CHRISTINA BIANCO - TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART

// LAUGH. //

thanks, ryeness,
for that heartwarming visit.

#gethyperactive

FEELIN' GOOD - NINA SIMONE

THE MAIDS
BY JEAN GENET / DRAMA

STARRING LA CHIQUITTA & FABIOLA

OPENS NOV 6 AT MCAULEY THEATRE,
HK ARTS CENTRE

POSTER DESIGN BY JULY MALANTIC

HYPERACTIVE (R) MAPS OUT A MARKETING PLAN
WITH THE MAIDS' PRODUCTION MANAGER,
ENAN LIM.

I trekked to My Musical Studio on Saturday night for The Maids' first reading and production meeting. I was a bit apprehensive, but mostly, I was excited. Apart from my frequent outings as an MC and the odd appearance onstage, I haven't really been in involved in theatre work in a significant way.

I arrived at 5.30pm on the dot. My best friend, Rye, was ceremoniously pouring white wine for everyone. "Everyone," really was juts a handful of people: Rye (Solange), myself (Claire), Moe (Madame), Enan (Production Manager), Alvin (Director), and Tina (Co-director, Dramaturg).

We jumped into the material immediately - no preamble. I guess the best way to tackle any Genet piece is not really to approach it, but to attack it.

And that's exactly what we did.

The last time I touched The Maids was in 2002, for my senior directing thesis. I re-imagined the final sequence - a gruesome but nebulous act of sacrifice - as something that might have happened within the tight, echo-bound walls of a bath room. I got an A+, but I'll never forget the countless sleepless nights I endured, trying to make sense of the ending. 

Rye and I have been talking about performing The Maids as our alter egos, La Chiquitta and Fabiola, for years. Rye had always been more emotionally infatuated with the project than I ever was. The Maids is the kind of dangerous material that grips you by the balls and never lets go until it gets out of you a release that is neither satisfying nor predictable...

So this time around, I vowed not to over think it. I'll take the material as it comes, I told myself, one day at a time, and try to not to be wholly consumed by it.

...who was I kidding?

By the third line, I had become Claire - impetuous, impatient and impressionable -an accomplice to terrible acts that nobody will ever completely understand.

It felt so good.
 

// IT'S A NEW LIFE FOR ME

AND I'M FEELIN' GOOD... //

TWENTY-FOUR/SEVEN/ONE

MONDAY
EAT YOUR WORDS
CHEF AND SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR JASON BLACK WAS THE CREATIVE FORCE BEHIND AN EVENT
THAT RAISED HK$132,000 IN AID OF FOODLINK.

TUESDAY
THE MAIDS
MY DEAREST FRIEND, RYE, HAS FINALLY SECURED THE RIGHTS TO STAGE HIS (OUR?) VANITY PROJECT IN HK 

WEDNESDAY 1
ERA ORA MEDIA PREVIEW
WITH THE LABEL'S DESIGNER, EUNY L.

WEDNESDAY 2

HK1K CAKE CONSULTATATION

THE PENINSULA HK'S EXECUTIVE PASTRY CHEF LUDOVIC DOUTEAU

PRESENTS HIS INITIAL IDEAS FOR HK MAGAZINE'S 1,000th ISSUE BIRTHDAY CAKE

WEDNESDAY 3
CHOCOLATE TASTING AT THE PENINSULA BOUTIQUE
THE PENINSULA BOUTIQUE'S DIRECTOR OF MARKETING ADRIENNE TIN LEADS US THROUGH AN IMPROMPTU EXPERIENCE WITH CHOCOLATES
HANDMADE BY THE PEN'S OWN CHOCOLATIER

WEDNESDAY 4
SALON DE NING'S OPEN MIC NIGHT
TAKING MY FNAL BOW AS THE MONTHLY EVENT'S MC FOR THE PAST 2.5 YEARS

THURSDAY
GLOBAL PARTY
AS MC AND AUCTION MASTER OF AN EVENT WITH PHANTOM VIPs:
ANGELINA JOLIE. JOHNNY DEPP. THE ROLLING STONES. MAO. WARHOL.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

FRIDAY
POUNDING PAVEMENT
SEEKING INSPIRATION FOR HK1K WITH CHARMAINE

SATURDAY 1
WERQ OUT.
ON THE WAY TO SUN YAT SEN PARK TO MEET MY FABULOUS PERSONAL TRAINER, BRIDGE.

