Giving hype for local theater versus upcoming foreign ones

Filipinos love music and arts so, it’s no surprise many of us love musical shows. Whether it’s a local or foreign musical theater, there will always be an audience here in our country for them.

Giving hype for local theater versus upcoming foreign ones

Hype for Hamilton in Manila

Filipino Hamilfans rejoiced when Lin-Manuel Miranda cracked exciting news. Hamilton is coming to Manila on a limited run from September to November. The Broadway musical theater featuring the life of Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers of America

Quoting a line from the opening song, “The ten-dollar founding father without a father got a lot farther by working a lot harder,” the musical revolves around how Alexander Hamilton brought about his legacy in America. And, of course, how it was able to outgrow him.

Along with his wife, Elizabeth Hamilton (Eliza), the story slowly turned the spotlight as to how Eliza provided her significant contributions in upbringing America. This passed on the history and legacies she and her husband left.

The story is told through songs of different genres. Jazz, R&B, classic Broadway, and mostly rap, running for almost three (3) hours. Due to the unique incorporation of rap into the traditional Broadway sound, this musical is a hit not only for theater geeks. But, for the new generation as well.

Hype differences between local and foreign

Wicked, Dear Evan Hansen, The Lion King, Sweeney Todd, and Hamilton are some of the popular Broadway musical shows that gained fans all over the world. Though these shows are having stage tours in other countries, they don’t often come to the Philippines.

That’s why when Lin-Manuel announced that Hamilton will have a stop in Manila, Pinoy Hamilfans became ecstatic. Finally, they have a chance to be in the room where it happens.

Social media feeds are flooded with shares and positive reactions, as well as silent theater fans. Those whom you don’t expect to be musical theater geeks.

However, these expressed reactions and bursts of excitement stirred an argument on Twitter.

The argument goes like this when Lin-Manuel Miranda announced the Manila tour of Hamilton. There has been a sudden surge of Filipino musical theater fans. And, it’s surprising that many have expressed their love for Hamilton, or theater in general. But why isn’t our local theater productions receiving this same hype?

This caught the attention of some of the country’s theater personalities. One of them is Gab Pangilinan, lead actress in Mula sa Buwan and Ang Huling El Bimbo The Musical.

She agreed that the hype for Broadway or foreign musical shows isn’t the same for local musicals. She said, however, that local theater productions have their own audiences, too.

According to Gab, it is a challenge for Filipino artists to love and support local productions even more.

It can be saddening to see that local musical theater productions receive less hype than those from Broadway, but it is empowering to know that there are more new people who are starting to fall in love with Filipino-produced musicals and theater plays.

World-class Filipino musical theater

Despite adversities, Filipinos continue to thrive in the creative world. The Philippines are known for its world-class acts, especially in theater and even though it may not be as mainstream, many Filipino produce theater plays that are big hits locally which may just bring back the hope for many young aspiring theater actors in our country.

First off is the Virgin LabFest (VLF) which is an annual festival of unpublished, unstaged, untried, and untested plays held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

Out of hundreds of submissions, the VLF picks a handful of plays to produce for the general public to view at CCP that showcase many great talents all being done under a theme.

Next is a play titled after a famous song from a well-known local band ‘Eraserheads’ called Ang Huling El Bimbo, which also created quite the hype online.

There are many more acts that have great hype but could also get more attention such as Rak of Aegis, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah The Musical (Ateneo BlueREP), Walang Aray (PETA), and Breakups and Breakdowns (UpStart). These spectacular shows depict the genius and creative minds of Filipinos along with talent.

Even though our talents and arts could use more funding and recognition, our actors, singers, composers, and playwrights can still craft magnificent works of art worthy not just of national but international recognition as well.