#filipino theatre | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

filipinfodump · 4 months

Text

Kabesang Tales - Isang Rap en Rol Musical

A Filipino Musical that hasn't left my mind since the mid 2010s

Poster for Kabesang Tales posted by Palakat Batangas City via Facebook

Although the Philippines is known for its many talented singers which include many that had crossed over to Broadway such as Lea Salonga, and Rachelle Ann Go, alongside many other Filipino-American talents like Conrad Ricamora, Arielle Jacobs, George Salazar, and Darren Criss just to name a few, the musical scene in the Philippines itself isn't as popular nor as successful in the country as it really should be.

Even with Filipino-majority musicals in states like the controversial Broadway musical "Here Lies Love" which narrates the life story of Imelda Marcos, one of the most controversial figures in Filipino politics and history today, and with Filipino stars often taking in lead or secondary roles in major productions, the musical boom of the 2010s did not come with a boom for the musical industry in the local level compared to the sudden popularity of American musicals like Hamilton, Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, or Be More Chill to name a few.

The very few musicals that did garner the spotlight did not receive the same notoriety of these foreign productions save for one of the few musical movies to have gotten major media acclaim Loy Arcena's Ang Larawan (2017) (en. The Portrait) based on the 1997 play of the same name by National Artist Nick Joaquin which became a media frenzy as being maybe one of the few if not the only original movie not based on major series or created by a large production company to be released that year for the Metro Manila Film Festival. One of the things that had skyrocketed it to media attention was the fact that most theaters did not screen it and it was only shown in very few cinemas, but that's a story for another time.

Despite the time and devotion Filipino musical fans may have for theatre, rarely do Filipino made and produced musicals ever enter the pop culture zeitgeist due to many factors like the lack of advertising, accessibility issues, and honestly the lack of cast recordings. Out of the many throughout the 2010s, one of the few I was able to watch that I still think about at times is Ricky Lee's very own rap and rock musical Kabesang Tales.

Background

Photo of Ricky Lee, the writer of Kabesang Tales the Musical via Inquirer

Kabesang Tales - Isang Rap en Rol Musical) (en. Captain Tales - A Rap n' Roll Musical) is a rap and rock musical first performed in the year 2015 and was written by renowned Filipino writer and National Artist Ricky Lee. The musical was directed by Alejandro "Bong" Ramos, with music by Jeffrey Hernandez and Alfredo Ongleo, and produced by Red Lantern Production (Inquirer, 2015).

Photo of John Arcilla, the lead actor for Kabesang Tales the Musical via Inquirer

The musical stars John Arcilla as the titular character Telesforo Juan "Kabesang Tales" De Dios, famously known for his breakout role as Hen. Anotnio Luna in the historical film Heneral Luna released the same year as the musical, alongside other talents such as Dio Marco as Karyo, Kevin Posadas as Tano de Dios, Alecx Lorica as Juli De Dios among many other talented actors (Inquirer, 2015).

A cover of one of the book's translations posted by twitter user El Filibusterismo (@/joseriz15155899) via X/Twitter

The play is based on Jose Rizal's El Filibusterismo (en. The Filibuster) and more specifically, the character of Kabesang Tales, the head of his barangay (a sort of Filipino village) and father of Basilio's main love interest Juli, who had turned into a guerilla bandit after his family and life were ruined by the Spanish friars. He becomes the feared Matanglawin (en. Hawkeye) who terrorizes the countryside. He plays a minor but important role in the books, being the father of one of the main secondary characters as well as being one of the main allies of the primary characters as they tried to start a revolution in the country.

The play primarily focuses on his perspective throughout the whole book with some scenes focusing more on the main protagonists Simoun and Basilio as well as his daughter Juli.

Performances and Releases

The musical had limited performances throughout some parts of the CALABARZON Region or Region IV-A, with some select performances in Metro Manila as well as some other provinces like in Mindoro, sometime during the years 2015-2017 with some being done in local cultural centers and schools throughout the region with very limited promotion outside of news stories.

The only promotional material I could really find are some posts on Facebook and a trailer in the Red Lantern Production's YouTube channel which could be seen here:

youtube

Trailer uploaded by Red Lantern Production via YouTube

There are no original cast recordings that I could find of any of the songs and the only material that I could find besides this are uploads on YouTube of scattered scenes from different parts of the play:

youtube

Full Playlist uploaded by YouTube channel pheejaypi here

I was also able to find a collection of clips of Karyo, a character possibly named after Karyo from Mga Ibong Madaragit which is a continuation novel of the El Filibusterismo written by Amado Hernandez, played by Terrence Guillermo.

youtube

Video uploaded by YouTube channel pinoy music maestro here

I remember some time in the 2010s seeing uploads of members of the cast singing in interviews I believe but I could no longer find any of these videos.

As of now, it is unknown if the production will ever come back with the last post on the Facebook page having been in 2021 with a post prior to posted on July 2019 calling for auditions in August 2019, possibly hinting that there was a planned 2020 tour for the musical before the pandemic hit.

