It may just be a local musical, but for international theater actress and performer Isay Alvarez, nothing beats playing the late President Cory Aquino in “Cory, The Musical.”

Directed by Nestor Torre and produced by Buhay Isang Awit Foundation which is headed by Mrs. Bing Pimentel, “Cory, The Musical” is a tribute to the late president which was already shown even before her death. The 20 original songs composed by Mrs. Pimentel herself, talk about her ascendancy to the presidency as well as her sacrifices to restore democracy in the Philippines. And the late President Aquino’s story for Isay Alvarez is the reason it is an honorable role to do on stage!

“When I accepted to play Cory before, I never thought it would be this big in magnitude. Wala ng papantay pa sa role na ito. It is an honor playing the late president and it is also the most challenging for me,” said Isay comparing it to her stint in the popular Broadway musical “Miss Saigon” years ago.

“Cory, The Musical” is on a special one-day run on Aug. 30 at the AFP Theater, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City at 3 p.m. (matinee) and 8 p.m.

“Tita Bing really wanted to have a restaging of ‘Cory’ this November but when news of the president’s health broke, she wanted it earlier sana like Aug. 21 but there were no venues available,” explained Isay.

Mrs. Pimentel recalled, “Ang problema lang namin kasi baka mamatay siya at namatay nga… at least meron kahit isang araw sa AFP Theater to pay tribute to her once again in two shows... the show will still be the same and there won’t be any adjustments whatsoever because of her death.”

So does she think “Cory, The Musical” is another pinnacle in her career?

“I remember saying in an interview that I was always introduced as coming from ‘Miss Saigon.’ And I wondered when will it stop because even before and after ‘Miss Saigon’ meron naman akong mga ginawa. But after ‘Cory, The Musical,’ hindi na ako masyadong nababanggit na from ‘Miss Saigon’ ako,” she replied.

With regards to how challenging her role was, she revealed that she lost a lot of weight playing the role. She remembered that after the first runs of “Cory, The Musical” last year, she saw her test shots before the show went into production and she was surprised to see how much weight she lost.

“Nangayayat ako dahil sa ‘Cory.’ Grabe ang demands kasi kaya lumiit ang mukha ko dagdag ng dagdag ng palda for my character,” she shared.

After the run in AFP Theater, plans are underway to bring “Cory, The Musical” to key provincial cities as well as schools. And the mobile version of the musical will still have the whole production at hand except for the crowd used on stage. With that in mind, is Isay still playing Cory?

“Before I was asked if I would do it all over again at ang una kong sagot was no. But you know what, it dawned on me that I have to do it all over again to help educate the youth yung mga hindi pa nakakaalam,” she remarked. “I just hope that people will come and see our show. Our tickets are also very reasonably priced. And we made it reasonable for more people to watch!”

“Cory, The Musical” performances are priced at P500 and P300 for the 3 p.m. matinee with discounts for students upon presentation of their student ID, and P700 and P500, 8 p.m. For interested parties, tickets are available at Ticket World.

Also in “Cory, The Musical” are opera singer Sherwin Sozon as Ninoy, Robert Seña as the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Pinky Marquez as Imelda Marcos and Tommy Abuel as a reporter.

As the producers of “Cory, The Musical” stressed, “the musical now serves as a reminder to the Filipino people of the inspiring life of the late President Cory Aquino and the ideals that were fought for during the 1986 peaceful revolution!”