ON REVIVING BODABIL

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Music Museum is a small theatre with food service during shows. Presenting Boobsie, a celebratory production for the birthday of Boobsie, a stage singer and actress, it became a private venue for her friends, relatives and politician customers who crowded the theatre in droves.

Actually, the presentation can be lumped into a few segments: 1. singing and dancing; 2. dancing only; 3. singing, exchanging jokes, with a bit of dancing, and 4. small skits. 

The presentation was spiced with audience participation, inviting one or two to go up, then asked with questions which usually bordered on the personal, like, “Are you gay?”

Some audience members were game, while others were not so much. And I have reservations about surprising people with questions that are highly sensitive like “Do you have a boyfriend?” And if the audience participant responds, “Wala pa,” this then is followed up with “Bakit wala pa?” Such question and answer are inappropriate as they should be asked in private and not in front of strangers.

But then, our stage presentations are boundless. We have not yet created a set of ethical standards for live acting on stage. For example, one young man was kissed on the lips without his wanting to. But because his budding career hinges on his being “game” in every situation, he could not help but remain cool and collected, despite his “having lost”  perhaps, his virginity. 

Yet I must say, that all the veteran actors and actresses onstage were real troubadours, who know how to sing, in tune and in tempo, despite their age. Allan K was there and sang only one song. Ate Guy, also sang and kept moving about with flailing arms all the time. Boobsie herself is good actress – as she can make her voice sound that of a five-year old kid, yet she is half-a-century old already.

Some of the costumes looked funny – negligees with matching boots. They looked like a take-off from Madonna's shows. But then Madonna is shapely and negligees are originally worn by western-looking women, not Filipino obese singers. The latter sang very well, and seriously which then did not match their costumes which  I had thought would be used  for comedy scenes. But I was rebuffed as there was nothing funny at all in their number.

Over-all, the presentation was  a type of vaudeville or “bodabil” in Pilipino, which is a mixture of singing, dancing, skits and the like. That variety type was popular in the sixties and were presented daily at the Clover Theatre and the Opera House, now long gone, with the latter turned into a hotel-cum-restaurant. Aruray, Chichay, Patsy and Lopito, Oscar Obligacion, Pugo and Togo, Sylvia La Torre,  and Eddie San Jose, (Sylvia used to prolong her 'ha-ha-ha-ha' bear the ending of the song Sa Kabukiran until the audience would clap heartily over her stamina) Kuya Germs, Dolphy and other famous comedians started their careers on the stages of those theatres, and successfully too. They migrated to TV  and the movies later on when the theatres closed down.

I must say that the actors and actresses then were real professional performers who knew when to drop a joke and make the audience laugh, or who knew how to squeeze tears in the eyes of the audience with a story. My mother was a regular habitue with me, my sisters Dina and Vangie, and brothers Eduardo and Antonio in tow, of those “palabas.” We used to sit in the orchestra, eating peanuts, grapes, etc. and we would laugh to our hearts' content at the repartees of the theatre artists. Even the music was live, not canned, unlike today where the singers sing to a minus-one CD.

Actually, the movies of the sixties pulled out sex themes which then drew the audience to watch them and took away a great number of the audience of the live presentations. In reaction, the theatres tried to compete by injecting sexy display of women in bikini who would walk down the ramp attracting some of the male audience to not only ogle but even attempt to touch or grab their legs. That lascivious act I think, brought on the final demise of the live theatre as a daily presentation. One of our extra curricular activites of our history of drama class, in the sixties, under UP Prof.  Rosete now Lerias, was to watch a “bodabil” and my classmates and I did, together with her, where we saw that scene I have just described.

Nowadays, we only have one time or may be two or three-times, not a daily presentation on theatre. In contrast, the sale of such shows goes for two to three months before they are presented, whereas before, the bodabil could depend on the daily takes at the tills to pay the artists. I am not into the real score, however, if the artists were happy with their salaries or wages then.

