MANILA -- While performing before a crowd of oldies but goodies and original Pilipino music fans a couple of years ago, the sexagenarian Jim Paredes quipped: “I used to smell marijuana from the audience every time the Apo Hiking Society performed during our younger years. Now I smell Salonpas!”

In some cultures it is impolite to ask about one’s age but this brings us to this running joke among followers of original Pinoy musicals: If “Sa Wakas” is for hipsters and millennials, or those in their late teens up to mid-30s, and the ongoing “Rak of Aegis” and “Ang Huling El Bimbo” are for titos and titas, or those in their mid-30s to late-40s, then could “Eto Na! Musikal nAPO!” be for the lolos and lolas of Manila?

“The songs of Apo have been covered by Parokya ni Edgar, Ely Buendia, Gary Valenciano, Rachel and Hajji Alejandro, and many others,” noted Jonjon Martin, dramaturg and co-writer of ““Eto Na! Musikal nAPO!” which opens at Maybank Performing Arts Theater, Bonifacio Global City on Friday and runs all weekends until August 26.

“Kaya lahat ng generation sakop nila at alam ang mga kanta nila. Although the show is set in the ‘70’s, buong pamilya mag e-enjoy from lolo and lola to mom and dad, tito and tita and mga anak nilang millennials! ‘Yan tunay na legend! Timeless!” Martin added.

True enough, the iconic group composed of Paredes, Boboy Garrovillo and Danny Javier has recorded around 220 songs and released 27 albums in a span of four decades in the music industry. The Apo Hiking Society is credited as among the originators of OPM, at a time when local performers were chasing audiences by being versions of foreign artists. While music artists at the time were aiming to become the local Bee Gees, the Filipino Matt Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and so on, they were composing songs that mirror the Filipino experience. Apo has influenced musicians from the 1980s up to the present to become their better selves.

Santi Santamaria, managing director and executive producer of 9 Works Theatrical, the company behind “Eto Na! Musikal nApo!,” said he started being a fan when he was a kid in the 1980s.

“During those days, I recall their songs being played on the radio a lot and my parents playing their album on cassette tape in the car while going up to Baguio every summer. And you know how long it used to take driving up to Baguio then,” he recalled.

Among the 200 plus songs, he has several favorites that are too many to mention. “But all of them are in the musical. So you’ll know when you watch it. But everyone in the show knows, even the Apo members themselves, that ‘Paano’ is on the top of my favorites among APO songs,” Santamaria said.

Attending rehearsals

Unfortunately, he hasn’t seen the Apo perform live when they were still together. The trio called it quits in the middle of 2010 after being together for a total of 41 years. They haven’t been performing together as a group since then.

On some occasions, Paredes would perform solo or with Garrovillo but Javier took the word “retirement” seriously and was never seen on stage with the other two. Javier plays golf with Garrovillo and would sing a tune or two if there were requests from friends but never for the public. Since 2010, Javier has never performed once again with Paredes.

“Which makes this production even more special since even though they’re not performing in this musical, I get to collaborate with them personally,” Santamaria said.

Intriguingly, Martin told us the three would come to rehearsals but on separate days, with one member never with the same schedule and crossing paths with another member. But not being in the same room together is the least among the concerns of the creative team. What matters is that they are all there to support the musical in their own capacity.

“One of the biggest challenges of creating the material is choosing the songs that would best fit the story. Let's face it, Apo has an extensive catalogue of chart-topping music and in as much as we would like to include everything, we have a lot of factors to take into consideration. Does it reflect on the characters, setting, circumstances, others?” Robbie Guevara, writer and director, said in a recent interview.

“Does it help the story move forward? We wanted to create a musical that would take us on a trip down memory lane and regale us with tales of our childhood and nostalgic music. One that will also resonate with today's generation,” he added.

Getting the rights for the songs to be used wasn’t a hurdle though it’s not a one-phone call or one-day affair. “I wouldn’t say it was difficult, but it wasn't easy either," Santamaria said. "But Danny, Jim and Boboy didn’t just give us permission to use their songs but to rearrange them for the musical as well. So now, the pressure is on us to give justice to their music. And there’s also this one Apo song that is not owned by any of them but by Louie Ocampo and Winnie Arrieta. So, I had to get in touch with their respective representatives managing this particular song.”

