
Floyd Tena as the quietly suffering husband in ‘Next to Normal’ (Photo by Erickson dela Cruz)

Nikki Valdez as the bi-polar wife and mother in ‘Next to Normal’ (Photo by Erickson dela Cruz)
Next to Normal is playing every weekend at the Power Mac Spotlight Theater at Circuit Makati until Feb. 23, 2025.
Late last year, a theater company invited media to the rehearsals for its musical production, Once on This Island, at Mirror Studio Theater in Kalayaan Avenue, Makati.
The cast performed a few songs. The actors were young, vibrant, and so talented, but I wasn’t fond of the show. I saw an early production way back when RCBC’s Carlos P. Romulo auditorium was newly opened. I found it unmemorable and too juvenile. Now before anyone accuses me of belittling works meant to entertain the little ones, I should point out that I thoroughly enjoyed Repertory Philippines’ Jepoy and the Magic Circle.
I asked the director of Once on this Island, the ebullient Robby Guevara, what show he planned to direct next. He said he would like something by Stephen Sondheim. Why not one of his earlier works like Gypsy, I asked. It’s often revived on Broadway, and it’s time Filipino audiences discovered why people in New York still line up to see it. As far as I know, it’s never been staged here.
Guevara explained why it hasn’t had a local production: “Gypsy is a great show, but it’s hard to market and difficult to cast. Most local theater groups are after the younger audience—an audience that isn’t familiar with Gypsy.”
It was disappointing to hear that. Gypsy is based on the memoir of Gypsy Rose Lee (1911- 1970), the elegant burlesque performer and stripper who became a film actress and TV talk show host. The story centers on her volatile relationship with her driven stage mother called Mama Rose. In the musical, Mama Rose is the bigger role.
The show-stopping songs were composed by Jules Styne (he also wrote Funny Girl), with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. When Gypsy opened in 1959, it starred Broadway belter Ethel Merman as Mama Rose. She brought the house down each night with her tour de force rendition of the meltdown number, Rose’s Turn. This 11th hour song follows a violent argument between mother and daughter, who at that point wants to be free from the tight reins of Mama Rose. The enraged mother storms out and starts parodying her daughter’s strip-teasing skills (“Hold your hats and hallelujah, Mama’s gonna show it to ya!”}. She belts out, “If it wasn’t for me just where you would be, Miss Gypsy Rose Lee!”
There are two movie versions of Gypsy. The big-budget version was produced in 1962 with Rosalind Russell as Mama Rose and Natalie Wood as Gypsy Rose Lee. In 1993, a TV version was made with Bette Midler as the stage mother. There would have been a third movie had Barbra Streisand pushed through with directing and starring in a second remake. That’s how strong its staying power is. A lot of entertainers still hold a keen interest in it.
Several Broadway revivals have been produced with the likes of Angela Lansbury, Patti Lupone, and Bernadette Peters playing Mama Rose. This meaty part is arguably the Hamlet of female musical stars of a certain age. Doing Rose’s Turn is the litmus test, and most of the actresses who played Mama Rose passed with flying colors. Chris Colfer also slayed it with his own rendition in an episode of Glee. Audra McDonald is now wowing audiences in yet another Broadway revival.
After the conversation with the director who downplayed the appeal of Gypsy with Filipino theatergoers, I braved the city’s red-light district to get to Makati Avenue. I remembered what he told me: Gypsy is hard to market. Sell it as a story about a stripper. Habitués of sleazy P. Burgos Street would line up to see it. Difficult to cast? Our country is rich with musical talent, as the cast of Once on this Island showed.

Topper Fabregas and Missy Maramara at curtain call of ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries,’ which was staged at Mirror Studio Theater in Makati.
A few weeks later I found myself again at the Mirror Studio. My friend, Phil Panganiban, had an extra ticket to a play, Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph. An intriguing two-character play, it was well acted by Missy Maramara and Topper Fabregas. But as the title suggests, the situations are repugnant, the conclusion a downer. The evening’s highlight for me was sitting next to Anton Juan, who gingerly mentioned that he designed Mirror Studio Theater, the first of its kind in the country. The wall behind the small stage is covered with mirrors, and one can see oneself sitting through the play and the rest of the audience reacting to it.
Gruesome Playground Injuries was among the many plays we saw the past year that dwelt on depression and suicide. And two years before that I saw a short film in the Mulat Arts Festival in Quezon City, about a young working class lady living alone in a studio. She arrives from work exhausted, having one of those “I had a bad day at work and I want to quit” moments. She does a few chores and starts opening her mail, mainly bills. The film ends when she breaks down and sobs, “Hindi ko na kaya!”