Theatre is an important part of any society which elicits spontaneous reactions of the audience, unlike the manipulated responses on TV. Also, it is a good place for breeding real actors as they have to hone their talents and face a discriminating audience that can spell their continuance or abrupt dismissal once they do not click with them. In fact, no amount of praise releases or manipulation of the talent manager can raise a theatre person from being a ham to being a truly worthy acting awardee.

By the way, we also saw in those theatres some of the audience throwing in roses and even money to their favorite actors and comedians. I cannot remember an instance though of anyone throwing a tomato to a rotten presenter. But I recall now, catcalls and boos also proliferated then, as when the curtain would not open on time or when a favorite singer would not give an encore. Usually though, Diomedes Maturan who was famous for singing The Rose Tattoo and others would pacify them by singing another number.

Given proper government budgetary support, good for a year, I am sure we could, (and we really should) revive this theatre form without censorship. Other patrons could follow the step and truly make our country, the Asian capital of live theatre.

We need to strengthen the Music Museum and all other theatres that offer live presentations like the Meralco Theatre, Phil-Am theatre, Onstage theatre, and even university theatres. We could revive the good old days of the “bodabil” and encourage serious singers, dancers and actors who would show their extraordinary talents and elicit genuine applause for their being real troopers without descending into sex themes.

Then we shall be able to hone also theatrical talents like scriptwriters, costume and wardrobe artists, make-up artists, directors, and stage assistants, among others.

Spontaneity is what theatre offers, not manipulated acting. There is more vigor, vitality and energy in theatre built up by the pressures of a limited time of presentation and the presence of a discriminating audience. Also, with the challenge brought in by technology, theatre could employ now many techniques to attract the audience. For example, Ohm, of UP Theatre works for other countries' theatres where he could employ his knowledge of highly-technical electric and electronic lighting beautifully used in the comedic and tragic plays of UP director Alex Cortez.

Thus, as we encourage theatre watching, we would also be raising the people's standards for judging whether an actor/actress is worthy of being admired, applauded and appreciated – not only for the looks but for real acting talent. They would also be wary of appreciating a TV program if the only thing it only urges them to be materialistic instead of challenging them to think higher ideas.

Folks, let us remember:

It is a lazy public which promotes a slothful and irresponsible theater.

EDWARD ALBEE, "Which Theater Is the Absurd One?", 1962

Tidbits about Bodabil in the Philippines from 

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Bodabil

Bodabil is genre of variety entertainment is composed of song and dance numbers, slapstick comedy routines, magic acts, and chorus girls -- an indigenized version of the American vaudeville. It was prevalent in the Philippines from the 1910s until the mid-1960s, though it reached the height of its popularity during the Japanese occupation. It has spawned onstage performers who would be icons of Philippine Cinema, such as Dolphy, Nora Aunor, Leopoldo Salcedo, and Rogelio de la Rosa.

The American tradition entered the Philippine scene through the educational system that they introduced in 1901. The fresh new inputs that they brought in merged with the transforming tradition of the Philippine theater. The songs and dances of thebodabil used to fill in the gaps between short Zarzuela or between the acts of long ones. In some provinces, these intermissions were called "jamboree", the term used for opening musical performances of stage shows. During the Japanese occupation, they were called "stage shows". The current form of bodabil are said to be the variety shows that are so popular on television.

Bodabil was staged in the Manila Grand Opera House and the Savoy, which was later called Clover. It also appeared on political stages, but after a few decades, it deteriorated into cheap shows shown in low class theaters around American bases.

During its peak, there were different performers that emerged in different fields. One of these was Borromeo Lou who played Jazz music. There were also dancers such as Benny Mack and Bayani Casimiro (known as the "Filipino Fred Astaire"), and comic magicians like Canuplin. There were also singers such as Katy de la Cruz, Diana Toy and Miami Salvador; the "Filipino Elvis Presley", Eddie Mesa; the local Perry Como, Diomedes Maturan; and Pinay Timi Yuro, who is known now as Nora Aunor.