'Bar Boys' musical elevates premise to new heights

Every year when the Bar exam results come out, board passers are congratulated, celebrated, and emulated — like heroes from tales of old. 

This is the proposition of "Bar Boys: A New Musical," the latest production from Barefoot Theatre Collaborative. 

A reimagining of the 2017 independent film of the same name, the musical sees four friends navigate the twists and turns of law school and their young lives as they strive to change the world around them. 

Leading the cast are Benedix Ramos as underprivileged Erik, Alex Diaz as rich kid Chris, Jerom Canlas as happy-go-lucky Torran, and Omar Uddin as idealist Josh. All four have formed a believable chemistry as the titular bar boys with Ramos particularly holding well to the heavy demands of his character.

Senior theater actors Juliene Mendoza, Nor Domingo, Topper Fabregas, Gimbey dela Cruz, Kakki Teodoro, and Carlon Matabato give valuable support to the male ingenues. Scenes of Mendoza and Dela Cruz and their respective sons stand out in highlighting the story’s coming-of-age underpinnings. 

Sheila Francisco plays the infamous law professor Justice Hernandez, a role popularized by Odette Khan in the film. Francisco made the role more motherly, complementing the familial relationships permeating through this production. Yet the bite remains. Her performance of “Dear Future Lawyers” at the beginning is equally cold and alluring, showing a glimpse of what would come.

Rounding out the cast are Diego Aranda, Joshua Ade Valenzona, Edrei Tan, Jannah Baniasia, Anne Cortez, Uzziel Delamide, and Meg Ruiz.

For the stage, characters were modernized and plot points were fleshed out to fit the longer time frame and visceral nature of theater.

The book and lyrics came from the mind of Pat Valera, who also made the musical version of "Dekada ‘70," another production that tackled identical themes such as loss of innocence and perseverance. 

This time he was accompanied by Mikko Angeles as co-director and Myke Salomon as the musical director and composer.

There is less cohesion however, with the first act feeling more stuffed than the more inventive second. Technical difficulties also made the sound muffled. Granted, it was the preview night. Polishing should have ironed out these creases when the actual show runs.

Given this, the second act was a tour-de-force, filled with high-stakes choices made and compounded on top of one another. Essentially, the film plot jumped off from its initial setup of four boys attending (law) school into new and risky territory. 

This allowed the story to right the wrongs of the film (the questionable choices of Torran for example), expand on the relationship between existing characters, establish a more arresting mise-in-scene as the Bar exam sequence loomed, and provide faster-paced storytelling. The musical goes deep into the legal process by then that this writer can’t help but feel traces of Hamilton during scenes of minds at work. 

New ideas are unearthed out of precedents. One particular classroom scene had a famous annulment case in the late '90s being connected to same-sex marriage. That is the power of storytelling, whether in courtrooms or classrooms, in film or on stage. What is accepted now is subject to change. And it is up to the storytellers to accept what has been told or have the perseverance to, in the words of Justice Hernandez, keep moving forward no matter how hard.

A lot could have gone wrong with reimaginings. The film version is well-loved after all, a lot of people still relate to it. But the team behind Bar Boys: A New Musical did their readings and did well in their jurisprudence.

"Bar Boys: A New Musical" will run from May 3 to 19 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater, in Circuit Makati.

Gab Pangilinan played roles in place of Kakki Teodoro for the preview night.