One More Chance: The Musical opens Aug. 23, 2024, and will run until Oct. 30,2024 at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City.
Skeptics, which included this writer, rolled their eyes when PETA announced it was doing a musical version of the movie One More Chance. A romantic drama, the film starred movie love team John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo. Then our jaws dropped when the musical became a runaway hit. Tickets sold out fast. Play dates were added extending the run through June (it opened April).
It’s being brought back this month by popular demand.
The cast of PETA’s One More Chance: The Musical; led by Sam Concepcion and Anna Luna. They play the roles made popular by John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonso in the original film. (Photo by Jaypee Mariztaza)
The big question back then was why make a musical of a typical Star Cinema movie that came out 17 years ago? It seemed like a comedown from the socially relevant plays PETA has been known for. Director Maribel Legarda explained that One More Chance is a blockbuster movie that “tugged at the heartstrings of an entire generation of Filipino moviegoers.” So with this musical, PETA intends to lure that generation into its theater.
I must have been living in another planet when the movie opened in 2007. Its significance is new to me. Yet the star power of John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo was hard to ignore. I saw them at a press conference many years ago. They made a beautiful couple. Seeing them up close, their chemistry was so strong they were probably married in several previous lives.
Before the musical’s opening night, I logged into Netflix and checked out the movie. John Lloyd Cruz runs the gamut of emotions as Popoy, the civil engineer who gets dumped by his architect fiancée Basha (Alonzo). He’s been a control freak. She wants her personal space back. They’ve been working in the same construction firm, and she intends to switch careers.
Popoy is devastated. With his grand plans for Basha and himself gone down the drain, he turns to drinking and goes on the rebound with a singer (Maja Salvador). Yet having mutual friends, they regularly bump into each other. In one awkward run-in, he tells her why he’s with the singer—the immortal line that had moviegoers swooning: “You had me at my best; she had me at my worst.”
Astonishingly, the ex-lovers still get to work together. Basha’s favorite aunt (Nanette Inventor) insists they make good their promise to design and build the aunt’s dream home. The two then break ground. It marks the start of the movie’s long and awkward “one more chance” phase.
Now it was PETA’s turn to tell the same story. Surprisingly, One More Chance works better onstage. The film’s dialogue is mostly intact, as if it was written for theater. So unnatural did the dialogue sound in the film, we wondered if people really talked that way. Film is a realistic medium and any false moment could be glaringly evident to the audience. In contrast, anything goes in theater, especially a musical. However, a few scenes from the film didn’t work onstage.
Playwright Michelle Ngu-Nary adds a new dimension to the play by underscoring social issues that Filipinos rarely discuss: depression and mental illness. Basha and Popoy’s mutual friends have their own back stories, giving an opportunity to highlight psychological issues. It sometimes feels forced, yet the playwright did right.
Popoy’s male buddies serve as his Greek chorus—it’s a standard component in most John Lloyd movies. Frankly, I can’t imagine any guy discussing his love woes with his pals. That’s a girly thing. There’s less of that in the musical. A different approach to the supporting roles gave their character more texture. In the movie the aunt came out as selfish and insensitive to Basha’s situation. In the play her motives were clearly defined, endearing her to the audience.
Playing the roles of Basha and Popoy are Anna Luna and Sam Concepcion. The movie is synonymous to John Lloyd and Bea, but then, musical theater is a different medium. Sam and Anna have stage presence and they can sing like there’s no tomorrow. Sam Concepcion is a terrific actor. His performance is heartbreaking, especially during Popoy’s breakdown. He also has the audience cheering his dance moves in a rousing number.
A drunken Popoy (Sam Concepcion) takes over a videoke bar. (Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz)
Luna’s Basha is more sympathetic and less of a whiner. In the movie, Basha’s reasons for breaking up with Popoy seemed shallow. Onstage, Anna Luna expertly conveys Basha’s frustrations, and so we get to sympathize with her decision to leave Popoy. It’s not about what you say; it’s how you say it.
Following the trend of today’s Filipino musicals, PETA rummaged through the songbook of a popular band and chose the tunes that could fit a scene and help move the plot. Ben&Ben received the honor this time. I was never familiar with their music, yet I was won over. I also listened to the band on YouTube. They have a pleasantly amiable sound that harks back to the mellow style of the Alessi Brothers.
Sadly, Ben&Ben weren’t commissioned to write an additional song or two for the musical. The movie had a title song and the show should have had one. Having the ex-lovers sing a new show-stopping duet that ends with Popoy saying his immortal line would have been climactic. As it happens, the second act is bogged down by one slow ballad after another, stretching the show’s length to three hours. An 11th hour number could have perked things up.
Still, we got to hand it to the director and playwright. They figured out a way to stage the film’s outdoor scenes and car scenes in the limited space. Inventive staging and impressive state-of-the-art props did the trick. PETA obviously didn’t scrimp on the budget. What was spent is there an onstage for the audience to see and enjoy.
PETA has indeed come a long way. It regularly holds workshops that prove useful to smaller community theater groups. Guest speakers from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting also hold acting workshops and seminars on how to run a theater company.
One More Chance: The Musical opens Aug. 23, 2024, and will run until Oct. 30,2024 at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City.
