u/kaelxy

Since GMG’s 2026 season has been revealed na, although it’s a bit too early pa, what do you think will be or should be part of GMG’s 2027 season? I’m focusing on GMG cause they’re usually the one that sends international tours to our shore.

To give a bit of an idea, here are some of the shows currently touring (or has news of touring) in Asia and Australia:
- The Phantom of the Opera: scheduled to run in Shanghai (with Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom!!!)
- Cats: scheduled to stop in Hong Kong and Singapore
- Matilda the Musical: currently touring China
- Chicago: currently touring Japan and then the UAE
- Anastasia: currently in Australia; no news of an Asia transfer
- The Lion King: also in Australia with no news of an Asia transfer
- Heathers the Musical: same case as Anastasia and The Lion King
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical: coming to Singapore and Bangkok
- MJ the Musical: launching an Asia tour

Also focused more on musicals because these are more likely to tour compared with straight plays.

Alternatively, if GMG were to do a “TGA style” production like when they did “Come From Away”, what show would you want that to be? Although this seems less likely.

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Me personally, I would love to see POTO with Ramin Karimloo as Phantom. I’ve been a fan of him for a long time, specially his Phantom so it’d be a dream to see that. And then imagine if we also get Joanna Ampil as Carlotta.
Realistically though, I hope we get Cats and Moulin Rouge.

This question may have been asked before, and if it has, please let me ask again haha

What first got you into theatre? Whether you’re a performer, a musician, or a simple watcher like me.

Ako, it all started with Disney. Syempre yung mga animated movie musicals nila. Parang I realized you can tell story through songs pala. And then came High School Musical which I first saw in 2007. This led me to watch Hairspray (cause Zac Efron). Which made me research about musicals.

Apart from Disney, there was also Glee. Since sometimes they would use songs from theatre, hindi maiiwasang i-search saan galing. So those exposed me to musicals as well.

At some point, I remember downloading the Les Miz 25th Anniversary Concert and the POTO at the Royal Albert Hall. I watched these two weekly for I can’t remember how long. Hindi ako nag sawa. Until finally, I saw my first musical (Phantom of the Opera) in person back in 2013 sa Singapore. And, as they say, the rest is history.

A lot has already been said in this subreddit about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I think we’re all on the same page with CATCF being a visual spectacle. In relation to that, my favorite thing about Charlie is the balance between the usage of physical sets and the LED screens.

Many musicals nowadays rely on LED screens as sort of replacement to actual sets. Or use very minimal sets. Although in a sense, CATCF uses the screens for the same purpose (more-so as backgrounds), they balance it out by using actual physical sets too. I think the usage of physical sets (and props) just makes a musical or a show more “tangible”, if that makes sense. It’s almost like how a movie looks better when they use practical sets rather than going the full CGI route.

(As an advocate of physical sets, I remember absolutely loving Miss Saigon for their utilization of such sets. Specially the way they used the fence/gate during Kim’s Nightmare.)

On a separate note though, specially to those who have yet to see CATCF. The show is sort of catered for kids so there are a lot of families with children watching. Know that some of these kids may be reacting in realtime to what they see on stage. With the show that I saw (July 19, matinee), the kids were definitely behaved but you’ll hear “kid sounds” here and there throughout the show.

“Mishaps” may be an exaggeration but have you experienced performing in or watching a show and then suddenly, something happens that made you go, “Oh. I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.” Or just any mistake or issue that you experienced/saw during a show?

For me, during the closing week of Jesus Christ Superstar, specifically the May 27 (Wednesday) show, Act 2 was plagued with sound issues:
- First, when the curtain rose for Act 2, Judas’ mic was not in the mic stand. So for a bit of the opening song, Luke (Jesus) and Javon (Judas) shared a mic. When Luke found an opening, he briefly exited the stage, acquired Javon’s mic and tossed it to him.
- Second, in “The Arrest” when there were four Romans, only the three Romans had working mics. The fourth Roman’s mic did not work for the whole number.
- Third, in “Peter’s Denial”, for like 4 full lines between Peter and Mary Magdalene, both their mics weren’t working.

Admittedly at the time, it felt frustrating. But in hindsight, I became more curious on what the actors felt during that moment.

Another time was when I saw Hamilton. As Act 2 opened, the actor who played Jefferson forgot to remove blotting paper from his face. So for maybe a minute during “What’d I Miss”, he had blue blotting paper stuck to his cheeks. Which was lowkey funny.

TL;DR (but not really): Bakit walang PH stop ang Cats? Magkaka PH stop kaya ang Moulin Rouge?
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I sort of regularly check the theatre scene in other countries - Singapore in particular. I look out for international touring productions that have an SG stop, hoping they might include a PH stop as well. But recently, things have been a little disappointing.

Of course, I’m just a regular person complaining. I don’t really know what goes on behind the scenes - how these productions decide where to tour. Maybe it gets too expensive, or the projected demand isn’t high enough, or there are staging requirements that our theaters can’t accommodate. There could be a plethora of reasons.

Last year, Phantom of the Opera and Wicked had SG stops. Even though I had already seen both, it’s been years, so I wanted to watch them again. I was surprised they didn’t have PH stops, considering both had previously been staged at Solaire. The same goes for Beauty and the Beast (although this was staged at CCP).

This year, Cats is coming to SG, but I don’t think it’ll come to the PH. Next year, they’re also getting Moulin Rouge! - though maybe it’s still too early to say for us.

Sometimes, I also check touring productions in Australia, since there have been instances where those tours cross over to Asia, like Miss Saigon. I was hoping the same would happen with Waitress before it got cancelled.

“Why not just go to SG to watch those shows?” - Actually, a good number of the shows I’ve seen were in SG. But it’s just so expensive.

“Turn to local productions. There are many.” - Of course, I do. I love how alive the local theatre scene is, and whenever I can, I support it. But if there’s already an international touring production out there, I think it’s fair to hold out hope that it might make its way here too.

GMG Productions, baka naman 😂