SATURDAY 2
STEPHEN SONDHEIM'S FOLLIES
STAGED BY THE HK SINGERS AT THE SHEUNG WAN CIVIC CENTRE

SUNDAY
SUPERMAN
GAY OF HYPERACTIVE ENERGY MEETS THE MAN OF STEEL

Monday

EAT YOUR WORDS featured five of Hong Kong's top food critics paired with five of the city's most celebrated chefs. One hundred and thirty hungry diners crowded The Salted Pig, eager to witness a culinary bloodbath.

In the end, the dessert course by Chef Gregoire Michaud and The Dim Sum Diaries' Ale Wilkinson won the most votes.

Hyperactive co-organized, MC'd and auctioned items off to raise a total of HK$132,000 in aid of Foodlink.


Tuesday

Rye walked into my door with a surprise:

My very own copy of the rights to stage The Maids in Hong Kong. For years, Rye has been dreaming about staging this play as a vanity project for La Chiquitta and Fabiola.

It's finally coming true this November.


Wednesday

1.
Era Ora Press Preview at Boujis. Met the lovely designer, Euny L., who had just wrapped up a shoot in Ibiza. It showed. Her skin glowed a light, golden caramel. I was clearly dying with envy, and so, to make me feel better, Euny gave me a pink pocket square.

I squinted at her alienesque visage, wracking my memory bank for a clue as to where I've seen her before. I finally ventured: "Were you a former Miss Singapore?"

She threw her head back. A throaty laughter roared 'round the walls of her slender neck,

2.
Met The Peninsula Hong Kong's Executive Pastry Chef Ludovic Douteau, to chat about HK Mag's 1,000th issue birthday cake.

The facts:
- red fondant
- HK skyline gold stencil
- miniature 'HK Hipsters' done with chocolate
- 1.5m base
- 8 layers high
- will have to completed on-site 1 hour before the event

Tour-de-force.

3.
We were only supposed to look at the teas. Swear!!

But if The Pen Boutique's Director of Marketing, Adrienne Tin, follows that through with an impromptu chocolate tasting, featuring little delights made by The Pen's own chocolatier, are you gonna say no?

Didn't think so.

4.
Curtain call on Hyperactive.

After 2.5 years, it was my final night as MC of Salon de Ning's monthly Open Mic Night. Big love to SdN Manager Eli Homawoo, songbird Felicia, and the band - Samson, Sty, Robert and Leo.

I honed my MC-ing chops at SdN, learning how to adjust to different audiences at lightning speed.

It has been an awesome ride.

Thank you.


Thursday

The Hong Kong leg of The Global Party was meant to have been as huge as the title suggested. I was asked to MC, and once again, there's an auction in the program.

These were big-ticket items, too, meant to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Children's Cancer Foundation. Warhol's 'Mao.' Autographed and framed memorabilia from Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and The Rolling Stones. Entire weeks in Balinese luxury villas. Rides on one-of-a-kind Formula One racing cars.

And more.

By some freak 'accident' only about 20 people showed up to the event.

"Sorry for wasting your time," said Shore's Mark Cholewka. I couldn't even manage a reply, except a mumbled "Noworriesbyeseeyousoon." I was too stunned that a black-tie affair fell off people's radar.

Shit happens.


Friday

Charmaine and I grabbed lunch at Porto Fino to thank the owner, Felipe, for hosting The List Magazine's GuestList event the previous night. It was a success. I expressed my regrets that I wasn't present.

Charmaine and I then pound pavement to seek inspiration for HK1K at Shanghai Tang.


Saturday

1.
"Health is wealth," I chuckled drily, as I pushed and plodded through the short walk between my flat and Sun Yat Sen Park. This is where my personal trainer, Bridge, meets me thrice a week to whip me back in shape for Pink Season. I refused to be a fat cow for yet another year during the twinbill Mr Gay HK / Floatilla weekend.

Fit, not fat.

Fabulous, not forlorn.

2.
Caught up with my dear friends, Peter and Matthew, to watch the HK Singers' staging of Sondheim's Follies.

The acoustics in the Sheung Wan Civic Centre are already problematic, to begin with. The sound mixing and the musical direction only served to exacerbate the problem.

I had my ears covered the entire first act. Unlistenable.

I felt for the actors, who had so much energy and enthusiasm and heart. Must be frustrating to have to fight to be heard.


Sunday

Saw Man of Steel in IFC with the gang.

"Well, well..." I mused, considering Henry Cavill's ridiculously muscular physique with great interest. "Is this the ideal I must now work towards?"

24 HOURS A DAY.

7 DAYS A WEEK.

1 HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™.

#gethyperactive

BERNADETTE PETERS & MANDY PATINKIN // MOVE ON

TWO OF THE MOST LUMINOUS PERFORMERS 

SINGING ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING
SONGS ABOUT LIFE,
LOVE, CHOICE

AND ADVENTURE.

