantasy movies, noon-time shows and teleseryes? 

Aga Muhlach on his daughter: ‘I saw what she went through. I told her, “Hayaan mo na sila. Haters are gonna hate”’

Then again, Atasha proved her detractors wrong, based on what we saw on Sept. 18. 

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The same positive reactions were heard from theater reviewers and close observers on the second weekend, when the gala show took place. 

Atasha can dance, sing, and act. She prepared well. She may not be at the same level as professional musical theater actresses her age, but for a newbie, she believably carried the titular role of Annie Batungbakal. 

Early reports floated that Atasha was just handpicked for the role and didn’t go through audition. This was cleared by director Chris Millado, saying she went through the process and got the callback. What’s important, Atasha had the right attitude to prove her critics wrong.

For a humungous venue like the 1,700-plus-seat NPAT, having an elaborate set design, efficient sound system, colorful though restrained lighting, and not very loud but appropriately executed live music spelled the difference. 

Like in all musicals at the NPAT, there’s got to be those two Euro-LED screens with 3D effects, described as two of the biggest in Southeast Asia, one on each side of the stage, for audiences to see, at least, the facial expressions of the actors.

Much has been said about the design flaws of previous big-budget musicals in such spacious venues, but set designer Ohm David, lighting designer John Batalla, and video projection designer Bene Manaois did an excellent job in giving audiences a more engaging theatrical experience.

The common pitfall of using the discography of a popular band for a musical is weaving a story by placing stanzas, the chorus, or excerpts of a chosen song like a jigsaw puzzle. Most of the time, the end product doesn’t make any sense at all, and one may feel like they’re watching a concert with actors doing several ad libs.

But Chris Millado, playwright Liza Magtoto, and musical director-arranger-composer Vince Lim got it right by focusing on a feel-good rom-com narrative with a clear mission; thus, the subtitle Based on the Songs of Hotdog after the main title.,

Conductor Micky Jacinto, musical director Rodel Colmenar and the rest of the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra, like in previous musicals staged at NPAT, executed the arrangement for the accompanying music with the same virtuosic touch. 

There was a Nora Aunor-starrer movie in the late 1970s, and it has been clarified that Bongga Ka, ’Day is not an adaptation of that, but an entirely different, new story. 

The setting is the Manila scene in 1979. Based on the synopsis, we quote: “Disco reigns supreme and Coco Banana is the hottest place to see and be seen. At the heart of Manila’s bohemian scene are personalities straight out of lifestyle and society pages.

“From Frisco in Quezon City comes Annie Batungbakal, a sales clerk at House of Pasion, who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Restless with the life she knows, Annie believes her talent and her quirky ideas could take her somewhere bigger.

“When Romer, the proprietor’s son, returns from abroad, Annie finds herself drawn to him and to the glamorous world he inhabits. Soon, she gets her chance to enter Coco Banana, where she meets people who seem to hold the keys to her dreams. But as Annie becomes increasingly immersed in this new world, she begins to lose sight of what makes her Annie.

“Grounding her is Burn, her childhood friend and a musician determined to make his own mark, who has never stopped caring for her. As Annie chases the life she thinks she wants, those closest to her begin to wonder: how much of yourself are you willing to give up just to belong?”

Among the lead actors, KD Estrada is the only one without an alternate, though with an understudy, Rapah Manalo (A Chorus Line, Shrek the Musical, Ang Huling El Bimbo). Ergo, he’ll play the aspiring young musician named Burn most of the shows, if not all the shows, until October 31. As we all know, an alternate does other regular shows while an understudy only comes in if the actor and his alternate get sick or are derailed from performing due to other unexpected circumstances.

It’s the same with Atasha, whose understudy is Iyah Villanueva, an up-and-coming triple threat whose credentials include A Chorus Line, among others, but we remember her so vividly in her buwis buhay role in the rock opera Si Faust (After Goethe) at the Arete late last year. We’d love to see her as the other Annie on some shows. Then again, she’s in all the shows as a member of the ensemble.  

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The zeitgeist of Bongga Ka, ’Day! was that decade when good-looking people were named Romer and Burn the same way the good guys could be named Melvin, Chris, Vince, Johnnie or Johnny, and the ladies were not only called Annie, but also Liza, pronounced Lai-Zuh, as in Minnelli and Magtoto. 

The early ’80s was a time when our kuyas and ates and titos and titas stayed up late at night to drink healing water as prescribed by radio broadcaster Johnny Midnight. And this has been used as comic relief in Bongga Ka, ’Day!

