Late last month, The IdeaFirst Live held a press conference unveiling their 2027-2028 season with some really interesting productions. They announced ‘Die Beautiful: The Musical,’ the Eugene Domingo-led one-woman show ‘Victorina,’ and the adaptation of the book ‘Teorya ng Tanong,’ a companion piece to the film and its theatrical adaptation, ‘About Us But Not About Us.’
‘Teorya ng Tanong’ will reunite Elijah Canlas, Romnick Sarmienta, and Epy Quizon, who performed in the hit production as the characters in the book, making it an extremely meta experience.
During the launch of this season, ‘Die Beautiful: The Musical’ is also revealed to have been updated (book and lyrics by Jun Robles Lana and Elmer Gatchalian) so that the play will revolve more around the art of drag rather than beauty pageants.
It has been 10 years since the movie was released, so this shift will make it feel more present-more contemporary, even. It’s an interesting pivot and can create a lot of creative moments for its musical numbers.
Catching the theater bug
There have been a whole lot of film-to-stage adaptations lately. Just in the past five years, we had ‘Bagets: The Musical,’ ‘Dagitab,’ ‘Kisapmata,’ ‘One More Chance,’ ‘Bar Boys: The Musical,’ ‘Himala: The Musical,’ and ‘AKO: Alpha Kappa Omega’ (based on Mike De Leon’s ‘Batch ’81’). And while not a film, ‘Tabing-Ilog’ is still a play that is based on a story first told through the screen.
(I’m sure there’s a lot more that I’ve missed, but I’m just running through the ones I can name on the fly. And that’s a lot!)
Some of these titles may be one of the factors why there is a renewed interest in theater. A lot of non-theatergoers might have been interested in watching a play based on a popular movie and got the theater bug because of it.
While the thought of a play may be daunting for the uninitiated, I am one to believe that once you watch a play, it can get very addictive. And we have a lot of really good productions-great Filipino talent all over the theater scene-so most likely, you get to see one; there’s a huge chance it is going to be an amazing experience for the first-time theater-goer.
A history of interconnectedness
Theater and film have always intersected throughout history. When the technology of film led to telling stories on the new medium in the late 19th century, the pioneering filmmakers-the Lumiere Brothers-incorporated theatrical conventions into their work, taking inspiration from vaudeville and melodrama.
Later, French filmmaker Georges Melies used stagecraft to create his whimsical, fantastical films and pioneered special effects using theatrical techniques with editing wizardry (at that time) and made the timeless imagery of ‘A Trip to the Moon.’
As technology developed and longer films became a possibility, cinema took stage actors and brought them to the screen-while adapting popular plays and turning them into cinematic spectacles. Directors of the stage then made the transition to the screen, and the likes of Elia Kazan, John Huston, and Ingmar Bergman became known on both platforms.
In the Philippines, films began screening as early as 1897 when the technology was flown in, but it wasn’t until 1919 that the Filipinos were able to produce their own full-length movie. Jose Nepomuceno’s ‘Dalagang Bukid,’ which marked the beginning of Philippine cinema, was based on a Tagalog sarsuwela by Hermogenes Ilagan of the same name.
Many of the early works of film were based on existing theatrical productions-both here and globally-until the theories on film language bloomed and it diverged in storytelling techniques and styles. But the three-act structure, which was the basis of all Western drama founded by Plato and Aristotle, was also the foundation of cinematic narrative structure for most of its first 50 years.
So while it may seem like it’s a ‘growing trend’ in Philippine theater to take stories from popular films, their histories have long been intertwined. In a way, this is just a lovely cyclical interweaving of the two art forms.
From screen to stage to screen
Possibly one of the most interesting adaptations is that of Ishmael Bernal and Ricky Lee’s ‘Himala,’ which was adapted into the musical, ‘Himala: Isang Musikal’-rewritten for the stage by Lee with music by Vincent A. De Jesus.
The musical was first staged in 2003 and had a successful revival in 2019 by The Sandbox Collective and 9 Works Theatrical. A lot of the cast of that revival found themselves on screen for an adaptation of the musical-which was released as ‘Isang Himala,’ directed by Pepe Diokno and premiered in the 50th Metro Manila Film Festival in 2024.
From screen to stage and back to the screen, the material-which is a timeless look into how impoverished communities cling to any semblance of miracles to rescue them from their suffering; an exploration of the Filipino psyche-is mined for all its nuance and sociological textures in the various iterations that it takes.
If the adaptation, whether it’s from stage to screen or screen to stage, manages to further illuminate or expound on any new insight that one can glean from the story, then the endeavor is worth the time and effort.
Constantly evolving, constantly growing
It’s like how ‘Bar Boys: The Musical’ by The Barefoot Collective and ‘Dagitab’ by Scene Change were able to stay true to the original essence of the films they were based on-but managed to fully utilize the immediacy and urgency of the stage to bring out new discoveries that the material could offer.
A film is a static art form. Once completed and shown, it’s fixed. There’s power in that. But a play is dynamic and transformative by nature. A change of director on a revival, a change of venue, or a different approach by an actor in a given role can evoke different themes and open up new possibilities.
I’m excited about this correlation between the two art forms. Movie studios have opened a theatrical division to capitalize on the growing audience for theater, which is great, as more money will be funneled towards theater actors and practitioners.
This means more employment for these artists and more chances for the audience to grow. And this might force filmmakers to take notice of the changing attitudes of the viewers and pivot their own stories to accommodate these changes.
Art should always be evolving, and referencing and interacting with each other. While there is a capitalist thrust that is forcing these intersections, I am enjoying how these are forcing both industries to level up and grow.
And if it gives the audience more to absorb and digest and enriches their lives because of it, I don’t see why not.