unSAULicited

Joshua Bess and the Jesus Christ Superstar International Tour Company. Photo by Vitt Salvador, courtesy of GMG Productions. Quick take: Jesus Christ Superstar at The Theatre at Solaire brings Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera into Manila with a staging that feels immediate, physical, and deeply human. Seen during the Gala Night performance on Tuesday evening, May 5, the show turns faith, fame, betrayal, public worship, and private collapse into a theatrical experience that begins with a living stage and ends by asking us to stay inside the humanity of Jesus. There are productions that begin when the first character enters, and there are productions that begin before anyone says a word. Jesus Christ Superstar at The Theatre at Solaire belongs to the second kind. More than five decades after Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice first turned the Passion story into a rock opera, the show does not arrive in Manila as a m...

Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4: Oh Sh*t! It’s Live Sa Cheter! turns Philippine theater into both spectacle and subject in PETA’s live stage satire. Photo courtesy of PETA. There is something dangerous about laughing inside a theater. Not because laughter is light, but because it lowers the body’s defenses. A joke can pass through the room before anyone has time to protect themselves from what it reveals. One moment, the audience is laughing at the absurdity. The next, the absurdity starts to look familiar. Following PETA’s latest media materials for Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4: Oh Sh*t! It’s Live Sa Cheter! , one thing has become clearer: this is not just another announcement for a major comedy. It is PETA letting Septic Tank turn around and look directly at theater. Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4 Quick Facts Production Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4: Oh Sh*t! It’s Live Sa Cheter! Presenter Philippine...