The night we saw it, theater hunk Sam Concepcion played Romer. No doubt, he’s one of the most sought-after, handsome, buffed triple threats nowadays, and as we expected, he showed his well-shaped biceps in one scene that sent female members of the audience of all ages gasping for breath. He pulled the same stunt in PETA’s One More Chance the Musical, and by showing his gym-chiseled abs, chest, and arms once again for Bongga Ka, ‘Day!, it seems his physique is a mandatory highlight in any show he’s in. He has two alternates, Anthony Rosaldo and Jeff Moses. 

We’re delighted to see veteran multi-platform actress Jackie Lou Blanco playing Aurora Pasion, the motherly character in the House of Pasion. 

Blanco has been very visible in theater nowadays. Most recent was in the Virgin Labfest 2026, where she played the titular role in the play Lualhati, about a middle-aged nun in a monastery being visited by her former lover, a former postulant named Jacinta, played by Angel Aquino. Prior to that, she did Anthropology for Barefoot Theatre Collaborative. We love seeing veteran film and TV actors like Blanco doing more theater nowadays. It’s like they finally found home. 

Blanco has an alternate, Ring Antonio (Bagets the Musical, Shrek the Musical, Delia D., Bituing Walang Ninging). 

Another delight is veteran comedian John Lapus, who plays Tarurit the opinionated gay mother of Coco Banana and other quirky characters that show his natural comedic timing. In one scene, he plays a typical tambay in a kanto catcalling Annie. 

Dancer-choreographer-actor Dindo Divinagracia is Lapus’ alternate. 

The second weekend run had not-so-favorable reactions from members of the boomer generation who were there in the ’70s and ’80s when it all happened, saying how the clothes used for Atasha were mixed up. 

A veteran singer-actress whose real name we won’t mention had a comment on Atasha’s costumes: “I don’t recall any of us dressing up in Christmas tree decor in the ’70s.”

A veteran singer-actress on Atasha’s costumes: ‘I don’t recall any of us dressing up in Christmas tree decor in the ’70s’

Another, someone who shall also remain nameless, agreed: “No one wore clothes that looked like pieces of trapo and bling that looked like hanging tinsel in a barrio fiesta. The costumes in general were over-the-top trying hard.”

A third one, a veteran male singer, said, “They confused early ’70s fashion with late ’70s disco fashion, which was less hippy and more classy (Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci, Bill Blass). Some were dressed a la summer of love 1969.” He used three laugh emojis as punctuation.

And of course, mentioned was the name Ernest Santiago, the late, great fashion designer, bon vivant, club owner of Coco Banana. There was a complaint about the missing sign of Coco Banana and a coconut tree beside it, or something like that, in the set design.

The again, it’s still early, and adjustments can be made, since Chris Millado was all ears and eyes. 

I never saw Coco Banana because it was closed long before I became of legal age to drink. All I know, from articles I’ve read, is that it was our version of Studio 54. But in the mid-2000s, I remember seeing Santiago de Manila the fashion house in front of Penguin Café in Remedios Circle in Malate, which I frequented. An old friend was a regular at Penguin, and confirmed that it was indeed the famed Santiago de Manila. Now, even Penguin is gone and the area has become a generic row of Korean bars and restaurants. 

Recently, pioneering fashion designer Budji Layug watched the show, and it was a fitting tribute for him and those in his generation. In the titular song, there’s the first stanza:  

Lahat ay nagulat nang buksan ang pinto/Sayaw ng mga tao’y biglang nahinto/Buhok mo’y Budji, talampaka’y Gucci/Suot mo’y gawa ni Pitoy/’Di nanggaling kay Eloy…

Layug owned a hair salon in the ’70s called Budjiwara. 

Of course, Pitoy is fashion icon Jose “Pitoy” Moreno, and Eloy’s was a second-hand clothing thrift store in Sta. Cruz, Manila, the ukay-ukay stop of the ’70s.

I saw Hotdog perform live on several occasions when I was actively covering the music scene decades ago. While on stage, the brothers Rene and Dennis Garcia recounted their earlier influences before forming Hotdog in 1973. Their first band was called Red Fox, formed in the late 1960s with their neighbors in Sta. Ana Manila, the Padua brothers Ricky, Bobby, and Buddy, plus another neighbor named Gerry Valero.

