Excerpts from the best-loved Philippine modern and contemporary musicals will be featured in the ambitious production, “Musikal!”, the gala concert to mark the 45th anniversary celebration of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), on Sept. 5-6.
It is easy to dismiss Trumpets’ “The Bluebird of Happiness”—which the Christian theater company dubs its “big musical comeback”—as just another extravagantly fantastical, unrestrainedly colorful kiddie show. When the musical’s first promotional posters were unveiled online some months ago, the central image of two children heading into the bluish unknown with the eponymous bird hovering in a trail of glitter seemed like a black box warning for those allergic to the cutesy, the silly and juvenile.
Noel Rayos doesn’t just ride bicycles, he folds them with his bare hands, too. No, he’s not a muscleman who bends metal for fun. Rayos is a versatile actor who is at ease in plays and musicals, comedy and drama, English and Tagalog and once had a bike stolen, even though it was chained and locked.