Election images & impressions from Willie Nep

Before the Music Museum curtain fell on Willie Nepomuceno, he bade the mostly aging crowd with a gentle plea, to “reflect a bit on our shared time frame and see pervasive, vivid, haunting images,” before crooning the famous lament from Les Miserables:

“I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I’m living

So different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed…”

The images and impressions conjured by Epal the Musicale centered on the great dream of Philippine life — elections, and its accompanying nightmare of personality cult. With the theme: “An epal a day makes dynasties stay,” he dissected once more the hell called ego/megalomania, condemning politicians of the republic to eternal fire and brimstone. The youth calls this being mapapel (epal for short) — the “I-Me-Mine/Kame-kame Tayo-tayo” syndrome that makes politics in this country such a comedy of errors.

Walking from the stage to the audience, Willie Nep asked Ambassador Dee what campaign jingle he most remembers and of course, the answer was the classic Mambo Magsaysay, composed by Raul Manglapus in 1956 (resurrected by Cory Aquino’s camp when she ran against Ferdinand Marcos in 1985) and sung by then popular singer Rosita dela Vega. He also recalls the Nora Aunor ditty Action agad Enrile, (mistakenly placed in 1968, to which my husband hollered the correct year — 1971), his point being: One sure card politicians use is the idol factor to create the band wagon effect among the masses, although in the former case, Magsaysay won, but in the latter case, Enrile lost. Prepping his show with more audience participation added gratitude to the fun evening, calling to mind Las Vegas entertainers giving their crowds much appreciated affirmation.

Speaking of idols, he then paraded his ensemble of entertainers whose impressions he has mastered: Tony Benett, Johnny Mathis, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and Barry Manilow with wigs and prosthetics that made his metamorphoses quicker. He has included these singers in his previous shows, but this time, his choice of songs was keener, and his choreographed moves, crispier.

A new impersonation seamlessly executed was on Victor Wood, undisputed jukebox king of the ’70s, who limped to center stage in his signature bell bottoms and flaring long sleeves with matching scarf, singing his sentimental hits Eternally, Cheryl Moana Marie and In Despair. Completing the trip down memory lane was Knock on Wood which prompted the graying crowd to reminisce dancing maskipops (maski papano) in their Glenmore boots and two-inch clogs. It would have been perfection had Willie included Madame Auring in her May Asim Pa gown in the segment, as the two were once said to be an “item” (as she once confided in Jojo Alejar’s late-night All the Way Show). Wishful thinking, he should have asked his radio program Music and Memories co-anchor, Boots Anson-Roa (who was in the audience wearing the show’s promo shirt) to shed her amiable aura to play the role of this gypsy lady who makes fearless fortune forecasts. It will be recalled that the Plaka King from Camarines Sur ran for the Senate during the 2007 general election under the KBL banner, but not even his lachrymal Mr. Lonely could save him from perdition.

A highlight of the show was the pastiche of statesmen of past elections: Jovy Salonga, Lorenzo Tañada, Pepe Diokno, Ninoy Aquino and their caliber, juxtaposed against the plethora of characters who recycled their waning careers as entertainers in the waxing opportunities of public service. The telling music that accompanied the images flashing on-screen underscored the patriotism of the former and the pomp of the latter.

After which came the John en Marsha sketch, complete with all the members of John Puruntong’s family, including an emaciated Matutina. Willie as the King of Comedy, Dolphy, sagely shot down Doña Delilah’s machinations to wield political clout in her greasy palms with the comment: Hinahanapan ng butas ang batas — the very familiar ploy of grizzled politicians conscripting their wives and children to warm their seats until they can ran for re-election. The family ended their rather long-winded commentary on political dynasties with a production number called Epal Gangnam style.

The Jeep ni Erap number advanced the pilosopo theory (that seems to have emanated from Ishko Salvador’s Ang Dating Doon) that actors and actresses are deeply patriotic because they have made movies about all the lines in the national anthem, from Lupang Hinirang to Ang Mamatay ng Dahil Sa Iyo, with the sketched artworks of the films that appeared in newspapers and katsa billboards of yore. The former mayor, congressman, senator, vice president and president justified his checkered love life with the aphorism: “Those who have less in life should have more in-laws.” And in true Asiong Salonga fashion, quipped: Kung si Doktora Loy nga, hindi nagrereklamo, kayo pa?

Willie is a deadringer for the jaded mayor of Manila, Alfredo Lim, from his snow-white hair to his dangkasi-laden sentences. One just wishes that the recent real-time face-off between the two mayoral contenders had never seen the light of day as it brought political bickering to an all-time low.

The videotaped duet of the Elderly Brothers, with Willie essaying the roles of two octogenarians who made history during the trial of the former chief justice of the Supreme Court — Juan Ponce Enrile and Serafin Cuevas — was amusing, as they poked fun at the twists and turns of political fortunes with the adaptation of the feuding brothers’ Devoted to You, tongue-in-cheek titled, We Voted for You. The “duet” with Celine Dion was a novelty, with the soothing When Somebody Loves You, perhaps a dream come true for this music struck master, who might just make it to the ballot should he throw his hat into the political ring.

The debate featuring P-Noy and Makoy, with Willie shuttling to and from stage as both, was too long, but the redeeming factor was Frida Nepomuceno, who has polished her Kris Aquino to such a high sheen if one recalls her past appearances in her father’s show. Should the Philippine queen of talk really retire, then there is her doppelganger waiting in the wings, ready with her low-cut bodice and cloying laughter. The segment also proved that nobody could hold a candle to Willie in impersonating the late progenitor of Martial Law in the Philippines.

As in all his past shows, my husband and I walked away from a Willie Nep revue feeling relieved that despite the many dreams “made, used and wasted” in the arena of Philippine politics, the images and impressions left in the collective memory of an election-weary people left “no song unsung, no wine untasted,” as the hapless dying Fantine from Victor Hugo’s historical fiction anguished.

Because Willie chose this as his swan song for the comic musicale, it may well be a reminder to politicians about the pressing issues of our time, about which Hugo wrote to his Italian publisher: “Social problems go beyond frontiers. Humankind’s wounds, those huge sores that litter the world, do not stop at the blue and red lines drawn on maps. Wherever men go in ignorance or despair, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children lack a book to learn from or a warm hearth, Les Miserables knocks at the door and says: ‘Open up, I am here for you.’”

If all politicians will go the way of Hugo’s Jean Valjean, ex-convict-turned-philanthropist, who rose to popular acclaim and became mayor as he redeemed his corrupt life, then Epal the Musicale would not have been staged in vain.