From ‘Electile Dysfunction’ to ‘Grease’

If there are two common things between Guevara and Garrovillo, besides being alumni of Ateneo de Manila University, it’s that their surnames are always being misspelled. Martin emphasized Garrovillo has double “r” and “l” and that Robbie has double “b” but single “r’ in Guevara.

The two met for the first time in the latter part of 2003 when they were both involved in a political satire-themed play titled “Electile Dysfunction.”

“During breaks he would make ‘kwento’ the origins of Apo. [The idea of creating a musical] came from Boboy,” Guevara said. It was a decade later when the actual writing took place. He clarified though that even if they’re both from Ateneo, their ages are oceans apart. “I think he graduated high school in 1969. I graduated 1986,” Guevara said, followed by a resounding laughter that could break church glass windows.

In 2013, Garrovillo was a guest actor playing Teen Angel in 9 Works Theatrical’s “Grease.”

“He lightly suggested we do a musical using their songs but it was only during summer of 2014 when I started writing it,” he said. With some inputs from Martin, in two weeks he finished the first draft and sent it immediately to Garrovillo.

“He found it cute. Weeks passed and Jonjon Martin and I had gone on to version three. The goal was to workshop the material during StageCamp, our annual summer theater workshop. Sadly, that didn’t happen because my adult class lacked boys. I shelved the script, which by then was version four already,” said Guevara.

All in all, there have been 23 revisions. “Two weeks for version one, then eight weeks until version four back in 2014. Then from version four to the current version 23, about seven months! That was from December in 2017 to today,” Guevarra said, again followed by his chandelier-shattering laughter.

Purely fiction

Personally, Guevara shared his favorite Apo songs are “Pumapatak na naman ang Ulan,” “Batang-Bata,” “Ewan,” “Panalangin” and “Paano.” But after writing the story, he said he loved almost all of the 200-plus songs. He has apprehensions that some of the regular theater fans would not be familiar with these songs.

“There a couple of songs not as famous as the rest. It is my hope the audience falls in love with these songs as well and make them as popular,” he said.

Unlike “Ang Huling El Bimbo,” where members of the Eraserheads had no participation in the creation of the musical, “Eto Na! Musikal nApo!” has contributions from the three members of Apo since the time Garrovillo suggested it to Guevara in 2003.

But Guevara clarified the Apo had nothing to do in writing the story. He wanted it fictional so he created all the characters from scratch. “We’ve invited them to readings and music rehearsals, where they have a lot of input in the goings-on during 1975 and Martial Law,” Guevara said.

Santamaria revealed the Apo members are very careful not to give the impression that they are very involved in this production.

“They gave us the free hand to take their songs to where we'll see fit. They told us that they want to be pleasantly surprised. However, they are very supportive. Every now and then, they would visit rehearsals and we would ask them for their thoughts on different matters such as the story, especially about the '70s, and their music. In a nutshell, their involvement in this production would be more like consultants if you will,” Santamaria said.

Friends in the '70s

The story, as the initial reports said, starts with a group of college students about to join a songwriting competition in the 1970s. Despite the travails and trappings of family life, fame and fortune, their friendship endures the claws of Martial Law and up to present day. Basically, it follows the real-life story of the Apo Hiking Society. Or not.

“Their songs were used two ways. First, Jon (Martin) and I listed down which songs we wanted to use, then we wrote the scenes around those songs. Second, baliktad: when I wrote a scene, I would ask Jon what song could be used,” Guevara said.

All members of the cast auditioned for their roles because, as Guevara explained, “The ones we wanted to hand-pick were unavailable.”

We asked him about Mark Bautista, Jef Flores and Jobim Javier and the pivotal roles they play. In the story Bautista plays as a lyricist named Rick. Jobim is campus playboy Butch. Flores plays Jaime, a character that is patterned after Paredes.

“Honestly, just their singing is ‘swak’. They’re originating their roles, so they’re the ones bringing their characters to life,” Guevarra said.

