MANILA'S TWO-WAY HIGHWAY TO BROADWAY

There's so much happening in the vibrant market of the Philippines, it's going to take two newsletters to tell you about it.

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Lea Salonga in Request sa Radyo. Photo: Sandro Paredes

Earlier this month, a starry play opened with a buzzy, Tony-winning cast and creative team. The lesser-known, experimental title could have been a pretty risky sales proposition—but because the production featured two of the nation’s biggest stars of stage and screen, audiences flocked to its extremely limited engagement.

Sounds like Broadway, where star-driven, limited-run plays have become the norm. But in this case it’s 8,500 miles away in the Philippines, where Request sa Radyo, headlined by Lea Salonga and Dolly de Leon, launched a new partnership spearheaded by Manila’s Broadway-sized Samsung Performing Arts Theater, the prolific producer-director Bobby Garcia, and the Tony-winning, New York-based designer Clint Ramos.

It’s also the latest indicator that Manila has become an important global theater market, rising in prominence as a viable stop for international touring productions and increasingly integrated into the Broadway community via Filipino talent like Ramos. At the same time, the city has developed into a hotbed of new musicals, with local companies churning out fresh works—both jukebox musicals and shows with original scores.

“The Philippines just continues to impress,” says Australian producer Michael Cassel, whose international touring production of Hamilton launched in Manila last year. “There’s a real appetite and affinity for theater there, and as a producer, you can sustain a good run in Manila with a decent average ticket price, which is key.”

There’s so much going on in the Philippines that I’ve decided to split this SPOTLIGHT STORY into two parts. In Part Two, I’ll take a look at Manila’s impressive output of original musicals and the people who make them. But first, here in Part One I’ll highlight

• the Request sa Radyo partnership that promises further crossover between Manila and Broadway,

• the reasons that international producers are liking the Philippines more and more,

• the new theaters coming online that will make the region even more appealing,

• average run lengths, ticket prices, consumer demographics, and more ins and outs of this unique market,

• the history of the country’s surging interest in musical theater and Broadway, and

• the initiatives in the works to further develop local audiences—including a musical theater rave.

“It seems like the theater world is now paying attention to what’s going on in the Philippines,” Garcia tells me. Here’s why.