Growing pains on ‘Sarah G. Live’
GERONIMO. Old habits—and fans’ preferences—die hard.
The first telecast of Sarah Geronimo’s new TV show, “Sarah G. Live,” began auspiciously with an all-out, slam-bang production number that showcased the popular star’s singing and dancing abilities—and her more young-adult projection.
Later, however, for the requisite “kilig value,” it showed Sarah on a yacht with her current rumored squeeze, Gerald Anderson, so Sarah went back to giggly teen mode. One step forward, one step back?
Again, to please the fans, Sarah had to go on birit singing mode, with predictably “ear-cleansing” results.
All told, however, the new show could make it easier for Sarah’s fans to develop, grow and mature as much as the young-adult star obviously wants to.
At 23, it must be a bit discomfiting for her to still have to be all gushy, frisky, feisty and flirty, like she’s been doing for the past five years. But, old habits—and fans’ preferences—die hard.
After three telecasts, however, an interesting pattern or template has began to emerge on Sarah’s new musical-variety show: The ambitious production is trying to present its young but already veteran star in a new light, as a versatile young-adult performer.
That’s an ambitious agenda, but we wish the program and its star well, because the growing-up is long overdue. However, the “make-over” move’s success is more than just a matter of expanding her performing skills, updating her musical repertoire and wardrobe, and “sexing-up” her image: It has to help Sarah “fill in the blanks” in terms of all of the time she spent working rather than going to school and living.
She had the best and most altruistic intentions in doing so, but it’s left her not as mature and “life-experienced” as her young-adult contemporaries, and that “gap” has made her a skittish performer who tries to get by with superficial approximations rather than real substance and insightful portrayals.
There’s no doubt that Sarah is trying to fill in those blanks, but she’s not quite there yet. One of her awkward gaps is her efforted approach to comedy. In the first two telecasts of her show, she was made to do cut-up comedy with experienced comics, and she came off as “TH.”
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Instructively enough, in her third show, she wasn’t made to do any actual comedy herself, but was relegated to merely reacting to the antics of three gay impersonators. That may have taken the spotlight away from her, but until she really learns how to tickle viewers’ funnybones, that may be the wiser tack to take.
Sarah’s dancing isn’t as bad as her comedic chops, so she should go on doing it. But, she shouldn’t be made to compete or keep up with the best in the business, as she’s sometimes being required to do, because it’s unfair to her. The better move would be to either tone down her star-partners’ moves, or make her do solo dancing turns instead, so unfair comparisons aren’t invited.
The biggest no-no occurred when Sarah was recently made to dance in tandem with an unknown female—who performed better than she did! The newcomer ended up upstaging Sarah and underscoring her shortcomings as a dancer—a really bad move all around.
The show does better when it tries to “deepen” Sarah’s musical performances by way of her solo singing spot toward the end of the show. Trouble is, she has been working so hard for years that she hasn’t gotten enough “life experiences” to provide her with the genuine “emotional capital” that such a “maturing” showcase requires.
So, instead of “forcing through” in this regard, the production should bide its time and wait until its star is “emotionally ready” to make the big transition to believable and empathetic “emotive singing.”
In due time, the show will reveal Sarah’s real performing strengths, so it should concentrate on those major plus points and not require her to do everything.
That way, it will become a realistically prismatic showcase for the “maturing” Sarah G.
