Review Roundup: What Did Critics Think of FELIX STARRO?

Ma-Yi Theater Company has distinguished itself by shaping the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today. Ma-Yi opens its 30th anniversary season with the world premiere of Felix Starro, a new musical by Jessica Hagedorn and Fabian Obispo. Based on a powerful short story by acclaimed Filipino American writer Lysley Tenorio, Felix Starro marks the first-time-ever a musical created by Filipino Americans will be presented Off-Broadway.

Directed by Ma-Yi's Producing Artistic Director Ralph B. Peña (The Chinese Lady, Among The Dead) and choreographed by Brandon Bieber (FX's Fosse/Verdon), Felix Starro also marks the long overdue return to New York stages of novelist and playwright Hagedorn. Felix Starro runs August 23 - September 15 at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, Manhattan) with an opening night of September 3.

In Felix Starro, protagonist Felix is a famous faith healer in the Philippines, whose clients once included celebrities and big politicians. After falling on hard times, Felix decides to go to San Francisco for one last healing mission with ailing Filipinos in the Bay Area. Junior, Felix Starro's nineteen-year-old, orphan grandson, goes along as his assistant. Unbeknownst to Felix, Junior has plans of his own.

Felix Starro explores issues of faith, family, love, loss, betrayal, and what it means to be an undocumented immigrant in America.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

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Jesse Green, The New York Times: The Ma-Yi Theater Company production that opened on Tuesday at Theater Row is said to be the first musical by Filipino-Americans ever presented Off Broadway. That's no small thing, if the form is to keep from shrinking into a souvenir of itself. And there is much to like about a work that brings the tropes of classic musicals to a story about people usually ignored by them. But you may also find yourself wondering whether those time-tested techniques are really capable of doing justice to a story so unlike the ones for which they were devised.

Raven Snook, TimeOut: Fabian Obispo's music bounces between liturgical chants, Lite-FM anthems and Sondheim homage. (The duet "Dangerous Roses" will have you humming "Barcelona.") Jessica Hagedorn's book and lyrics are achingly sincere, which makes the few humorous moments a real relief-particularly "Magic Tricks," a gloriously gaudy flashback to the elder Starro's heyday. But if the heartfelt storytelling too seldom quickens the pulse, it's a pleasure to see so many actors of Asian descent getting a chance to tell a story that, though universal in appeal, feels unique to Filipino culture.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: Still, a strength of the musical, which launches Ma-Yi Theater Company's 30th anniversary season, is the authentic feeling glimpse into a world seldom seen on a New York stage. That impression is enhanced thanks to a spot-on seven-member cast, who invest the characters with psychological credibility. Not so incidentally in a musical, they also sing powerfully enough to make the most of a well-orchestrated if not especially memorable score that mixes pop, rock, tango, and a kind of staccato, Sondheim-sounding musical theater.

Ryan Leeds, Manhattan Digest: It's true that contemporary musical theater suffers from a lack of originality. Across the landscape, movie production companies have opened their catalogs to determine what can shoddily be musicalized and thrown on stage. To that end, book writer and lyricist Jessica Hagedorn and composer Fabian Obispo should be applauded for they have adapted Lysley Tenorio's short story for the theater. But, it's simply not good.

Photo Credit: Richard Termine

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