Writing beautiful music with ‘Muli’
Gawad Buhay award-winning songwriters Nica del Rosario and Matthew Chang anchor the soundtrack of this brand new Filipino musical in storytelling – and everyone is already singing along.
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Gawad Buhay award-winning songwriters Nica del Rosario and Matthew Chang anchor the soundtrack of this brand new Filipino musical in storytelling – and everyone is already singing along.
One of Muli's catchier tunes, "Ya Girl" is a pop-synth driven track heavy with some Dua Lipa stylings.
Photo from Muli: An OPM Musical
“Are you still stuck on LSS on repeat from the songs of Muli?” This was from a conversation with a fellow writer, having both gotten a first listen to the songs during the new original musical’s media launch a few weeks back. Muli: An OPM Musical takes us through the story of Anita, a mother in her 40s grappling with her life’s choices, missteps and all, as she ponders where they have taken her and where the road forward will take her. Setting her story to music are multi-awarded composers and songwriters Nica del Rosario and Matthew Chang — and what they came up with is some of the best new original soundtracks that have graced the Philippine stage.
At the center of story and song
At the heart of Muli is a story of what it is like to be human and everything that comes with it, both good and bad. Charissa Pammit and Andrei Pamintuan, creators of the original jukebox musical from the early aughts, and writer and editor Jose Paolo dela Cruz explore all the “what if’s” and “if only’s” that mark the passing of the years. It hits all of life’s polarizing touchpoints, and then some. Think along the lines of love, hope, innocence and joy on one end, and then grief, anger, hatred and regret on the other end. In between is everything else that many either willfully acknowledge or refuse to confront.
As the lead composers and songwriters for the musical, Rosario and Chang were challenged to turn each one into the musical bedrock of Anita’s life. “All of the songs need to have a specific purpose to push the story forward,” explains Chang. “The songs, the soundscape, the world-building, it all needs to serve the purposes of the story.”
Through the songs, you meet Anita and the characters who surround her as who she is and who she could have been. The creative team leaves it up to the audience to decide which version they connect with best.
As the character’s life traverses decades, the music goes right along with it. Del Rosario and Chang took this as a jumping-off point to go off the scales, pun intended, without going off the rails of their creative vision. “The script jumps from one OPM era to another, so we tried to make it feel like one cohesive organism — different moving parts, each with its own sound and character, but all working together,” says Del Rosario, who also happens to be the songwriter behind the cult hit “Rosas.” With both having just won a Gawad Buhay award for their work on Tanghalang Pilipino’s Gregoria Lakambini, it’s likely these two have myriad versions of every song already playing in their heads before it even makes it onto the music sheet.
Yes, the songs run the gamut of musical stylings. This songwriting duo knows what they do best — which is write music that tells a story. They dive into all the hugot that life brings with it. Lyrics like “Ako ang himig, at ikaw ang koro” in “Iba’t Ibang Mundo” channel the dissonance between Anita’s younger hopeful self and her jaded older alter ego. In another song, she confronts her grief with “yakapin mo ang dilim, at baka ang bukas ay dadating din.” In the same vein, they are not afraid to go full-on pop diva and camp, writing in the song “Ya Girl” — “hindi Koreana, hindi Latina, purong Filipina…pak, Anita.” Social media superstar Baus Rufo, as Anita’s gay bestie Mito, even breaks into a rap solo. In “Silver Spoon,” Del Rosario and Chang explore the mother-daughter dynamic, beautifully sung by Janine Teñoso as Kat.
Across the 11 original songs in Muli, Del Rosario and Chang keep the songs just a few shakes shy of the familiar. While the music feels new, it latches on to the part of your brain that knows what sounds and feels good. Then it settles itself in there quite comfortably, until that next LSS moment strikes.
Opening night overture
It is the music that takes you on the emotional rollercoaster that is Anita’s life. Kakki Teodoro, who plays Muli’s main protagonist, soars as she sings the audience through the innocence of young love, the many manifestations of grief, the heartbreak of regret, and the many unanswered “what if’s” of her life. The cast leans into the seamless shifts from one music genre to another with much aplomb, pushing the story’s plotlines forward akin to a graceful two-step. Cue the cheers from the crowd.
Outside of Pammit and Dela Cruz’s script and Andrei Pamintuan’s direction, it is Del Rosario and Chang’s musical stylings and artistry that hold space for all these emotions and ideas to come to life. Hearing them against the context of the story and the stage imbues them with a different kind of energy that sticks to your bones. That alone would be worth the ticket price.
Long before the curtains go up, it is the music of Muli: An OPM Musical that draws you in. From the very first listen, it begins to live rent-free in your head, not just in an LSS kind of way. And that is what Nica del Rosario and Matthew Chang do best — make songs that tell us the stories we want, or perhaps, need to hear. And this vocally gifted cast, boy, do those songs soar! Now here’s the question everyone is waiting on an answer to — when does the original cast recording get uploaded so we can stream it on repeat?
Muli: An OPM Musical runs weekends until 27 September at the Globe Auditorium, Maybank Performing Arts Theater, BGC Arts Center. Get your tickets at TicketWorld and mulimusical.com.
