MEDIUM RARE

An “immersive” experience, the producer promised before the show. After the show, The Best of Broadway and Classics, I thought “transformative” would’ve done as well.

When it’s impresario Eddie Yap pulling the strings and selling the tickets – sold out in two weeks – one realizes that only Eddie can outdo Eddie. Now, if we could have more than one of him...

And not only in the music department but in much more mundane areas like improving travel time on EDSA and laying down a holistic plan to make Mega Manila more livable, hospitable by improving traffic.

Eddie is the guy whose EDSA bus carousel has become a byword among public transportation drivers and traffic cops, for without that brainchild of his, passengers would still be stuck in the same old, same old of growing old and grumpy in their vehicles while the world passed them by.

On a cheerful Tuesday like today, why talk about traffic when music is a much more pleasant diversion? Wearing his other hat as an impresario, Eddie and his team gathered 700 music lovers to Rockwell’s Events Hall last Friday night without causing a traffic jam. The venue was a good choice, too, with a wall-to-wall, hi-tech video screen that allowed massive images to change according to the mood of the music; immersive.

Space does not permit a list of the songs from the most popular Broadway hits, suffice it to say, Filipino performers are among da best in da world: Rachelle Gerodias, Lara Maigue, Gian Magdangal, Nomher Nival, Shiela Martinez, Ellipsis Dance Company, the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Marlon Chen, whose conducting style was a delight to watch as well! Senator Cynthia Villar, former chief justice Art Panganiban, former Marikina mayor Marides Fernando, Tony Pastor with “half of a barangay,” and the ambassadors of Austria, Singapore, and USA were among the evening’s most enthusiastic applauders.

One of Eddie’s earliest events was a Christmas concert held inside the church in Forbes Park many years ago. For sheer mood and magic, that concert could not be beat, but the limited seating opened his eyes to the people’s thirst for live music, whatever the season. This early, I’m trying to imagine what Eddie will have up his sleeve come December.