VELASQUEZ AND ALCASID. Combustible and explosive chemistry.
Regine Velasquez’s ongoing concert series at The Theatre at Solaire Resort and Casino is an exciting career highlight for the stellar Songbird: It pushes her to step up her act and go “beyond pop,” to the higher, more challenging and more artistically gratifying peak of performing and interpreting songs from stage musicals.
This is the kind of self-imposed challenge that will make Regine mature as an all-around performer, so we’re hoping that the series is exceptionally successful—and inspires Regine to follow through and star in a full-length Filipino musical next year!
Having directed Regine’s husband, Ogie Alcasid, in two such musical-theater productions (“Sino Ka Ba, Jose Rizal?” and “Birhen ng Caysasay”), we “suspect” that Ogie was influential in convincing her to give her current concert series a go.
And, if she does do a Filipino musical next year, it’s logical for her to do it with Ogie—they would make a fine stellar team for musical theater, since the real and reel “chemistry” they have together is—combustible and even explosive!
Best of all, an original musical starring Regine and Ogie would boost homegrown material and artistry in a big way, and make a major inroad in the “colonial” dominance of foreign works that has kept Filipino theater arts from truly coming into their own for decades!
It’s truly tragic that 80 percent of sponsorship money goes to foreign musicals, and only 20 percent to original shows. With Ogie and Regine onboard, that shockingly disproportionate ratio could be brought down to at least 50-50—as it should be!
‘A Second Chance’
Another bright prospect on the local entertainment scene is the imminent showing (starting Nov. 25) of the new film, “A Second Chance,” topbilling Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz. It’s the sequel to the acclaimed stars’ 2007 hit, “One More Chance.”
In their new film, the stars will portray their original characters, Popoy and Basha, eight years into their marriage, and dramatize the ups and downs that challenge young married couples in real life (Cathy Molina directs).
This is the sort of project that Bea and John Lloyd need to keep growing as actors, and its realistic orientation will be good for viewers, as well, because its nonfantasy approach will invite them to grow up, too!
This is Bea’s second film this year, after “The Love Affair,” on whick she had to share stellar credits with Dawn Zulueta and Richard Gomez, which dissipated the impact of her portrayal.
“A Second Chance” feels more promising, because she and John Lloyd have the new film’s central conflict all to themselves, so the focus is crystal-clear, and they can go to town with their indubitably lead portrayals.