After almost two years of staying at the sidelines, live performers finally found themselves back on stage doing what they love the most—performing to an audience. After the government’s COVID-19 regulating body, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), de-escalated the National Capital Region to the more lenient Alert Level 2, live entertainment was finally given the go ahead pass to be back in business albeit on limited audience capacities. Nonetheless, such a declaration was all that was needed for people engaged in live productions to gain their hopes back that they will once again find gainful livelihood from their crafts.
While they have already been given the go-signal that they have been waiting for since the pandemic started on Philippine shores, the problem now is, who in their right senses would be willing to gamble already scarce financial resources on a venture that has a high degree of not making money given the health scare that people, in general, still have to overcome and recover from?
Just before entering the Newport Performing Arts Theater last Saturday evening, for the second serving of Ang Muling El Bimbo, the “concertized” version of the long-running musicale “Ang Huling El Bimbo,” which featured the hits of the country’s most popular band in the 90s, The Thrillmaker bumped into Kingson Sian, President and Chief Executive Officer of Resorts World Manila who happens to be the brains behind this very first on-stage concert since the live entertainment scene turned dead in March 2020.
“Entertainment in which musicals and concerts are all part of it, is part of our DNA. The history of Resorts World is very much tied to that. The plight of the actors, performers, musicians, backstage directors, lighting—they’re one of the hardest hit sectors during this pandemic. We want to make a statement. We want to lead the way. We want to show that we can do it safely, within the IATF’s guidelines,” he said.
After performing to a full house crowd (which means maximizing the allowed IATF venue capacity, which factors in more than adequate physical distancing among members of the audience) the night before, on Friday evening, ‘Ang Muling El Bimbo” was extended another night in response to public clamor for an immediate re-run. The pioneering integrated resort chief says such direction from the public clearly shows a market that is now wanting to get their lives back.
He believes, “It’s time to get out of our homes, it’s time to live our life. It’s time to support again and rediscover live music. There’s nothing wrong with virtual, but we cannot live our life virtually forever.”
Prior to the series of lockdowns the country had to go through for more than twenty months, Resorts World Manila was poised to give the live entertainment industry with booster dozes as it lined up several productions that eventually had to be shelved. Despite improving health indicators, particularly in the NCR, the mounting of really big productions may have to wait a little longer until the pandemic situation stabilizes further.
“What was slated for this year supposedly is another original Filipino musical which is Bongga Ka Day but we decided to move it to next year so what’s immediately forthcoming will be primarily concerts, but let’s see. It’s very fluid and the performers and artists are all eager to come back to work,” Sian shared.
Given the continuing threat of the COVID19 pandemic and its new and supposedly highly-transmissible variant, wouldn’t it be too risky to make way for the return of live performances at this time? Wouldn’t that be a major financial gamble?
He answered, “Yes, it may not be a financial success, we might even lose money, but it’s not about making money. It’s all about making a statement. It’s about showing the way. It’s about leading the way. It’s about honoring our gifted performers and saying that we’re in it together, and we will get out of it together.”