On This Side of the World
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
East West Players at the David Henry Hwang Theater
Through June 14
RECOMMENDED
At the opening performance of On This Side of the World, Snehal Desai, producing artistic director of East West Players, gave a pre-show address about the legacy of the Little Tokyo-based theater, for almost 60 years the preeminent exponent of Asian American and Pacific Islander productions.
Soon to assume his duties as artistic director of Center Theater Group, Desai mastered his emotions as he pointed out that this was to be his last production at the helm of the company.
The simple premise of this world premiere musical – produced in association with FilAm ARTS and co-created by Paulo K Tiról and Noam Shapiro, with music and lyrics by Tiról — concerns six Filipinos on a plane from the Manila airport en route to new lives in New York City. Their various reasons for immigrating — from a woman joining a husband-to-be she has only met online, to a schoolteacher who has accepted a job in Manhattan — are only occasionally sampled. The show’s real business lies in the “suitcase of stories” that the schoolteacher collected before she left her native country for the U.S. — stories that are the basis for the song cycle that follows.
Despite flashing supertitles that inform us these are “Stories About School,” “Stories About Love,” “Stories About Family,” etc., we are left to wonder how exactly this schoolteacher amassed these “stories,” and from whom, and exactly why. Admittedly, it’s a flimsy framing device. And granted, a few of the songs could have been entirely elided without seriously denting the plot, such as it is.
That defect is soon forgotten in light of Tiról and Shapiro’s overall achievement, a sweeping consideration of the immigrant experience that is comical, pithy and often so poignant that tears result.
Six actors (Steven-Adam Agdeppa, Zandi De Jesus, Michael C. Palma, Cassie Simone, Andrea Somera and Shaun Tuazon) — protean performers all, not to mention superlative singers —take on the multiple characters springing from this “suitcase.” Musical directors Jennifer Lin and Marc Macalintal, who also conducts and plays keyboards in the live band, smoothly exploit the cast’s considerable vocal talents.
Among the performers, perhaps the most virtuosic range is shown by Agdeppa, who owns the stage in full-on drag in the rousing number “Rice Queens” — parading in designer Jaymee Ngernwichit’s dazzling strip-away costume. In a role so downplayed he is almost unrecognizable, Agdeppa later plays a grief-stricken son who, in the somber “Sunday Afternoon,” recalls leaving his mother in the Philippines before death parted them forever.
In the most politically acute number, “Proud,” a man (Palma) who is being sworn in as a U.S. citizen responds to his fellow Filipinos’ accusations that he has betrayed his country. He defiantly and bitterly rebuts them, referencing the deplorable state of the Philippines under flagrantly corrupt administrations — and making our stomachs drop with the realization that our own country could ultimately suffer the same fate.
Buoyed by Broadway-caliber production elements — including Yi-chien Lee’s scenic design, Szu-Yun Wang’s lighting, Maddi Deckard’s sound, and most notably, David Murakami’s remarkable projections— director Shapiro delivers a taut, sharply realized staging — and considering all the moving parts of this supremely ambitious production, that is no mean logistical feat.
As far as swan songs go, Desai couldn’t have gone out on a more spectacular note.
On This Side of the World, David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center of the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Little Tokyo. Thurs.-Sat. and Mon., 8 p.m. Also Sat., 2 p.m. and Sun., 5 p.m. thru June 4. (213) 625-7000. eastwestplayers.org Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes with intermission.