I can’t remember the title of that film, but I loved the fact that the filmmaker got his message across in just over 10 minutes. He mercifully stopped short of having his lone protagonist jump off the high-rise building.
The festival’s next film, Bunyag, featured a much more provocative subject. It’s a about a Filipino nudist who earns the disdain of the people who see him in his birthday suit. This short film by Pampanga-based artist Sig Yu held the audience in complete attention. I hope it’s not because of the nudity, but because of the artist’s treatise on the double standards people adhere to. In the end, the nudist breaks down in tears.
Then there was Red starring Bart Guingona and JC Santos. Presented by Guingona’s Necessary Theater, the two-character play by John Logan is about a famous artist. The contretemps leads to his eventual suicide. The performances were brilliant. There was another play about suicide, which dared to sell tickets that cost two arms and two legs. As a cure for insomnia, it was a bargain.
Theater director and Lower House Representative Toff de Venecia also prefers to direct plays with darker themes through his company, the Sandbox Collective. His latest production is the Tony Award-winning rock opera, Next to Normal. It’s now playing every weekend at the Power Mac Spotlight Theater at Circuit Makati until Feb. 23, 2025.
The plot is depressing, of course. It resonates perhaps with de Venecia because like the family in the story, he experienced an unimaginably painful tragedy—the death of his sister in a fire that razed their home at Christmas many years ago.
Yet watching Next to Normal, supposedly about depression, is like watching a rock concert. The songs by Tom Kitt made us want to get up and groove to the energetic music. One of the songs, Perfect for You, is a play on My Favorite Things, but performed with a jazzy arrangement that harks back to the exquisite works of Dave Brubeck and David Benoit. But listen to the lyrics and you realize how heartrending the songs are. They tell the story of a bi-polar housewife whose condition has caused tremendous psychological damage on her two children and husband.
Next to Normal is Toff de Venecia’s finest production yet. The cast I saw makes the characters so sympathetic. Nikki Valdez gives the performance of a lifetime as the mother whose loss of her baby boy has severely damaged her ability to cope in the real world. As the conflicted husband, Floyd Tena is moving, especially during the show’s final moments. And what a voice he has!
This rock opera also has its funny moments. Sometimes, however, the cast lacks the timing and delivery to draw the big laughs. Also, the costumes look drab, like pulled out from ukay-ukay.
Once the cast starts singing, the shortcomings vanish
But once the cast starts singing, the shortcomings vanish. If only to witness what they can do with a song, this production is not to be missed. De Venecia should produce a cast recording. If I feel like revisiting the play, I can just listen to the recording instead of watching it. I’ve placed Next to Normal next to Rent and Schindler’s List in a category of brilliant films and plays I won’t sit through again. Spending another two hours watching miserable living at its worst is a sure way to prevent an endorphin release.
Presenting such thought-provoking fare to the Filipino audience is always highly commendable. It provides a riveting theater experience, and we’re glad to be given access to it. Producers also can’t be faulted for pandering to younger audiences who wouldn’t be caught dead watching a play unless it’s a musical based on an old John Lloyd Cruz movie (the stage version of One More Chance did place bigger emphasis on mental illness).
It’s just that I’m so done with watching feel-bad plays. I’d like to see something that doesn’t have a social message to say, preferably one that isn’t for children. So I pestered de Venecia about Gypsy. I cornered him at where else, the Mirror Studio where rehearsals were held. He said he’d like to do another classic again. Three years ago he directed Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel for Repertory Philippines. He agreed to direct it only because it was R&H’s darkest work. He also agreed that Gypsy should be staged here, but by another company.
Next to Normal is not iconic in the way Phantom of the Opera is, but the queue to the theater entrance at Circuit Makati was impressively long. The talents from ABS-CBN’s Star Magic probably pulled most of the audience in. It’s a foolproof strategy, and I’m sure any theater company can whip up an infallible plan to lure an even bigger audience for Gypsy.
It’s imperative to continue reviving the classics, and to introduce them to the next generations. It’s the only way to get the younger theatergoers familiar with them. Broadway has been doing it. For each new groundbreaking show like Dear Evan Hansen, there’s a revival of a classic like The King and I or Hello Dolly!. The hit series Glee has been doing the same. I’m no fan of the show, but it’s done its share of introducing the music of the likes of Burt Bacharach to a younger audience. Gypsy has been revived again and again for over six decades because audiences across the ocean want to see it. It’s time we had what they’ve been having.