Chris Millado is director of ‘Bongga Ka Day the musical’ (Contributed photo)
Chris Millado, known for directing maverick, nationalistic, award-winning Filipino musicals like Mabining Mandirigma and Anak Datu, is the director of the highly anticipated Bongga Ka, Day: The Annie Batungbakal Musical. It is scheduled for September this year at Newport Performing Arts Theater (NPAT).
“PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association) Plus offered the project to me that was originally given to (retired PETA artistic director) Maribel Legarda. It was the version that was cancelled six years ago because of the pandemic lockdowns,” Millado told The Diarist.ph.
The communications department of Newport World Resorts confirmed to The Diarist.ph that Millado has been chosen by PETA Plus, the creative team behind the musical, and co-producers Newport World Resorts, Viva Communications, and Philippine Star.
It is the same team behind the hugely successful Bagets the Musical, which Legarda directed.
According to the team, there was a schedule conflict for Legarda who has committed to direct PETA’s upcoming Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4, to run June to August at PETA Phinma Theater in Quezon City.
With script and libretto by Liza Magtoto (Rak of Aegis, Care Divas, A Game of Trolls), Bongga Ka Day! features the music of Hotdog.
Vince Lim (Photo from PETA website)
Vince Lim, PETA’s senior artist-teacher, is musical director. In the 2019 cancelled production, Myke Salomon (Ang Huling El Bimbo, Rak of Aegis) was to be musical director and arranger.
“This is a totally new production of Bongga Ka Day,” the communications team of Newport World Resorts told The Diarist.ph.
Lim was musical director of this year’s well-received Bagets the Musical and last year’s smash hit Delia D, an original musical by Full House Theater Company, the resident theater company of Newport World Resorts. Delia D used the music of composer-producer Jonathan Manalo, head of creatives, content, and operations and concurrent assistant vice president at ABS-CBN Music.
Lim was also musical director and composer for PETA’s landmark productions, such as the musical farce Walang Aray and the political satirical comedy, Charot!
Hotdog was one of the pioneers of the Manila Sound that started in the 1970s, known for their hits Annie Batungbakal, Bongga Ka Day, Manila, Ikaw Ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko, Pers Lab and a lot more.
Bongga Ka Day! was supposed to be the next musical after Ang Huling El Bimbo (AHEB), the massive hit jukebox musical featuring the discography of the Eraserheads. The pandemic put a halt to everything.
We asked Millado how influential Hotdog was in his growing up years. “The songs of Hotdog were the soundtrack of my college years (with the songs of Joni Mitchell, Bee Gees, Patatag, and protest songs),” he said. His top three favorites were Manila, Bongga ka Day and Annie Batungbakal.
‘The songs of Hotdog were the soundtrack of my college years,’ Millado said. His top three songs: ‘Manila,’ ‘Bongga ka Day,’ and ‘Annie Batungbakal’
As director, Millado’s first musical was 2008’s EJ: Ang Pinagdaanang Buhay nina Evelio Javier at Edgar Jopson, featuring the songs of The Dawn. “The precursor of local jukebox musicals, I believe,” Millado said, smiling. Mabining Mandirigma, Anak Datu, and EJ were all original works by Tanghalang Pilipino, the resident theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
Millado has written and directed straight plays since college at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. He was also artist-teacher in PETA. Millado joined in 1982, eventually directing Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas, Ibong Mandaragit, Miserere Nobis (co-writer), Balete and Don_Q. He wrote and directed the one-act protest play, Buwan at Baril sa EB Major, staged by PETA in 1984.
Millado was PETA’s artistic director from 1989 to 1990. He studied at New York University and has also directed plays off-Broadway. Among the theater groups he collaborated with was the New York City-based Asian-American group, MaYi Theater Company.
He wrote and directed peregriNasyon (Wandering Nation), his adaptation of the seminal novel, America Is In The Heart by Carlos Bulosan. It was premiered by Teatro ng Tanan (TnT) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. It was premiered in Hawaii at the Kumu Kahua Theater before it was staged in New York City with May-i Theater in 1998. It went back to Hawaii for inter-island performances before its premiere in the Philippines during the International Theater Festival at CCP in 1998. In those years, Millado was artistic director of Hawai’i Alliance for the Performing Arts.
He also toured Knives, Fans & Whipping Sticks in the Hawaii islands. “I also did a multicultural Panunuluyan Search for an Inn at the Waipahu Plantation Village with artists of Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and Portuguese descent,” he said.
In 1999, he wrote and directed Nikimalika at the Kennedy Center UH Manoa and New York with May-i. It is about the indigenous people of Bontoc, Mountain Province, who were brought to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.
Millado was CCP’s vice president and artistic director. He retired in May 2022, after working at CCP for two decades. He is now freelance director and cultural organizer, and festival director of the annual Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.
Millado’s sterling background, achievements, and experiences in directing theater have always been—to use a famous Filipino street term for “fabulous”—“bonggang-bongga”!
For Bongga Ka, ‘Day, auditions have been held at the PETA Phinma Theater. As for who got the callbacks, theater followers need to wait for further official announcements.