Photo of the audition announcement posted on Facebook

The Plot (mostly from memory)

As there's barely any material of the live musical, I'll do my best to recollect what I could remember with the aide of the actual books to guide me. Of course, spoilers for Rizal's books Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo if you haven't read them.

The plot follows the events of El Filibusterismo but mainly from the perspective of the titular character Kabesang Tales. It begins with an extremely happy and optimistic scene with him, his family, and barangay as well as the visit of Basilio, Tales's daughter's lover to their house. I remember that there was an extremely cheesy song here between the two that a lot of people squealed over.

Photo of the mentioned musical number between Basilio and Juli posted by Jayson Pascua

The perspective switches over to Basilio and his visit to his mother's grave where he is shocked to see a man there who is revealed to be the thought to be dead fugitive Crisostomo Ibarra who now goes by Simoun, a jewelry merchant from the United States. The two have a bit of an argument where Simoun tries to convince Basilio to join him and his rebellion and I don't recall exactly if there was a song, but it seems likely.

Perspective switches back to Tales as tragedy strikes as his entire family gets struck with malaria resulting in the death of his wife. I don't remember all the details here or if there was a song, but I remember a sort of depressing atmosphere for the rest of this part.

Photo showing all of the actors playing the De Dios Family posted by Jayson Pascua

The family struggles with money and friars come over to cause even more problems for them. There's a rap battle here between Tales and a friar. Here starts his downward spiral as he struggles to make ends meet as well as handle the friars that had been trying to gain his land. I don't recall if it's shown that he has to pay for a lot of lawyers, but he starts paying more and more for legal fees because of the legal drama with the friars and the government.

My sister tells me that there's a song about how good the friars are before they get properly introduced and I have a hazy memory of three friars wearing varied outfits typically associated with friars posing for the stage as people sing songs of praise and goodwill. My sister tells me that Basilio was in the ensemble here.

His son, Tano, gets drafted to the Guardia Civil (en. Civil Guard) and sent to the Caroline Islands because Tales could not pay money to prevent his draft due to their financial struggles. This is shown as a heart wrenching scene in the play where the rest of the family is left distraught.

He starts guarding his property in fear of bandits possibly taking his fields and taking whatever he has left.

Tales then gets taken by these bandits who demand ransom money for his return. There he meets Karyo, one of its leaders who tells him about the struggles of the working class and why he and the others had resorted to being bandits in the first place (?). I don't actually remember if this is the first they meet or what since I do remember that the two have a philosophical discussion about violence later and that Karyo is definitely a member of the bandits but there are scenes where he acts as the emcee during Tales's rap battle with the friar.

The bandits later lets him go back to his family where he finds that he has no one left.

Juli, in order to help with her family's financial struggles as well as pay for her father's ransom, leaves home and asks for loans and find work.

If I'm not mistaken, his father Tandang Selo goes mute with the grief of the continuous tragedies that had struck the family as well. It's hard for me to remember if this was shown in the musical.

When Tales returns, he finds himself at a loss for what has happened to his family. He is left with his daughter forced to work and his father mute. He is then met with Simoun, who comes to him as a jeweler. Simoun tempts him with some ideas of radicalization against the friars and he refuses at first before spiraling further and joining Karyo and his bandits, becoming the feared Matanglawin.

I genuinely don't remember if his meeting with Simoun was also in the musical or not but it's important context for the story.

The musical then switches perspective to Basilio, who gets implicated with a conspiracy against the government and gets arrested. A heartbroken Juli goes to Padre Camorra, a creepy priest that's been trying to corner her, to beg for his help since she saw no one else that could help her. This leads into a rather intense scene acted in shadows and lights where it is heavily implied that Juli gets assaulted.

After this, Juli sings a song about her assault where she contemplates getting revenge or retaliating but instead chooses to jump off to end her life.

The scene switches back to Tales who, unlike in the books, meet with his son again who has returned to the Philippines. This one, I know had a song in it since I remembered the extreme daddy issues punk rock vibes the scene gave off. He sang about how he no longer respected his father and that it's too late to repair things if I recall as he's now a bandit and he's a member of the Guardia Civil.

Photo of the confrontation between Tales and Tano where Tano sings about his frustration with his father posted by Jayson Pascua

Desolate and distraught at the loss of his family, Tales gets visited by a diwata (a forest spirit/fairy) and this part was extremely out of left field and absolutely not in the books.

Here, the diwata shows Tales visions of the future (???) and directly tells him, without any sort of subtlety, that the working class, and especially farmers like him, will continue to struggle in his country in the future. He is then shown a scene of farmers in a protest who were then taken down by police in what I remember as riot gear. He contemplates the future and is further given resolve to continue his rebellion.

Photo of the mentioned scene where Tales first meets a diwata who will later send him to the future posted by Jayson Pascua

Photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is sent to the future by a diwata to witness farmers being taken down by cops in riot gear posted by Jayson Pascua

Another photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is sent to the future by a diwata to witness farmers being taken down by cops in riot gear posted by Jayson Pascua

I need to cut in and say that this was so on the nose and is by far the weirdest and personally maybe the worst part of the show. I'm not even against the message, it just ruined my immersion and just left a weird taste in my mouth. I think the play was doing a plenty good job driving that point across already without the time travel diwata scene but maybe that's just me.

