24
Philippine Showbiz Today
May 8 - 21, 2018
How Changing Partners musical opened
doors for Anna Luna
Anna Luna is in cloud nine now-
adays. But it’s not about a man or a
single partner in her very young life.
She’s ecstatic and blooming as
she tells the good news that she’s
going to reprise the role of Cris in
Vincent de Jesus’s stage musical
“Changing Partners.” But this time,
it will be staged in a bigger
venue, the 400-seat Philip-
pine Educational Theater
Association’s PETA-Phin-
ma Theater.
“Bumaba lang po
kami, kasi dati nasa taas
kami sa third floor,” she
said, referring to the 115-
seat PETA Theater Center
Studios, where “Changing
Partners” was first staged
from September to Octo-
ber, 2016, directed by Red
Turnip Theater co-founder
Rem Zamora.
“Kami-kami lang po
noon. Pito lang kami sa
set. Apat na actors, si Kuya
Vincent, isang director at
isang stage manager. Kami kami
lang nagpinta-pinta sa mga set na-
min, pero sobrang saya namin,” she
said.
Luna starred with Agot Isidro,
Jojit Lorenzo and Sandino Martin in
the musical that runs a little more
than an hour without intermission.
Isidro and Lorenzo play Alex, the
older lover of Cris, who is also played
by Martin.
It was later made into a movie
by director Dan Villegas with the
same cast for the 2017 Cinema One
Originals Film Festival, where it won
eight awards, including the Cham-
pion Bughaw for Best Film.
The movie was indeed a break-
through considering it was the only
musical among the entries. It was
also well-received by the general
public when it had a nationwide com-
mercial run in January this year.
For those who haven’t seen the
film and the play, “Changing Part-
ners” is the story of couple Alex and
Cris. It is a May-December affair that
tackles the joys and ills of a relation-
ship, infidelity—thus the title--and
how one survives its crashes and
burns. It may sound as simple as that
but De Jesus’ brilliant storytelling
will surprise the first-timer, especially
with the songs he composed that
explore heartbreaks in all angles. Or
let us just say, dissecting heartbreaks
that only De Jesus can.
In its review, ABS-CBN News
described the 2016 run as “that rare
musical that’s perfectly
suited for today’s hugot-
obsessed audience yet
has found a brilliant, cre-
ative way to tell another
story of a love that has
turned sour. It’s theater
that feeds both the mind
and the heart.”
Many
of
those
who’ve seen the film
didn’t know there was an
earlier stage version and
when they found out,
they requested for a re-
run.
“Kaya nga po we’re
staging it now and we’re
very happy because we’re
in a bigger venue,” said
Luna, who calls “Changing Partners”
their passion project.
Moreover, composer-musician-
librettist De Jesus, who used to do
solo piano accompaniment, will be
joined in by cellist Poch Gutierrez.
Production designer Ben Padero,
who recently did PETA’s “Night,
Mother,” will create a bigger set that
would fit the PETA-Phinma Theater
stage.
Zamora and De Jesus both
agree that they have found a gem of
an actress in Luna.
“I first met Anna in the PETA
play ‘William.’ She struck me as a
very intense actress. Brooding and
mysterious onstage yet crazy and
hysterical in person,” said De Jesus,
referring to the 2011 award-winning
rap musical about teenagers who
learned to love William Shakespeare
and his works. Luna played Estella, a
brilliant schoolgirl battling family is-
sues.
In 2015, Luna played the Nina,
the pretty, young heir of a hacend-
ero family who is the only one ready
to let go of old traditions in PETA’s
“Arbol de Fuego,” an adaptation of
Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”
The following year, she played
Nazty of the rebel group called Tro-
pang Gising in PETA’s “Three Stars
and a Sun,” a tribute rap-rock mu-
sical for the late Pinoy music icon
Francis Magalona.●
- Totel V. de Jesus, MB