MANILA, 2015 – Leaving audiences with smiles on their faces, songs in their hearts and a little wetter than when they arrived, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN opened their season last August 20 to a full house and standing ovations all around, prompting the producers to add one more week to their run in Manila! SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN will now play until September 13 only at The Theatre, Solaire.
Set in 1927, it tells the story, made famous by Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in the iconic 1952 MGM movie, of the first Hollywood musical, when the silver screen found its voice and left silent movies – and some of its stars – behind. This spectacular production is packed full of the charm, romance, comedy and Tinseltown glamour of one of the world’s best-loved movies and features all the songs from the glorious MGM score including Good Morning, Make ‘em Laugh, Moses Supposes and the classic Singin’ in the Rain.
As well as glorious songs including Good Morning, Make ‘em Laugh, Moses Supposes and the classic Singin’ in the Rain, the movie’s choreography is brought to life, and with the help of 12,000 litres of water, the audience can enjoy one of the most iconic dance routines live on stage.
Audience members sitting on the first 3 rows of the theatre will be in for a one-of-a-kind experience. Called “The Splash Zone”, and appropriately so: people get treated to a generous amount of rain water from the show during some of the dance numbers. “You watch from the back of the stalls and at the interval, they’re all talking to each other like they’re comparing war wounds just to see who got the wettest. I’d say people really, really love it,” says resident rainmaker and technical director Richard Blacksell.
“We drop 12,000 litres of water in the show. So that’s 12 tons of water that we drop on them over the course of 2 numbers— the first one being the iconic SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, as done by Gene Kelly and they see it again in the finale because it would be such a shame not to,” explains Blacksell quite ecstatically. “We’re certainly, relatively, environmentally friendly,” he adds. “All of the water is UV-treated, sand-filtered, and chlorinated. Essentially, it’s the same machinery you would have in a swimming pool, except we’ve got it in the air.”
Leading the cast of 27 as the charming Don Lockwood is Duane Alexander. Duane was part of the Original South African cast of CATS, performing the roles of Coricopat, Mungojerrie, and Skimbleshanks in many wonderful countries including Lebanon, Malaysia, South Korea, China, Scandinavia, Qatar, and Taipei. Musical star Bethany Dickson, who has recently wowed audiences across China, New Zealand and Singapore with her performance as Maria in The Sound of Music, returns to the stage as the aspiring actress Kathy Selden.
For this production, there are 6 local musicians who are part of the main orchestra and 3 local musicians as deputies. SINGIN IN THE RAIN musical director Louis Zurnamer has nothing but praises for the Filipinos. “I’m unbelievably happy with the local musicians, they arrived not only well prepared but also come with bags of experience, from Symphony Orchestras to playing in all the major international musicals that come to Manila. Truly a body of musicians to be proud of!”, he says.
Don Lockwood is a silent movie star with everything he could want – fame, adulation and a well-publicised ‘romance’ with his co-star Lina Lamont. But Hollywood is about to change forever. There is rumour in the studio of a new kind of film, where the actors actually talk…and sing…and dance. Can Don and the uniquely voiced Lina make the transition and will chorus girl Kathy Selden fulfil her dream of stardom and capture Don’s heart along the way?
With high-energy choreography, sumptuous set design and costumes, a superb score and a joyous story, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN showers you with everything you could wish for in a hit musical.
SOURCE: Concertus Manila
PHOTOS BY: Erickson dela Cruz and Hagen Hopkins