The scene cuts back to the climax of the story where Basilio, distraught over then death of Juli, finally joins Ibarra as they plant a bomb in a wedding reception that the Governor-General of the Philippines was attending. The scene plays out like it was in the books where the lamp gets tossed out by Isagani and the revolution doesn't start.

It goes back to a scene of Tales and his men trying to fight the Guardia Civil where he is shot and killed in action, by the gun of his own son. Tano realizes what he has done and is horrified. This leads to a song which later leads to a finale that sings about Tales as the cast come together for the curtains to close.

Photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is shot and killed by his son Tano posted by Jayson Pascua

Another photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is shot and killed by his son Tano posted by Jayson Pascua

The musical ends and the cast is called on to the stage one by one, with the loudest applause going to Basilio who a lot of the girls found hot, and of course, the man himself, Kabesang Tales.

Photo of the closing song with Tales being shown front and center posted by Jayson Pascua

After the play and final thoughts

Ricky Lee actually attended the performance I watched and I remember so many people crowding around the actors to get their autographs. My sister bought one of Ricky Lee's book, his script writing guide "Trip to Quiapo" and had it signed but she genuinely can't find it anymore sadly. My sister also got the autograph of some of the actors and the director on that same book so I'm a little miffed that we can't find it.

I would discuss more things and even show off my old ticket but I'm pretty sure that I would end up doxxing myself if I speak any more details.

That's all I remember from it and I would love to say more or even discuss the songs but as you can see, I could barely remember them, with only maybe a solid grasp in about maybe four songs.

It's a shame that it doesn't have as much of an established release and media presence because despite that one glaring issue I had with the weird diwata scene, I quite enjoyed the musical and it remains one of the few that I actually got to experience live.

It isn't Les Miserables or Hamilton, but it's still a musical I'll probably fondly remember especially since El Filibusterismo is one of my favorite books of all time with the character of Kabesang Tales being one of the most interesting — a man of honor and virtue who slowly descends into extremist violence because society had failed him. It's sad to see this musical barely recognized and very little talked about today and I do hope that it will one day return to the stage.

References

Introduction

Palakat Batangas City. (2015, May 29). "The Batangas City Government and Red Lantern Production present Ricky Lee’s KABESANG TALES - Isang Rap en Rol Musical." [image]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://web.facebook.com/palakat.batangascity/photos/a.1543377512565520/1636600273243243/?type=3&_rdc=1&_rdr

Background

El Filibusterismo (@joseriz15155899). (2019, November 13). "#TheFilibuster Ventura's salvificact made Rizal gave his original manuscript of El Filibusterismo, a pen and an autograph printed copy." [image]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://twitter.com/joseriz15155899/status/1194459895657041920

Inquirer. (2015, December 12). John Arcilla stars in Ricky Lee ‘rap en rol’ musical ‘Kabesang Tales’. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/215824/john-arcilla-stars-in-ricky-lee-rap-en-rol-musical-kabesang-tales/

Inquirer. (2015, August 29). Ricky Lee writes rap, hip-hop libretto for new musical ‘Kabesang Tales’. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/204943/ricky-lee-writes-rap-hip-hop-libretto-for-new-musical-kabesang-tales/

Lee, R. (2015, August 29). Ricky Lee: “I have been longing to do a musical, music being a driving passion in my life.” PHOTO FROM RICKY LEE [image]. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/204943/ricky-lee-writes-rap-hip-hop-libretto-for-new-musical-kabesang-tale

Red Lantern Productions. (2015, December 2012). John Arcilla. PHOTO FROM RED LANTERN PRODUCTIONS [image]. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/215824/john-arcilla-stars-in-ricky-lee-rap-en-rol-musical-kabesang-tale

Performances and Releases

Kabesang Tales - Isang Rap en Rol Musical. (2019, July 27). Picture of the audition announcement posted on Facebook [image]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://web.facebook.com/kabesangtalestherockmusicale/photos/a.459803204196123/1309076952602073/

pheejaypi. (2016, October 3). Kabesang Tales: Isang Rap en Rol Musical clip 1 [video]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jftRyZOpxAA&list=PL1Yv-w-s-ETvRYsDWtaMPw2q0QO0q8Nfc

pinoy music maestro. (2021, January 1). Kabesang Tales excerpts feat. John Arcilla and Terence Guillermo [video]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlOkDi8_D_A

Red Lantern Production. (2015, August 15). Kabesang Tales Trailer [video]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CKKJsuBiuc

Plot

Pascua, J. (2015, October 11). Various photos [images]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://estranghero.weebly.com/photo-blog/john-arcilla-on-ricky-lees-kabesang-tales-isang-rap-en-roll-musical

#filipinfodump #filipino #philippines #filipino theatre #filipino musicals #musical theatre #musicals #filipino music #el filibusterismo #kabesang tales - isang rap en rol musical #kabesang tales #jose rizal #ricky lee #violence tw #sa tw #police brutality tw #police violence tw #mod maya

18 notes · View notes