MANILA -- “It’s all good, all new, all exciting.”

That was how Repertory Philippines president and CEO Mindy Perez-Rubio briefly described the 2024 theater season that was unveiled Monday at the soon-to-be demolished Onstage in Greenbelt 1, which Rep had called its home for the last 21 years.

Come March 2024, when Rep opens its 87th theater season, performances will be moved to the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium at RCBC in Makati City.

Bannering Rep’s new season is the Jose Mari Chan musical, “Going Home To Christmas,” by Ejay Yatco, with book by Luna Griño-Inocian, Robbie Guevarra and Joel Trinidad. At the helm is veteran theater director Leo Rialp.

“There were originally four writers writing their own stories that we’re supposed to put together in one cohesive musical,” Inocian told ABS-CBN News. “Unfortunately, Cathy (Dy) had to back out because of her full schedule.”

“The musical has four distinct stories about father and son, husband and wife, boyfriend-and-girlfriend. Difficult family drama, romance here and there. Things that happened in Christmas all set in an airport because everyone in going home to Christmas,” added Inocian.

“It’s sort of kind of like ‘Love Actually,’ except that it’s very Pinoy in sentiments. All stories will sound familiar because it will be familiar in all our experiences. We are using many of the music of Jose Mari Chan.

“We all have our individual choices, but since it’s a Christmas musical, we all know what songs hold that together and it’s not ‘Christmas In Our Hearts.’”

Chan was in the theater when Rep artists led by Cara Barredo, rendered “Going Home To Christmas” mashed up with the popular Yuletide ditty, “Christmas In Our Hearts.” The singer-songwriter couldn’t help but cry.

“This is indeed an honor to be associated with Rep,” Chan said. “Upon the invitation of Mindy, of course. I’m proud to be working with tremendous talents.

“Leo (Rialp) and I go back a long way to the Ateneo days. He was a member of the Ateneo Glee Club. When Mindy first broached the idea of a musical, I was thinking of writing a new score, but time was very short. So we suggested to use songs from my two Christmas albums – ‘Going Home To Christmas’ and ‘Christmas In Our Hearts.’"

Last full season

Meanwhile, Perez-Rubio informed Rep’s last full season presented was in 2019. However, the company managed to keep afloat with one production every year.

“Every time you see me onstage introducing a new production or season launch, it never ceases to lift my sprits when I do that,” Perez-Rubio said. “Then, I know we are much closer in fulfilling the dream, the mission, the vision of my sister, Baby Barredo and her partner, Zeneida Amador, when they started Rep in 1967.”

In 2020, Rep managed to present the play, ‘Stage Kiss,’ with Carlitos Siguion-Reyna at the helm.

“In mid-March that year, we had ‘Anna and the Tropics’ directed by Joey Mendoza. The day that we were supposed to perform was the day we were shut down.

“In 2021, we presented a new musical online, ‘The Great Christmas Cookie Bakeoff’ through Broadway On Demand, that brought it worldwide.

“In 2022, we presented ‘Carousel’ onstage, directed by Toff de Venecia. It was well received by the millennials and Gen-Zs, a market we really intend to tap.

“This 2023, we are currently in performance of ‘Snow White and the Prince,’ brought by Rep Theater for Young Audiences (RTYA) to an exciting journey to enchanted and magical forests. We are extending the show until the end of January 2024.”

"When we shut down our curtains by the end of January, we are exiting for good for the very last time. I appreciate the Ayalas for giving Rep 20 good years of sharing our stories through theater. But then, the show must go on, like Amador always used to say.

“We are marching ahead to 2024 at the RCBC Theater. We used that auditorium for a couple of years when it opened in 2001 before we moved to Greenbelt. So this rabbit hole or darkness that Rep has been in for four years, is over. We are emerging bigger, better, brighter and stronger than ever.”

2024 lineup

Perez-Rubio also thanked Rep’s former artistic director Liesl Batucan for putting together the line-up for the 86th season. Batucan left Rep last October.

In March 2024, Rep will launch the Bridge project with Fil-Am director Victor Lirio, who will also direct “Betrayal,” by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter. The play will see West End theater artists who will fly into Manila for the first time.

“We want to fly in artists and actors who want to impart and to educate deserving Filipinos, students and artists by giving lectures, readings and master classes, so that we can elevate their skill level to professional, global and international standards,” Perez-Rubio said. “We will push through with this every single year, hopefully.”

For RTYA, playwright Rody Vera turned a short story written by Gilda Cordero Fernando called "The Magic Circle" into a play “Jepoy and the Magic Circle,” about a young teenager invited to a wedding of two tikbalangs who are half-horse, half human.

“Jepoy (played by Noel Comia, Jr.) gets introduced to a world like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and gets to meet the creatures there including Doña Geronima, aswangs and some obscure characters in Philippine folklore," Perez-Rubio said.

“The forest is slowly getting decimated. The invitation was not just for the wedding. It was an appeal for Jepoy to go out and tell the world what’s happening in the forest and the world.”

Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo will also return to Rep next year to direct the longest-running off-Broadway musical, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”