  Stop worrying where you're going- Move on 
If you can know where you're going 
You've gone 
Just keep moving on 
 I chose, and my world was shaken- 
So what? 
The choice may have been mistaken 
The choosing was not 
You have to move on...


   

// THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™ //

THE MAIDS

PROD PHOTO FROM THE LION & UNICORN / LONDON
DIRECTED BY VICTOR SOBCHAK

I directed a scene from The Maids for my final thesis. It stank; I took the scene to a communal toilet in my university's Fine Arts Hall. There I left the audience whilst the titular maids, sisters Claire and Solange, had a big, old fashioned showdown. It was my hope that the ghostly echo of their screams would continue to ring in the audience's ears as I led them towards the vertiginous stairway where my final scene would take place. What can you expect - I was in university and was therefore easily swayed by esoteric bullshit!

Fast forward to today.

Who is foolish enough to imagine that the Hong Kong economy would be what it is if our maids weren't home, doing all the dirty stuff we don't want to do?

My best friend Rye and I (as our alter egos La Chiquitta and Fabiola) have wanted to play Claire and Solange for years. This November, we will finally be able to bring this vanity project onstage. It's kismet. We're Filipinos. We're gurls (naturally). And we'll be in front of a crowd that can't live without maids, in a city that can't still accept them. You'll leave them home so you can come to our show, yet, what you'll really be seeing is what they do when you're away.

And it's all happening right now.

Too. Much. Fun.

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Bernadette Peters / Losing My Mind

In this performance, Bernadette Peters displays a remarkable fragility punctuated by a throaty wail:

You said you loved me, 
Or were you just being kind? 
Or am I losing my mind?

Sublime turns of phrase by the great Stephen Sondheim, from Follies.    

Eargasms for everyone!

ITAEWON

  // THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™ //

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Patti Lupone / Being Alive (LIVE 1991)

Chris is in the study,wrapping up his previous consulting gig. I'm doing the laundry and blogging. It's just another day at home, except it's not.

Chris leaves in five days.

Earlier today, he closed the door just before he Skyped his mum.

It then dawned on me that, even after six years of having been together, we hardly know each other.

"We barely know each other beyond a collection of habits," I exhaled. "Life sort of just took over; we simply let the days roll one after another."

"Mm," he murmured. 

"But maybe that'll be what this next chapter is about - getting to know each other, apart."

Patti Lupone delivers another brilliant performance. Her voice is crystal-clear, her enunciation crisp as an autumn morning, her phrasing an impeccable match for Sondheim's musicality more than nay other.   

Make me alive, make me confused 
Mock me with praise, let me be used 
Vary my days
But alone is alone, not alive!

    

CHEUNG SHA

  // JAMES & CHRIS //

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Lana McKissack & AJ Rafael / A Little Fall Of Rain

//

I don't feel any pain

A little fall of rain

Can hardly hurt me now

You're here, that's all I need to know

And you will keep me safe

And you will keep me close

And rain will make the flowers grow...

//

// THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™ //

 

FOR THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE HOW HUGH JACKMAN THROWS HIS HIP TO THE RIGHT AND LOOKS OVER HIS SHOULDER, AS THOUGH WONDERING WHETHER WE LIKE HIS BACKSIDE?

WE DO.

OF COURSE WE LOVE HIS FRONT BITS JUST AS MUCH,
IF NOT MORE.

I would so do Hugh Jackman. And as a living, breathing carnivore, can you blame me? The man has more beef than Tesco's. That alone is enough reason for any self-respecting homosexual to brave the epic 3 hours it takes for this film to take its course. Even more so when Hugh Jackman starts to sing, "Look down! Look down!" Sir, yes, sir!

That having been said, I was disappointed by the film.

Before I get stoned to death, hear me out.

Yes, Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean gets drenched with water in the opening scene and we see him power lifting a thick pole amongst equally muscular inmates, etc. So honestly, within the first few minutes, I felt like I already got my money's worth. But Russel Crowe as Javert is just a buzzkill! First of all, Crowe looks more like an aging accountant than a menacing law enforcer. Do the filmmakers honestly expect me to suspend disbelief that this squat figure wearing a funny hat is enough of a threat to someone as physically imposing as Jackmantasy? And even though I'm familiar with the book and the musical, the film, as a visual medium, should rightfully be able to stand on its own. Every time I see Crowe and Jackmantasy together, I wanna weep, giggle and gag - all at the same time. The multi-layered conflict (moral, spiritual, legal, blah blah blah) between Crow's Javert and Jackmantasy's Valjean is at the crux of Les Miserables. It's so important, they sang lots of songs about it!

