The culminating presentation of Theater Group Asia’s 2025-2026 season is A Chorus Line, and this early in the review, I’m declaring this my favorite of their maiden season. It’s the must-see that will have you beaming from ear to ear, as a witness to the triple threat talent that the Filipino can bring to the world stage. Kudos to Director and Choreographer Karla Puno Garcia for showing this to us emphatically!

Triple threat refers to those talents who sing, act, and dance with equal proficiency. And to be perfectly frank (and I’m ready to get some flak for the following), we have so many talents on the local theater scene who are excellent in one or two, but falter on a third - usually, that would be in dance. The demands and rigors of the musicals staged here quite often don’t place too much of a premium on challenging choreography. We’ll see a lot of movement, but it’ll either be basic and done in unison, or highlight more complicated routines while moving as individual talents.

Karla choreographed the opening number of the 76th Annual Tony Awards in 2023 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming. What she achieves with this ensemble cast in A Chorus Line is nothing short of eye-popping and miraculous. Not just for its technical brilliance, but also for retaining its strong emotional core, this 1976 Broadway musical, which garnered multiple Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is the one I urge you to watch before its run ends on March 29.

I’m not even going to give you the synopsis of the musical, other than to say it's like we’re a fly on the wall at a Broadway casting call/audition. That’s all one needs to know, and the sheer pleasure of discovery, if you’ve never watched any version of the show, is something I envy you.

I’ll always hold this show in very high regard personally, as it's the musical I watched with my late mother back in 1976, when we were both in Manhattan by sheer coincidence. Ann Reinking, the first replacement for Donna McKechnie of the original cast, was the Cassie we watched. We both loved the musical, and while I would watch other musicals with her and other family members, this is the Broadway memory I treasure most in the context of family and reminiscing about my Mom.

The show at the Samsung Theater in Circuit Makati boasts a cast led by Tony and Grammy nominee Conrad Ricamora as Zach, the Director within the audition, and Lissa de Guzman as Cassie. And while we mention those two, it truly is an ensemble show, and the casting is excellent, with performers coming from all over the country.

During the Gala I watched, there were some technical and audio glitches, which I hope they correct for the subsequent shows. Opening night jitters may also have led to expending so much nervous energy in the first half that I sensed a drop in the level of performance in the second half. But I’m sure they’ll sort that out as the run progresses.

The strongest impression one is left with as the show comes to a close is that there is an abundance of triple-threat talents here in the Philippines. That they’re not the usual suspects only goes to show the depth of the talent pool here, and how it’s a shame that a number of them do not get the breaks they deserve. This A Chorus Line should go a long way in correcting that.