Official Chicago Manila artwork. Photograph by Jeremy Daniel, courtesy of GMG Productions. Chicago The Musical will return to The Theatre at Solaire in Parañaque City from March 9 to 28, 2027, GMG Productions announced in its October 8, 2026 release. The Manila engagement is presented by GMG Productions in association with Barry & Fran Weissler and David Ian, as part of the show's 30th-anniversary global tour. The musical played the same venue in 2014. Its return adds another date to a 2027 theater calendar that also includes Heathers the Musical , led by Gerardine Sacdalan , at Solaire from January 21 to February 7. Roxie, Velma and a very useful scandal Set in 1920s Chicago, the musical follows Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer facing a murder trial. With lawyer Billy Flynn handling her case, she tries to turn the crime into a media spectacle. Fellow inmate and nightclub star Velma Kelly has her own ambitions, and Roxie's sudden fame gives her another r...

Before the open technical dress rehearsal at Newport Performing Arts Theater. Photo: Saul de Jesus / Unsaulicited. I never checked the time during Bongga Ka, ’Day! , and that was one of the first things I told friends after its open technical dress rehearsal at Newport Performing Arts Theater. Between the Hotdog songs, the energy of Coco Banana, and stage pictures that kept changing without slowing the show down, the evening held my attention. These are impressions of a rehearsal rather than a verdict on the finished public run. A few lapel microphone problems surfaced, but most of the technical work already felt well put together. Bongga Ka, ’Day!: The Annie Batungbakal Musical builds a story around Hotdog’s music and Annie, a House of Pasion sales clerk who dreams of becoming a fashion designer and entering the glamorous world of Coco Banana. Directed by Chris Millado, with a book by Liza Magtoto, the musical gives that familiar soundtrack a new set of pe...

I grew up with bits and pieces of South Pacific before I ever really understood the whole musical. “Some Enchanted Evening” and “Happy Talk” were already familiar, and I still remember a South Pacific programme we had at home from Repertory Philippines' 1997 production. I wasn't sure at first whether I had actually seen it, but my sister confirmed that we watched that production as kids. Seeing the UST Conservatory of Music's South Pacific: The Comeback at the Proscenium Theater brought all of that familiarity back in a completely different way. Directed by Paolo O'Hara, with Daniel Bartolome leading the UST Symphony Orchestra, this production made a musical that first opened on Broadway in 1949 feel remarkably present without trying to make it behave like something written today. That was what I appreciated most about it. This is still a World War II story, populated by people carrying the manners, assumptions, prejudices, and expectations of their...

The Sandbox Collective brings Spring Awakening back to Metro Manila in February 2027. Photo from the 2026 production by Loreta Arroyo, courtesy of The Sandbox Collective. If you missed The Sandbox Collective’s Spring Awakening this year, you’ll have another chance in February 2027. The company has announced a limited rerun to open its 2027 season at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center, Makati City. There’s reason to be curious about a return. In my February 2026 review of Spring Awakening , I wrote about a production that grew steadier as it unfolded, with early vocal roughness giving way to an ensemble that found its footing. “Left Behind” made me cry. I also had reservations about some sightlines and lighting choices. A rerun gives us a chance to see how the staging develops. The adults have answers. They just won’t give them. Set in late 19th-century Germany, Spring Awakening follows teenagers trying to understand sex and their changing bodies w...

Update, September 14, 2026: The official Puregold Teatro Panalo application form is no longer accepting entries. The original deadline was September 11, 2026, at 11:59 PM. This article preserves the original call for the planned 2027 festival. The original announcement called for 12 one-act works: eight straight plays and four musicals. It offered each selected playwright a ₱100,000 fee and full production support, including cast and crew fees. The festival was planned for February to March 2027, with no venue named in that announcement. Who could submit Amateur and professional playwrights aged 18 and above could submit. The call welcomed comedy, drama, experimental work, musical theater, and other approaches. The call accepted scripts in English or any Filipino language. Regional-language entries required an English translation. Each playwright could submit up to two entries, with only one work per applicant eligible for selection. Selection ...

