Theater Review: One More Chance, the Musical Highlights Popoy's Red Flags
Most of us, in one way or another, know of the 2007 Filipino film One More Chance, starring Bea Alonzo (as Basha) and John Lloyd Cruz (as Popoy). You may have seen it on the big screen, saw the numerous replays on television, heard (or used) the quote "Sana ako pa rin, ako na lang, ako na lang ulit" or the post-breakup "three-month rule," or shared memes and GIFs. A restored version is even available on Netflix for the convenience of first-time viewers or repeat ones. Suffice it to say, the movie has become part of Philippine pop culture, and we even followed the Popoy-Basha love story until its sequel in 2015.
Seventeen years after One More Chance (OMC) graced our cinemas, it's now back as a stage musical—with songs by Ben&Ben, no less. This ambitious project at the PETA Theater Center was carried out by Director Maribel Legarda, Playwright Michelle Ngu-Nario, Musical Director and Sound Designer Myke Salomon, Choreographer Michael Barry Que, Set Designer Ohm David, Lighting Designer David Esguerra, Projection Designer Bene Manaois, and other members of the artistic staff. Sam Concepcion alternates with CJ Navato for the role of Popoy, while Anna Luna alternates with Nicole Omillo for Basha.
The tricky thing about adapting an existing work into another form is hitting that sweet spot of making the newly produced work stand on its own, adding something of value, and complementing the previous piece. Then, there’s that task of incorporating a substantial body of existing works—the songs of Ben&Ben—in it. So how did PETA do it? By fleshing out as much as they can from the characters once crafted by movie writers Vanessa R. Valdez and Carmi G. Raymundo, and take advantage of the magnanimity of the stage to present their backstories.
The Thursday Barkada of One More Chance, the Musical
I watched One More Chance, the Musical, on press night, which happens to be a Thursday. It's the same day when the Thursday Barkada in OMC meets up to drink or have dinner together. The musical’s dynamics rested so much on the five supportive friends of the on-and-off couple: the wise Kenneth (played by Poppert Bernadas during the preview), the motherly Krizzy (Rica Laguardia), the funny and sarcastic Anj (Via Antonio), the hopeless romantic JP (Jon Abella), and the loyal best friend Chinno (Johnnie Moran). Each character would interject with their witty remark, especially in scenes that needed to be saved from the edge of melodrama. Whether those were ad-libs or part of the script, the asides sustained me to sit through the three-hour show.
The members of the Thursday Barkada were also given enough time and space to work through their own issues and gain that sense of self-fulfillment and self-awareness championed in this version of the narrative. Mental health was also touched on, highlighting how society (e.g. parents and bosses) put so much pressure (and premium) on getting a high-paying job, no matter how unfulfilling; how, at times, even a group of friends are uncomfortable talking about serious matters and often resorting to drinking and making jokes; and how certain chapters in our lives are really just about getting lost and finding ourselves.
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Popoy-Basha as a Toxic Couple
But what’s most apparent for me are all the red flags of Popoy, “parang fiesta,” as Anj interjected. It was not as obvious in the movie version in the late 2000s, which I can blame on the naiveté in my early 20s or chalk up to the fact that this is a stage version where everything is in 3D. He’s controlling, he doesn’t listen, he’s stingy, and he’s always unnecessarily hostile. I can never root for this guy—not even in Act II, when he pretends to be a different person with rebound girl Tricia (Sheena Belarmino). And yet, Basha blames herself for hurting him, and—well, Popoy blames Basha, too.
Sam Concepcion imbibed the character of a toxic boyfriend (or, to push it further, an annoying softboi), while Anna Luna got that mix of pa-martir and hopelessly-in-love Basha.
The Movie, the Music, and the Musical
As mentioned, creating something new out of something old can be a slippery slope. Outside the fleshing-out of characters, One More Chance, the Musical stayed within the path of the original. It added a few quotable lines (likely limited to licensing restrictions), but they were too few that the punchlines of the original still echoed throughout.
The playlist, which includes 22 tracks from Ben&Ben and one monologue (Tricia’s Song), neatly guided the chronological narrative. Too neat that it felt like a game of connect the dots. Did “Maybe the Night” work in a flirting scene? It sure did. Was “Magpahinga” a good choice for the scene where Basha’s mom tells her to rest? Of course. Was Popoy’s and Basha’s longing for each other encapsulated in the song “Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay”? Sure. But all that was just because Ben&Ben’s songs have such universality and relatability that there’s a track for every moment in our lives.
In the end, it felt like I was rewatching the same movie with songs playing in the background, only I’m 17 years older. And maybe that's the point: for us in our 30-somethings or 40-somethings—an entire generation that likely quoted One More Chance once in our lives—to realize how dumb that whole thing was. Then, look at how far we’ve come in true malayo-pa-pero-malayo-na fashion.
One More Chance, the Musical runs from April 12 to June 30 at PETA Theater Center, 5 Sunnyside Drive, New Manila, Quezon City. Tickets are sold out.
