The Cory musical & the search for heroes within

MANILA, Philippines - How apropos now that the country is undergoing investigations of fraud, stealth and countrywide corruption, we are invited to witness in music and song a part of history that dealt with the same malaise. Cory, the Musical written and directed by Nestor Torre Jr. for Bing Pimentel’s Buhay Isang Awit Foundation will be restaged on Aug. 20 and 21 at the Meralco Theater in memory of Ninoy Aquino’s death.

The original musical was conceptualized in 2008 when the former president was diagnosed with colon cancer and producer/composer Pimentel thought of staging a chronicle on her life and times.

As one of the few artists to hold the singular distinction of portraying  a heroine while she was alive and after her death, Isay Alvarez finds herself doubly challenged as she not only confronts the character she had met and respected, but also her now larger than life reputation after death.

Cory and the Aquino children visit Ninoy at Camp Aguinaldo

The repeats today demand more stringent vocal and interpretative skills from both Isay and Sherwin Sozon as Ninoy. The many performances held since 2008 have also crystallized Isay’s exposition of the Cory character. “I feel I now know Cory better.” She treasures the intimate scenes with Ninoy in prison, but admits that the finale is more vocally demanding.

As more and more repeats are requested of Mrs. Pimentel, her artists will find themselves facing the reality that fact and fiction will become more and more discombobulated as time goes on. Social anthropologists and historians will enter the scene with their own analyses and interpretations. Did Ninoy return to Manila knowing he would be killed to save the nation, or to install his name forever along the ranks of Rizal and Bonifacio? Is Cory rightfully now being considered for sainthood as many religious are wont to suggest? Is the couple’s role in the country’s fight for freedom doomed to be forgotten? Is the Filipino of Ninoy truly worth dying for? Is Cory’s statement of “I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life” dissipated on a wasteland? And as Isay herself asks, “Are we any better off today than we were 25 years ago. We can just hope and pray that we get out of this sad state soonest.”

The actors flash an L sign saying, ëThe Filipino is worth fighting for!í

We ourselves who have lived through the carnage of Plaza Miranda, camped out with millions others at EDSA during People Power, experienced the liberation of the nation with the flight of the Marcoses, gone through the regimes of Fidel, Erap, and Gloria; we, too, ask the same questions. We, too, ask if the problem lays in an integral character defect in the Filipino? And if so, is our search for heroes truly in vain unless we do a turn-around and search for the hero within each of us?

If anything, Cory, the Musical should be viewed for the questions it will broach. The past has come and gone. The unfortunate youth of today will need to utilize the lessons of the past in order to harvest a better future for themselves.

Other than the original main cast of Isay, Sherwin, Robert Seña as Ferdinand Marcos, Pinky Marquez as Imelda Marcos and Tommy Abuel as the reporter, there are Lou Veloso, Ed Sicam as Cory’s father, Sheila Parducho as Doña Aurora Aquino, Celine Fabie, Francis Jerome Santos, Maui Ong, Baby Resurrection, Johnvid Bangayen, Joseph Cris Domingo, Jan Alexander Torre and Alita Divino. New cast members are Roanne Mallari, Nadia Matining, Jaycell Candela, Beejay Lacañel, Patrick Hilario, Donna de Jesus, Jeanie Sison, Norbhie Lilagan and Rodelio Mallari.    

One million signatures are gathered to convince Cory to run

(E-mail me at [email protected] or call Clarisse or Maelyn at 882-0678 loc 307 for tickets and info on the musical).