Westerberg High is coming to Manila, and a Filipina will be at the center of it. Heathers the Musical will make its Philippine debut at The Theatre at Solaire from January 21 to February 7, 2027 , with Filipina performer Gerardine Sacdalan leading the international cast as Veronica Sawyer. Sacdalan arrives with the international company following the production's London season and UK and Ireland tour. Gerardine Sacdalan in Heathers the Musical. Photo by Pamela Raith. A Filipina Veronica Sawyer Sacdalan steps into one of contemporary musical theater's most recognizable young roles after previously leading the UK tour of & Juliet as Juliet, a performance that earned her a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best Professional Debut. She is joined by Louis Hearsey as Jason “J.D.” Dean, Liberty Stottor as Heather Chandler, Jessica Ibadin as Heather Duke, and Lou Henry as Heather McNamara. Gerardine Sacdalan and Louis Hea...

Image supplied by Puregold. There are plenty of calls for scripts. There are fewer that say, plainly, what happens if your script is chosen. Puregold Teatro Panalo has laid out its offer: 12 original Filipino one-act plays and musicals will be selected for production, with each playwright receiving Php 100,000. The writers will also enter a development program led by Wishbone Collective, Inc., with dramaturgical guidance, production support, and a live staging. For playwrights, that is the detail worth pausing over. A script can be finished and still remain stuck in the folder where it was saved. A festival cannot solve every problem surrounding new writing, but a production commitment, a paid development process, and an audience give a writer more to work with than exposure alone. What Puregold Teatro Panalo is offering Presented by Puregold and produced and organized by Wishbone Collective, Teatro Panalo is an inaugural festival for original one-act straight plays an...

Official promotional artwork for Rizal 3000 . Image courtesy of PhilStagers Theatre Foundation. The most interesting thing about Rizal 3000 is not simply that it places José Rizal inside a science fiction story. It imagines a future where remembering him has become illegal. PhilStagers Theatre Foundation opens its new original Filipino musical on August 8 and 9, 2026 at St. Cecilia's Hall, St. Scholastica's College Manila. Written and directed by Vincent M. Tañada, the production sends Rizal's ideas into a fictional Philippines almost a thousand years into the future. RIZAL 3000: QUICK FACTS August 8, 2026 at 6:00 PM August 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM St. Cecilia's Hall St. Scholastica's College Manila Written and directed by Vincent M. Tañada Music by Pipo Cifra Presented by PhilStagers Theatre Foundation A Philippines where history is forbidden Rizal 3000 is set in a co...

At a glance: On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan is entering the final stretch of its Manila run at the Proscenium Theater in Rockwell Center, Makati. Presented by Rockwell and 9 Works Theatrical, the production stars Kayla Rivera and Molly Langley, alternating as Gloria Estefan, opposite Cuban-American actor Jason Canela as Emilio Estefan. The Manila production of On Your Feet! brings the music, movement, and story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan to the Proscenium Theater. Photo courtesy of Rockwell. If a production is selling Gloria Estefan, it has to look like it can move. The Manila staging does. On Your Feet! arrives with bright lights, a full ensemble, bodies constantly in motion, and stage pictures that seem to come with their own rhythm. It pushes toward the edges of the Proscenium Theater stage without losing the people at the center of the music. That movement is part of what makes the production work. Audiences arr...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Manila adds a Filipino Sign Language-interpreted performance on July 22, 2026 at The Theatre at Solaire. The golden ticket is getting a more inclusive seat in Manila. Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will have a special Filipino Sign Language-interpreted performance on July 22, 2026 at 8 PM at The Theatre at Solaire . Broadway International Group, Broadway Asia Group, AMA Group of Companies, in association with GMG Productions, announced the accessibility performance as part of the Manila premiere of the Broadway musical. The show will feature live Filipino Sign Language interpretation for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing audiences. The initiative is being done in collaboration with Filipino Sign Language Deaf consultants and interpreters from the Benilde Center for Education Advancement of the Deaf and the School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies - Interpreting Education Program . Quick Facts: Charlie ...