Review: #popepular Thinks Global, Acts Local

Photos: Albert Tagle

Manila, Philippines--To think globally and act locally in the current age of globalization might seem a little bit of a cliché; "but it's far less common for [global] companies to really get it right because it's not just about [having] a local language website," says The Economist. "It means being where your customer is, speaking to them in their own language and, crucially, having culturally relevant messages and content."

Where most of these companies fail repeatedly, grassroots theater company Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF) successfully embraces the decades-old mantra, especially resounding and resplendent in its current touring production, "#popepular: Pa'no Kung Pinoy Si Kiko?," a new Filipino musical in Tagalog (Filipino).

#popepular, which features book by Carlos Palanca Award-winning playwright Vincent Tañada and former President of the Catholic Educators Association of the Philippines Reverend Gregorio Bañaga, and music by veteran composer-arranger for the long-running TV drama series "Maalaala Mo Kaya" Pipo Cifra, centers on the rise to papacy of global icon Pope Francis, history's first Latin American pope in the Roman Catholic Church, who is undeniably so popular and well-loved around the world, including among an estimated 75.5 million Filipino Catholics.

Inspired by the personal encounters of a multitude of men and women, young and old, who flocked to catch a glimpse of the pope during his recent pastoral visit to Manila and Tacloban, which included Tañada, who also plays and brings the beloved pontiff from his college years to present to vivid life in the musical, together with his four-year-old son, Peter Parker, who makes a well-behaved cameo appearance as the young son of a police officer killed in the line of duty in Maguindanao, five true-life-stories, directly and indirectly associated to Pope Francis's whirlwind stopover in the Philippines, make the musical's main and supporting narratives culturally, contextually relevant. In fact, the addition of these second-tier stories guarantees to tug at the heartstrings sans the overused melodrama familiar in local soaps and movies.

Using parallel chronologies of the life of Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis's birth name) and five Filipino modern-day heroes from all walks of life: the late Kristel Padasas (played by the ever dependable Cindy Liper), a young social worker who died in an accident during the pope's mass of hope and healing in typhoon-stricken Tacloban; the late Joey Velasco (played by JV Cruz, who is too young for the role, but a convincing Velasco, nonetheless), a kidney cancer victim who painted the widely popular "Table of Hope," which depicts Jesus Christ's last supper with his disciples, unusually represented by 12 real-life street children; Ronald Gadayan (played by Patrick Libao, delivering one of his finest "non-acting-the-part" performances on PSF stage), a janitor at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport who returned a missing bag with huge cash and jewelry he found at the airport terminal; Police Officer 1 Mark Clemencio (played by promising young actor John Rey Rivas), the teacher-police officer who was killed in Maguindanao; and Dr. Ed Gomez (played by PSF seasoned actor Chin Gomez), a biologist who was awarded National Scientist of the Philippines make the main protagonist even more accessible to the play's targeted demographic: millennials who commonly want to make a difference in the world in an instant, even "virally," but oftentimes lose sight of personal touch and spiritual balance.

The pope's and these modern-day heroes's stories have had their share of world-trending timelines on sought-after social media platforms dominated by millennials--from YouTube to Tumblr, from Twitter to Facebook--that can launch a potent instant recognition among this demographic segmentation. Just so you know, that's half the battle won if attracting the rather picky millennials is in your game plan.

The first half of the play #popepular is rock solid; the show's writers Tañada and Bañaga establish and entwine auspiciously the main highlights of Pope Francis's biography with those of the locals' stories, which mostly touch on their early ambitions, affinity with their families and social groups, and their love interests, including that of the young Jorge, which are told in fiery Argentinian tango dance sequences in sync with humorous spoken dialogues.

With a running time of nearly three hours and performed without any intermission at that, it's the middle section that reaches the lowest point of the show though, where the audience are literally "struggling" in their seats--while, incidentally, the actors on stage are playing out both literal and figurative "struggles" of the pope and the supporting characters, i.e. threats of climate change, corruption in the government, and other social ills.

Although that section emphasizes a deep connection between the pope and others as only human beings who commonly grapple with life, a conscientious editing in the mid-musical numbers, which in its entirety contains Cifra's brightly-written pop score, is much needed.

Towards the tail end of the strenuous middle act, its title show tune, the bouncy pop song #popepular, helps revive the audience's interest, but seems misplaced. We guess it wouldn't hurt to try moving that particular musical number to the curtain call, where the casts can even engage the mainly young audience to stand on their feet and dance along with everybody.

Despite those glaring hiccups, the musical picks up the pieces toward the last section, where the show brings the audience back to the first scene, where the story begins: In his jeepney-inspired pope mobile, Pope Francis sifts through a throng of people in the streets of Metro Manila, and tirelessly blesses them.

The performance we saw at the jam-packed Saint Cecilia's Hall in Malate, Manila over the weekend was #popepular's 115th performance since it opened two months ago.

Watch #popepular, a new Filipino musical, in your city or province, now through March 2016.

To check out schedule of performances, visit PSF's Facebook Page or email philstagers2013@gmail.com.

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