They’re playing our song at The Pen

Not everyone gets a private show during Valentine’s.

And I’m not talking about those strip clubs on Tomas Morato. (Not that I would know anything about that.)

For the coming Valentine’s weekend, The Peninsula Manila is bringing together love, song and food in one charming package.

Dubbed their musical theater package, the hotel partnered with 9Works Theatrical, which is behind the Robbie Guevara-directed production of They’re Playing Our Song, starring Nikki Gil and Lorenz Martinez.

Couples — and even friends who fancy the theater — are invited to partake in the hotel’s weekend offering between Feb. 1 to March 3, which involves an overnight stay at the hotel, house tickets to the show performed at the RCBC theater (guests will be chauffeured via Mercedes-Benz transfers for weekend shows), and a chance to meet the cast, along with a three-course set dinner for two at Old Manila.

I was invited to sample the package and so on Saturday I packed my mini wheeled suitcase and set off for The Pen. Valentine’s is one of the hotel’s biggest days, drawing in crowds in volume next to Christmas and New Year’s Eve, according to the hotel’s GM, Sonja Vodusek-Vecchio. The crowd on this particular Saturday was filled with families dining at the lobby and visiting friends, and a contingent of San Francisco cops who come here yearly to train local law enforcement.

After check-in, guests were surprised by a serenade, performed by a theater actor masquerading as a Peninsula employee in the elevator. Surprising trivia: the hotel elevator has astonishingly good acoustics.

High tea followed, consisting of pink and chocolate desserts and mini sandwiches. I’ve been to more than a dozen bridal showers with similar fare, I realized, while munching on small sandwiches.

Nikki Gil rehearses for the 9Works production of They’re Playing Our Song.

Play that lovely music

We set off shortly for the rehearsal of They’re Playing Our Song. For the unfamiliar, it’s a play on the love story of Carole Sager and Marvin Hamlisch, penned by Neil Simon with music written by the late Hamlisch. (Incidentally, Hamlisch, one of the few with an EGOT to his name, passed just recently, after collaborating with Steven Soderbergh on two projects: the Matt Damon-starrer The Informant! and the upcoming Liberace film featuring Michael Douglas and Damon set for release on HBO. FYI: There’s a great Soderbergh interview on NYmag.com, with the director discussing his work with Hamlisch and the complex nature of film scoring.)

Artistic director Robbie Guevara prefaced the rehearsal we were going to see by explaining that the cast would only perform a few scenes from the play so as not to spoil the final performance.

I turned to my seatmate Toff de Venecia, who happens to be a member of the same theater group. “Why isn’t he showing the end?” I whispered. “Does someone die?”

“No,” he whispered back. “It’s a love story.”

Me: “Boring.”

Turns out the play has some very lovely music, capably performed by its two leads and talented supporting cast. Not that I know much about musical theater. My last brush with theater involved a high school staging of Les Miserables’ Master of the House. (I played a prostitute and had two lines — neither involved singing.)

Dinner for two

With the rest of the group set in pairs for dinner (we were invited to include a spouse or friend), I called my friend Maureen Disini, who lives down the street from the hotel. “You’re so sweet to invite me,” she said. “I didn’t want to be bored by myself,” I replied.

We dined on sweet crab salad and sipped champagne. Old Manila chef de cuisine Samuel Linder offered two types of main courses for the three-course meal: Tasmanian salmon with crispy chicken, glazed gnocchi shiitake ragout and green asparagus, and port-braised US short rib with Sbrinz fregola and truffle-scented beets. “I wanted to keep it light for women,” Linder explained, referring to the salmon, “with a hearty option for men with the short ribs.”

The highlight was the salmon, cooked perfectly, paired with the crisp chicken. “I just thought the combination of ingredients was unusual,” Linder remarked.

The meal ended on a high note with a lovely caramel and chocolate dessert paired with ice cream.

After the meal, we were surprised with bouquets of flowers. And when we went up to the room to watch a DVD (I had borrowed Ruby Sparks just for the occasion), we encountered more hearts and flowers: a pink heart-shaped object was left in my bedroom, next to a platter of fruit and orchids. “What’s this?” Maureen said and then proceeded to poke it. We cracked it until the heart broke and discovered even more chocolates inside. “You broke it,” she said as though we were in a bad telenovela. “You broke the heart.”

I bit into a shard. “Even the heart is made of chocolate.”

If you have diabetes but love Valentine’s, this may be problematic for you. But if you don’t require an insulin shot and love to celebrate the holiday, then this is the perfect weekend getaway treat.

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The package runs until March 3 at The Peninsula Manila. For inquiries, call 887-2888.