A new Pinoy holiday tradition is born

Do not allow the holiday traffic and rush to dampen your curiosity and extinguish your desire to catch the first-ever original jukebox musical from Repertory Philippines — Going Home to Christmas: A Jose Mari Chan Musical, which currently runs at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater at the RCBC Plaza Building in Makati City. This newly mounted musical under the direction of Jeremy Domingo, present artistic director of the 57-year-old theater company, is worth the trip and your hard-earned pesos.

It gives not just Mr. Christmas’ iconic pop and holiday tunes, but all the awe and wonder, feels, mush and nostalgia, and it elucidates why nothing comes close to celebration, magic and revelry of the Pinoy Christmas.

More than ‘falalala’

Going Home to Christmas: A Jose Mari Chan Musical, with REP’s trio con brio, Robbie Guevara, Luna Griño-Inocian and Joel Trinidad as its playwrights, is set in an airport on the eve of Christmas.

With all the chaos, delays and micro and major mayhem, we get to know and follow different sets of people as they journey home for the holidays — the father and son JR (Floyd Tena) and JD (Neo Rivera), with the daddy dearest hating anything and everything about Christmas in an almost Scrooge-like way and the diamond selling anthem “Christmas In Our Hearts” he loathes; Lolo (Gary Junsay) and Lola (Carla Martinez) and their balikbayan grandson Kevin (Sean Inocencio), an eager Gen Z beaver curious to taste and experience his first Pinoy Christmas; couple Arnie (Lorenz Martinez) and Josie (Neomi Gonzales), with bruises and cracks in their marital paradise pinning their hopes on this second honeymoon; plus the many colorful characters in the airport: Captain Richard (Noel Rayos) and Pat (Carla Guevarra-Laforteza), welcoming quartet composed of Terry (Roxy Aldiosa), Jaime (Johann Enriquez), Mikko (Zid Yarcia) and Dina (Julia Serad), and Mang Juan (Alfritz Blanche).

Through the unexpected encounters of these characters, Chan’s timeless, beloved melodies are performed as the various story arcs unfold.

With Chan’s iconic songs, on the spotlight, it pulls at the heartstrings, makes you teary and thankful, and brings some kind of wonderful “awwwww” feels to what transpires on stage.

Seasoned and newbies

Twenty-three songs from Jose Mari Chan’s musical arsenal made it to the final production cut. However, there are two iconic songs that I missed: “Refrain” and “Afraid to Love.”

It was the seasoned thespians who “killed,” told the story clearly and “nailed” the songs of Chan, specifically Carla Guevara-Laforteza and how she infused “Can We Stop And Talk Awhile” with hotness and that show stopper rendition of “Hahanapin Ko.” Noel Rayos had fun and was flirtatious with his take on “Love at 30,000 Feet.” Floyd Tena wowed with his rendition of “Constant Change,” which was of the recurring songs in the musical. Sweet and sentimental, that was what Martinez and Gonzalez gifted to “Please Be Careful With My Heart.”

There were a lot of promising newbies, who, for sure, as the musical progresses (what I watched was the first run with an audience) will be more secure and confident with their vocals and tell the stories behind the songs assigned to them.

Standouts from the newbies group are Alfritz Blanche (Mang Juan) what with his robust tone and loved those low registers with such a delightful Santa Clause stage presence; the quartet composed of Roxy Aldiosa (Terry), Johann Enriquez (Jaime), Zid Yarcia (Mikko) and Julia Serad (Dina), whose harmonies were divine, perfect in pronunciation and enunciation. Davy Narciso (Chris) and Neo Rivera (JD) both screamed welcome to heartthrob club of Philippine musical theater.

Why Going Home to Christmas will become part of the Pinoy holiday tradition is because it is a celebration of life, love and what matters most, which is God, family, friends and loved ones.

Musical direction is by Ejay Yatco.

For Going Home to Christmas 7 December, 3:30 p.m. show tickets, contact 0917.5112110, 12 December 8 p.m. show tickets, contact 09688808717. For full schedule of performances, check out Repertory Philippines’ Facebook page.