Not surprisingly, the press and the fans’ eyes are on Jobim Javier, being the son of Danny and is making his debut in theater. His day job is a disc jockey for a top FM radio station. Guevara said Danny didn’t accompany his son regularly like a stage father but upon their invitation, Danny came even before the rehearsals. “When we started music, he came by again,” he added.

Santamaria is all but thankful to the three. He said, “One thing I’m very thankful for with Danny, Jim and Boboy was when they gave us the green light to rearrange their songs and mold them into our own for this musical production. I’m thrilled for everyone to hear what Daniel Bartolome and Orly de la Cruz, our musical arrangers, worked hard on and came up with.”

“It took a while for us to decide on the show’s title. We had a list of options, some of which were based from the Apo songs, though we were already leaning on 'Musikal nAPO.' Then one day, when I was talking to Boboy in a coffee shop discussing possible titles, he suggested that maybe we can add to it and call it 'Eto Na! Musikal nAPO!' And that was that,” Santamaria added.

Most challenging

The successful re-staging of the musical “Himala” early this year proved to be pivotal in coming up with “Eto Na! Musikal nApo!,” which is technically the first original Filipino production by 9 Works Theatrical. It proved to be their most challenging as well. Santamaria recounted to us how it all started.

“Several factors came into play. First, to bring out the best piece of work which is worthy of our brand, we normally would like to challenge ourselves. For instance, in the past, the thought of including a tap number in a production was a major and difficult consideration for most theater companies. Now with 9 Works Theatrical, we can always include tap whenever we think it’s necessary as we’ve done it a couple of times already, even in heels for ‘La Cage Aux Folles’” Santamaria said.

From staging most their productions in a regular theater venue like in RCBC’s Carlos P. Romulo Theater with “Grease,” “The Last 5 Years” and the riot-of-a-comedy “La Cage Aux Folles,” to moving to Globe Iconic Bonifacio High Street Amphitheater, with Globe Live as their partner, to stage “American Idiot,” Santamaria said it provided them new set of challenges because of the enormity of the production, the set and “peculiar location.”

“Not to mention we had to build everything from the ground up. After the success of ‘American Idiot,’ the next challenge was to do it again, but bigger this time with ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which eventually led to the most challenging production we’ve done, Disney’s ‘Newsies.’ After that, the next challenge for us was to mount an original Filipino musical which we started early this year. We staged ‘Himala Isang Musikal’ with our sister company, The Sandbox Collective,” he said.

“And this time, together with Globe Live, we’re doing a brand new original Filipino musical, from scratch. Coming up with an original work has always been in our minds ever since we put up 9 Works Theatrical. It’s in our mission-vision. Now, after doing numerous Broadway musicals and winning awards, it’s time to get into original works, and we have a few in the pipeline that are waiting to be worked on. Also, we’re the type of company which focuses on one project or show at a time. We really put all our efforts in the show that we’re currently doing,” Santamaria added.

Political divide?

Now the million-dollar question. For those who followed the lives of the Apo members after retirement, it is spoken in hush-hush tones in cafes and bars that Paredes and Javier aren’t on speaking terms for years because of their political beliefs. But we gambled in asking Guevara and Santamaria if there’s a possibility that the musical will pave the way for their reconciliation.

“I honestly hope so although it’s not that known a fact. Honestly, I’d rather not comment,” Guevara said.

Santamaria is also hands-off. He said: “I’m not privy to their personal matters so I really cannot comment on that. The one thing definite is that all three Apo members will watch the show, and we’re all excited for that.”

This early, the possibility of an extension or a rerun is not that remote. Santamaria said, “Of course, I would want that especially since this is our baby project, being our first original production we’re working on from scratch. Although an extension might not be feasible due to the availability of the venue. But who knows. A rerun though is always a possibility.”

But what if this musical will prove to be positive in all aspects, like the reunion of the three members on stage for a major concert?

“Absolutely! I think everyone does. I don’t just want to see it when it happens,” Santamaria said and without a pause, he laid down the winning cards. “If given the chance, I want to produce it or at least be part of it!”

The smell of Salonpas cannot be far behind.