‘Walang Aray’ runs until Oct. 12, 2025 at the PETA Theater Center, Quezon City.
When I saw the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s (PETA)’s Walang Aray during its two-performance laboratory weekend in October 2019, I thought the show was already a hoot. Understandably, it was still quite rough, both in terms of the material (by Rody Vera and Vince Lim) and the production itself (directed by Ian Segarra). Even then, however, its charisma was irresistible, its intelligence as parody and modernization of the zarzuela Walang Sugat marking it as a show to watch out for in the near future.
In 2023, when the musical (still directed by Segarra) finally premiered to paying audiences, I thought it was much more polished—but felt it had sacrificed some of the improvised, wink-wink quality that had made the 2019 version such a pleasant surprise. Sure, this was already the complete deal, a finished work of art that deserved its packed houses and the adulation of fans. Yet, I couldn’t resist the feeling that the show was also trying to balance formalist polish and unstructured irreverence with a bit of unease. (Perhaps my reactions were also a product of memory, of course—I already knew some of the jokes to expect, for one thing, and was admittedly disappointed when this premiere failed to replicate the uproarious, pre-COVID insanity of watching J-mee Katanyag, as the female protagonist’s mother, choking on a morsel of food in slow motion.)
Now, after the unprecedented success of One More Chance, The Musical last year, PETA has brought back Segarra’s Walang Aray for what can be officially considered its third incarnation. I’m happy to report, then, that this staging of the musical is unequivocally its best yet—the definitive version, if I may.
To borrow the parlance of self-love, this Walang Aray clearly feels comfortable in its own skin. Much of the improv quality has been lost; in its place, a veteran sketch comedian’s unassailable confidence. As a result, the humor—peerless in the way it mines and makes gold out of present-day Philippine realities—never feels forced, or uncertain, or less than airtight. It’s a production that works with clockwork precision to make you laugh, yet never once breaks a sweat doing so.
Something more, though: The musical’s ethos of love and acceptance as forms of revolution ring quite differently now with the casting of Lance Reblando as the female protagonist Julia, rewriting history as the first trans woman to lead a musical hereabouts, if memory serves me right. Suddenly, the musical’s animating principles of freedom and liberation are no longer just in the mold of Romeo and Juliet’s doomed-lovers’ romance (with a healthy dose of anti-colonial sentiment); it’s now about the bigger, more real world; about the world we know, its inequalities, its injustices; its slow, frequently impeded march towards genuine progress.
Reblando’s turn as Julia is also a rebuke against transphobic and/or purist naysayers who adhere to closing off the world of stage performance, rather than expanding its possibilities (believe it or not, they exist even in the relatively more liberal world of theater). On that stage, Reblando is magnetic, a worthy leading lady for a show with a killer role for one.
Jolina Magdangal in ‘Walang Aray’ (Photo by PETA)
New to the production as well is Jolina Magdangal as Julia’s mother—yes, that Jolina. And hers is a more-than-capable turn; Magdangal does the role justice and clearly needs to do more comedic plays.
Almost everyone else orbiting these two actresses deliver solid work—in particular, Gio Gahol (still note-perfect as the male lead Tenyong since I first saw him in 2019), Roi Calilong (a histrionic delight as a lecherous priest), and Bene Manaois (sharper than ever as a closeted, gym-buff man-child).
I must confess, though, it’s Reblando and Magdangal who were really my main reasons for catching this rerun. And to that end, they did not disappoint. In fact, someone should write a two-person comedy for them. Add in the Gawad Buhay-winning Shaira Opsimar—the original Julia, also appearing in this run, and a comedic genius herself—and there’s a play I’d run to get a ticket for.
‘Walang Aray’ runs until October 12 at the PETA Theater Center, Quezon City. Tickets are available via ticket2me.net or bit.ly/WA2025Tickets.
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