The musical play offers an ingenious and hilariously charming view of culture and history.
KD Estrada and Alexa Ilacad, a fast-rising onscreen team-up, KDLex, are the banner stars of the stage musical, ‘Walang Aray’, which runs from February 17 to May 14. Brimming with hilarious moments and standing-ovation-worthy performances, the play showcases a lovely take, but not without being critical, on history.
Based on Severino Reyes’s well-known zarzuela, ‘Walang Sugat’, the stage musical whose script was penned by Rody Vera, cruises through both the Spanish era and the present. A lively adaptation filled with comic wonders and thought-provoking commentaries, the biggest stars of the play are the actors themselves. The brilliance of the cast, which is led by both Estrada and Ilacad, was front and center, during the press preview of the play, last February 14. As Tenyong and Julia, Estrada, and Ilacad, showcased a facet of their artistry that is not often seen by casual audiences. With ‘Walang Aray’, the onscreen couple makes a symbolic leap: from television to theater, which illustrates the level of maturity they have achieved over the course of more than a year of being a love team.
There is no shortage of funny moments in ‘Walang Aray’. The non-stop screams of excitement and awe, and the thunderous applause it got during the preview, was solid proof that the pair, alongside the ensemble of talented stage actors they starred in the show with, delivered.
At the end of the show, a standing ovation was given, and Direk Laurenti Dyogi, the head of Star Magic, was there to witness it. The Kapamilya talent management company is notably a partner to PETA and Indie.Go Media, in bringing this masterpiece of a play to the public. It notably marks the return of PETA to physical performances, after taking a pause because of the pandemic.
“Lino (Brocka) always felt that it’s good for film actors to come and do theater because their experience of the theater will improve their craft as performers, and at the same time, their give back, is that they lend their celebrity to help theater become more popular to new audiences,” said PETA Artistic Director, Maribel Legarda, paying tribute to the late director, Lino Brocka, who was a former executive director of PETA.
View photos from the press preview held last February 14 in the gallery below. Tickets for upcoming shows can be purchased through TicketWorld.