The Red Fox covered the hits of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and other founding fathers of rock’n’roll and heavy metal. Whenever they were performing, they would tell this back story to the crowd. Rene would play the opening leads in and sang some excerpts from Hendrix’s Purple Haze, Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water, Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love, or the hauntingly hypnotic long intro of Led Zep’s Stairway To Heaven. They did those songs, as we used to say in Filipino, “sobrang plakado.”

Then they would play their original Hotdog hits: Manila, Ikaw Ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko, Badaf Forever, Beh Buti Nga, Mr. Midnight, and the two final songs that never failed to bring everyone up and dancing, even those who were only having iced tea instead of alcohol: Annie Batungbakal and Bongga Ka ’Day! 

I got help in recalling facts about Hotdog from Mismo! Everybody Needs An Inspiration, a coffeetable book written by Dennis’ daughter Isabel Garcia, published and printed in 2025 by Central Book Supply, Inc. 

‘Mismo! Everybody Needs An Inspiration,’ a coffeetable book written by Dennis’ daughter Isabel Garcia and published in 2025, is being sold at NPAT during the show

Isabel told me copies of Mismo have been made available at the Bongga Ka ’Day! merchandise stall where T-shirts, posters, ref magnets, souvenir programs, tote bags, and other items are being sold at the NPAT vestibule.

It’s a gem of a book, not text heavy—just enough to tell the story of the iconic OPM band from the point of view of a family member, with quotes from reputable magazines and newspapers and TV interviews with Rene and Dennis. It has lots of photos, exclusives from the Garcia clan, that music lovers would surely treasure. 

There were a lot of versions floating on social media and some websites on how Annie Batungbakal was written, saying how the Garcia brothers composed it as tribute to domestic helpers. 

The Garcia brothers, as members of Red Fox, performed for several years in Hawaii and Hong Kong before coming back to Manila and writing their own songs. As Hotdog, they started a new genre called the Manila Sound.

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We wonder, was Annie Batungbakal a real person? There were so many Facebook accounts using that name, we might as well clarify from our main source. 

With Isabel’s permission, we quote from her book: “While performing in Hong Kong in the ’70s, the brothers noticed that there were so many Filipinas dancing in the crowd. This was a happy surprise but totally unexpected. They noticed one other thing: these Filipinas only showed up during their Sunday gigs.

“They later found out that these Filipinas were part of the domestic helper labor force.  

“The song Annie Batungbakal, a hard-working woman in the morning and a fabulous party girl at night, was inspired by these women.

“While Annie isn’t a real person, the brothers also modeled her after their sister, Gina. ‘In the morning she’d be at the advertising agency but a night, she’d be at Coco Banana dancing,’ Dennis shares in an old interview with I-Witness in 2014.”

There was also a portion on how and for whom Ikaw Ang Miss Universe Ng Buhay Ko was composed, among other hits. 

The book gives us a glimpse of how it was growing up with two OPM icons who, at home, were simply your loving dad and uncle, living life like any other good providers for the family. 

Rene succumbed to a heart attack on Sept. 2, 2018 at age 65. Dennis passed away on Jan. 18, 2020 at 69. 

Of course, there’s the music.

Isabel wrote: “There is no family dinner where we don’t play their music. There is no family gathering where we don’t talk about them. There is no endeavor—no gig, album, play, or book—where their imprints do not linger on.”

At this point, it’s too early to say how the musical will be received by audiences from different walks of life. As of this writing, some relatives and siblings of the Garcia brothers protested on social media about how the Hotdog songs were altered, like changing some of the lyrics to fit the dialogues, and other concerns. Some even call for a boycott. 

But like we explained it earlier, some musicals are written that way—thus, the disclaimer “based on the songs of Hotdog.”

Atasha being doubted, and now here comes more. Does Bongga Ka, ’Day! carry that much baggage? 

Well, we’d like to think, some people love Hotdog music in its purest form, and there’s always Spotify, YouTube, vinyl recordings, probably cassette tapes and all. Some show bands would even do plakado versions of their songs. 

This writer still recommends that theater lovers and fans of the Muhlachs catch the show and judge for themselves. And read Mismo! Everybody Needs An Inspiration, which, incidentally, is priced cheaper than the show’s VIP seat. At least, if you don’t dig the musical, you’ll surely love the story of the Hotdog journey in—as Dennis would wish for— creating songs “that brought out the pride in being Pinoy.”

Nowadays, only Alex Eala is doing that.