{"id":687,"date":"2023-06-07T00:42:34","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T00:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/remake\/?p=687"},"modified":"2023-06-12T00:46:10","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T00:46:10","slug":"on-this-side-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/remake\/on-this-side-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Side of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\n

On This Side of the World<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley<\/strong>
\nEast West Players at the David Henry Hwang Theater<\/em><\/strong>
\nThrough June 14<\/strong><\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>At the opening performance of\u00a0On This Side of the World<\/em>,\u00a0Snehal 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The simple premise of this world premiere musical \u2013 produced in association with FilAm ARTS and co-created by Paulo K Tir\u00f3l\u00a0and Noam Shapiro, with music and lyrics by Tir\u00f3l \u2014\u00a0concerns six Filipinos on a plane from the Manila airport en route to new lives in New York City. Their various reasons for immigrating \u2014 from a woman joining a husband-to-be she has only met online, to a schoolteacher who has accepted a job in Manhattan \u2014 are only occasionally sampled. The show\u2019s real business lies in the \u201csuitcase of stories\u201d that the schoolteacher collected before she left her native country for the U.S. \u2014 \u00a0stories that are the basis for the song cycle that follows.<\/p>\n

Despite flashing supertitles that inform us these are \u201cStories About School,\u201d \u201cStories About Love,\u201d \u201cStories About Family,\u201d etc., we are left to wonder how exactly this schoolteacher amassed these \u201cstories,\u201d and from whom, and exactly why. Admittedly, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

That defect is soon forgotten in light of Tir\u00f3l and Shapiro\u2019s overall achievement, a sweeping consideration of the immigrant experience that is comical, pithy and often so poignant that tears result.<\/p>\n

Six actors (Steven-Adam Agdeppa, Zandi De Jesus, Michael C. Palma, Cassie Simone, Andrea Somera and Shaun Tuazon) \u2014 protean performers all, not to mention superlative singers \u2014take on the multiple characters springing from this \u201csuitcase.\u201d Musical directors Jennifer Lin and Marc Macalintal, who also conducts and plays keyboards in the live band, smoothly exploit the cast\u2019s considerable vocal talents.<\/p>\n

Among the performers, perhaps the most virtuosic range is shown by Agdeppa, who owns the stage in full-on drag in the rousing number \u201cRice Queens\u201d \u2014 parading in designer Jaymee Ngernwichit\u2019s dazzling strip-away costume. In a role so downplayed he is almost unrecognizable, Agdeppa later plays a grief-stricken son who, in the somber \u201cSunday Afternoon,\u201d recalls leaving his mother in the Philippines before death parted them forever.<\/p>\n

In the most politically acute number, \u201cProud,\u201d a man (Palma) who is being sworn in as a U.S. citizen responds to his fellow Filipinos\u2019 accusations that he has betrayed his country.\u00a0He defiantly and bitterly rebuts them, referencing the deplorable state of the Philippines under flagrantly corrupt administrations \u2014 and making our stomachs drop with the realization that our own country could ultimately suffer the same fate.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by Broadway-caliber production elements \u2014 including Yi-chien Lee\u2019s scenic design, Szu-Yun Wang\u2019s lighting, Maddi Deckard\u2019s sound, and most notably, David Murakami\u2019s remarkable projections\u2014 director Shapiro delivers a taut, sharply realized staging \u2014 and considering all the moving parts of this supremely ambitious production, that is no mean logistical feat.<\/p>\n

As far as swan songs go, Desai couldn\u2019t have gone out on a more spectacular note.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0eastwestplayers.org<\/a>\u00a0 Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes with intermission.<\/em><\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”902″ image_size=”full” animation_type=”entrance” animation=”None” animation_movement_type=”transform_y” hover_animation=”none” alignment=”center” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” image_loading=”default” max_width=”100%” max_width_mobile=”default”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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