I remember watching Marco Polo The Musical for the first time about a year ago. It was my first live experience at a live musical theater production to think that I like musical theater too. Maybe it only got “aggravated” because my fave theater actor, Kuya Manzano, was included in the cast. And the story also proved to be promising. When it was announced that it would be having a rerun this time on the Cultural Center of the Philippines, I don’t find it so surprising anymore.
Marco Polo The Musical, Cast and Characters:
Marco Polo – Jonathan Wagner
Princess Kogajin – Stephanie Reese
Lord Khogatal – Enrhil Serguino
Baron Tegan – Remus Villanueva
Baron Togachar – Edgar Allan Yu
Rustigielo – Chinggoy Alonso
Niccolo – Chinggoy Alonso
Antonello – Jonas Gruet
Giorgio – Dusty Suarez
Maurizio – Jan Mata
Doge – Wally Tuyan
Maffeo – Albert Jimenez
Prelate – Jovito Bonita
Empress Wu – Pinky Marquez
Princess Toregana – Gian Gloria
Enzo – Marco Diolata
Friar William – Enrhil Serguino
Friar Nicholas – Remus Villanueva
Kublai Khan – Kuya Manzano
Li – Sigrid Balbas
Mei – Arielle Magno
Hua – Barbie Rodriguez
With a cast consisting of new members and returnees, new life is expected to be breathed upon the revamped Marco Polo The Musical. Some returnees like Ms. Stephanie Reese and Ms. Pinky Marquez reprised the roles that they assumed on the premiere. Others got cast in other roles that were still available. Audition announcements were put in place as well. I should know. I was auditioned and did not make it. No hard feelings; that’s why it’s called an audition. Besides this is the version where they really have decided to classify the performers by their voices – soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor, etc.
The changes put in Marco Polo The Musical were evident on some of the costumes. The foot soldiers where classified into wearing black and those wearing silver gray. It managed to portray an era when each so-called warlord has its own private army and 2 separate armies were visually presented quite early.
In this manner, the audience is presented with the thought of how the title character in Marco Polo The Musical survived like as one of the explorers accompanying the emissaries to Cathay. It could be possible for him to have a lovelife when much about him is attributed to how navigation improved for everyone that dared explored the globe.
The love story may not have been written by Rustigielo of Pisa. But for the sake of historical reference, he is found here at Marco Polo The Musical as the default narrator knowing how much of what is known about Marco Polo himself is attributed to him. A minor tweak is done though to the actor, the wonderful Mr. Chinggoy Alonso, playing him. He doesn’t show up in other “cameo roles” anymore as he assumed the role here of Niccolo Polo, the father of the hero in this musical.
Having him play the role of Niccolo on Marco Polo The Musical, Alonso handled the role in a way that addresses the father-son relationship. Marco Polo never saw his father for years but was ecstatic about getting into the Polo caravan. Niccolo doesn’t share that enthusiasm since he doesn’t consider his son fit enough to join the crew. He is not enthusiastic at all. He wasn’t portrayed as a villain, just someone not knowing how handle the realization that he missed his son’s childhood.
The feminist undertones of Marco Polo The Musical is presented on the part of Princess Kogajin. She may not have closed her doors to the possibility of marriage. But she would do it for love. At first it may serve as a contrast to the decision that Princess Toregana made to marry Prince Kaidu. But Empress Wu let her daughters decide when it comes to matters of the heart in order for them not to suffer the same fate as hers – marrying for politics.
Princess Toregana’s decision may be politically motivated. She stood to earn political power by marriage after all. But nobody forced her to do it. She even addressed in one of the songs how she’s marring someone she barely knew but she envisioned the positive effects it can bring.
Princess Kogajin, on the other hand, saw that marrying someone she is in love with meant that she will not be some warlord’s pawn – not someone to be told of what to do. She wanted to be allowed to be herself even after marrying the man of her choice and that man turned out to be Marco Polo.
Even by Venetian standards, Marco Polo is not even of noble birth. But whatever he lacked in royal blood, he made up for brash confidence as displayed in Marco Polo The Musical. It was the kind of aggressiveness that got Princess Kogajin impressed at first and loved later on. If some freemen had to work hard to earn royal titles, they would. And this Marco Polo did upon working hard to pass the civil service examinations. Kublai Khan himself was lecturing him about the teachings of Confucius.
Through Kublai Khan and his scholars, Marco Polo The Musical presented how Confucianism is more of an ideology than a religion. Different religions were discussed not for the sake of comparison but the the sake of creating harmonious relationships with other beliefs. Knowing the extent of the empire that Kublai Khan has established, the academic approach to living the life of a noble is encouraged. It was something that Marco Polo learned here.
It even reached the point that Niccolo and Maffeo were worried that Marco Polo is becoming more of a Cathay inhabitant than a Venetian that he is. This was how Marco Polo The Musical presented how the length of time he spent in Cathay made him assimilated with the environment that he has been embedded for so long. So much that Kublai Khan has appointed him Baron and adopted eventually to be his own son.
The adoption part was more like a way to appease Marco Polo as he eventually ended up promising his daughter, Princess Kogajin, to his cousin, Baron Tegan, after the latter’s old wife has died. It then pushed the clandestine couple to do the unthinkable. Marco Polo The Musical’s spoilers end here.
Memorable performances, nice tweaks and characters the audience can easily care about, Marco Polo The Musical contained performances that served as improvements for folks that have seen its initial run at the Meralco Theater. And it heightened the tensions in a way that makes some meetings look like parties are forced to face each other like that scene where the Cathay emissary faced a rather arrogant and haughty Papal legate. The complicated father-son relationship as previously mentioned worked well too.
Kuya Manzano as Kublai Khan was awesome in a way that makes you forget the mohawk. Exposing the mohawk in the middle of Marco Polo The Musical was a bold move that challenges the image that history nerds have of Kublai Khan. Ms. Pinky Marquez was still her motherly regal self as Empress Wu and it helped a lot that she’s back in this role that I have identified her with. Mr. Enrhil Seguino as Lord Khogatal was heart-warming especially the part where the monarch recounted about a failed love affair. Mr. Alonso’s shift from Rustigielo to Niccolo was seamless as if the coat he wears every time it’s Rustigielo’s turn to speak would turn him into a different person altogether.
And I am reminded why I fell in love with Stephanie Reese the first time I saw her perform in Marco Polo The Musical at the Meralco Theater. She is just so pitch perfect that she makes those high notes effortless yet relevant to her role as someone in love with Marco Polo. Paired with excellent phrasing and facial expressions that fitted the lines she uttered at the moment, it made the scenes that included her extra special. One moment she’s commander of the fleet. Minutes later she’s just like any woman in love with someone she looked forward to marrying one day. She poured excellent chemistry into the story since the center of it all is that affair with Marco Polo.
Now I am looking forward to their next stop. I may not get to watch it myself but I’m waiting for updates here at their official Facebook account (that you can click as well). Would they be performing Marco Polo The Musical in another language or stick to the English libretto? Surely those updates would be posted here as well so I highly recommend that you like our Facebook page, MusicalsOnline.com, and follow us on Twitter @musicalsnews. Thank you very much and I look forward to seeing you on our social media accounts.
