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Burn, babes, burn!By Rome Jorge School reunions—you either love them or hate them. It makes us assess who we are today and cringe at who we were then. Around former classmates, we can’t help but compare successes and feel insecure. Like staring into our mirror or reading our diary, reminiscing make us confront our unfulfilled dreams and unresolved conflicts. Reunions are always a revelation. And in the case of four women, their reunion reveals they’ve all slept with the same conniving lying bastard of a man. Four women united by destiny—and a high-school reunion—show the world a menopausal woman’s worth in We're Still Hot! The Musical®e staring Lyn Sherman, Pinky Marquez, Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino and Niña Romualdez at Teatrino in the Greenhills Shopping Center from March 17 to April 8. Sassy, spunky and sexy, these women are now out to prove they’re real scorchers. And when you gather embers together, you have what it takes to make a fire. Lyn Sherman, the youngest in the cast, admits that she’s far from menopausal. But she explains, “An actress should be able to portray a variety of roles.” The accomplished and highly regarded jazz singer is also a seasoned stage actor as well, having starred in such New Voice theater productions as the highly acclaimed staging of Bob Fosse’s Cabaret, and recently, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, which toured internationally. It is with these two musicales that Sherman had previously worked with We’re Still Hot’s director, the actor Leo Rialp, who’s earlier direction for the Light a Million Mornings performance of the Children’s Choir and the Pundaquit Virtuosi impressed audiences. Rialp is best remembered for directing the blockbuster musicale Rama at Sita and Menopause: the Musicale. Sherman plays Kate Phillips, a 92-year-old single mother to a thirtysomething man and whose dreams as a young girl of becoming a writer and actor in Broadway were thwarted by her unplanned pregnancy. What-if and a never-been, she struggles to find a place for herself in this world. Now that her son has left home, her untended dreams get a second look. As for her fellow actors onstage, Sherman says, “I’m excited to work with these women.” She adds, “There’s good chemistry.” She’s certainly in a company that sizzles. Shamaine Centenera is an acclaimed theater actress for Tanghalang Pilipino who has appeared in such lauded plays as Hudhud, and who has also appeared in such movies as Mark Mailey’s award-winning Crying Ladies. Centenera, accomplished as she is, confessed fears of working in a musical. But after some encouragement from Rialp, Centenera held her own and shone brightly in a number performed before the press. Centenera plays Marnie Summers, a 53-year-old globe-trotting businesswoman of a Fortune 500 company who keeps a flame for a lover she often visits. She keeps a 21-year-old personal trainer as a lover as well. But deep down, beneath that veneer of power and success are unresolved issues about her childhood. Pinky Marquez needs no introduction. The famous recording artist and movie and television actress has also played theater roles in such productions as The Vagina Monologues, Magnificat and Oedipus Rex to name a few. Marquez is Cynthia Sawyer, a 54-year-old faithfully married woman and a devote Christian conservative whose beauty, to her own realization, has faded. She has disappeared, receding behind her husband. But with this reunion and its revelations, that’s about to change. Niña Romualdez, also one of the musicale’s producers, was asked by Rialp to audition for the role where she has to act, sing and put on an accent. “You’re in,” he proclaimed. Romualdez is Zsuzsu Herendy, an ageless, wily and indefatigable Hungarian cleaning lady who fled her life as a theater actor to escape her homeland’s communist regime. Unlike Kate, she knows she will always be an actress despite her current work. But despite her bravado, she is a woman who questions her legacy as her age makes itself apparent. But now that destiny has thrown her with the three former classmates, she may yet get her chance. We're Still Hot! The Musical®e is a play within a play as the story unfolds while the four characters attempt to mount their own production. It also features the unseen character of the man who shares these women. The cast and director reveal, “The man is totally defenseless.” His roasting makes for delicious entertainment. Much like Romualdez and the rest of the cast, the show’s producers are stars no less. We are talking about Bahaghari Productions, comprised of Margie Moran-Floirendo, Niña Romualdez, Carmita Francisco and Maan Hontiveros. Bahaghari is noted for daring to produce such hits as the award-winning movie, Marilou Diaz Abaya’s Bagong Buwan that starred Ceasar Montano, and Menopause: The Musicale. We're Still Hot! The Musical®e is hot songs and hot babes, with hot flashes putting the heat on a man. You’ll like this hot. --- |
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