And then Crowe starts to "sing." I wonder - did he do animal exercises when he was getting into his role? I could just imagine him and his beautiful mind, in rehearsal mode: "I am Javert. Javert is a watchful bird. Javert is a... a... Crowe?! A crow!!! Caw caw caw!"   

Anne Hathaway as Fantine is gorgeous even with a patchy head and a bleeding mouth. But I found it difficult to get past the obtrusive make-up. It was flat-out clownish - and this is way before "Master of the House." I appreciate the need for grit, but must everything be so overstated whilst the singing is all so... understated? Underwhelming! At this point, I question whether this is still Les Miserables or Waiting for Godot... Is there any salvation for the wretched of the earth, i.e. the poor Les Miz nerds like myself who are trapped into waiting, waiting for this movie to get better?

Amanda Seyfried as Cosette trills thinly through "A Heart Full of Love;" Samantha Barks as Eponine shockingly lacks the awareness to turn her face towards the camera during key passages in "On My Own;" Freddie Redmayne's (Marius) chin vibrates alarmingly throughout "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables," leaving me scared that his jaw might fly out of the screen and into the audience. The filmmakers might as well have cast Nick Jonas in all the roles!

The only saving grace of this film is Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop of Digne, who needs to do nothing more than be onscreen for me to start cheering, weeping, hugging myself, etc. Wilkinson's passion, certitude and quiet grace only served to highlight the shortcomings of the celebrity cast, and how unnecessarily busy the entire film was. Honestly, did we really need each shot to pan out vertically and into the stratosphere?? Is this Les Miz or X-Men?

Hugh Jackman should have just been shirtless the entire time.






  

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Patti LuPone / I Dreamed A Dream

//

And still I dream he'll come to me

That we'll live the years together

But there are dreams that cannot be

And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I'm living

So different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed

The dream I dreamed.

//

// THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™ //

PHOTO BY RUNNING KAN

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Rosie O'Donnell, Patti LuPone, Jennifer Holliday & Betty Buckley

//

Touch me

It's so easy to leave me

All alone with the memory

Of my days in the sun

If you touch me

You'll understand what happiness is

Look

A new day has begun!

//

PAT SIN LENG NATURE TRAIL

// JAMES & CHRIS //

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Bernadette Peters / No One Is Alone

//

Sometimes people leave you

Half-way through the wood

Others may decieve you

You decide whats good

You decide alone

But no one is alone

People make mistakes

Father's, Mother's

People make mistakes

Holding to their own

Thinking they're alone

//

// THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™ // 

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Katharine McPhee / Don't Forget Me

//

Yes, the price I paid was all I had

But at last, I found release

And if something good can come from bad

The past can rest in peace

Oh if you see someone's hurt

And in need of a hand

Don't forget me

Or hear a melody crying from some baby grand

Well don't forget me

When you sing happy birthday to someone you love

Or see diamonds you wish were all free

Please say that you won't;

I pray that you don't forget me

//

RABBI: THE HOMECOMING (A SOLO CONCERT)

 // TUGUEGARAO CITY //

The Diva Video Of The Day™ Bernadette Peters / Children Will Listen

 

//
How do you say to your child in the night
Nothing's all black but then nothing's all white?
How do you say it will all be alright
When you know that it mightn't be true?
What do you do?
//


 

// THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY™ //

The Diva Video of the Day® Nicole Scherzinger / The Phantom Of The Opera (LIVE at the Royal Variety Show)

//

In all your fantasies, you always knew

that man and mystery . . .

. . . were both in you . . .

//

// AN INVINCIBLE TRUTH //

I'm Just a Broadway Baby...?

"Recoged Esta Voz," 2004 | Dulaang UP

"A Midsummer Night's Dream," 2004 | Metropolitan Theatre Guild

Hello, Friends!

Doesn't every gay man at some point dream of becoming a Broadway baby?

It seems like ages ago (in fact, it was) when I had a tidy, little career playing sinister characters onstage... Paul Snyder in Brecht's St. Joan of the Stockyards, the Black Horse in Lorca's El Publico, Jean in Ionesco's Rhinoceros. Directors easily pigeonholed me into menacing roles perhaps because I'm relatively large for a Filipino. And I have mean eyes.

I was a strong, reliable character actor.

And it got old too quickly.

In a country that romanticizes the Spanish mestizo as a hero, I had little to zero chance of ever becoming a romantic lead. Plus, I was impatient; I wanted things to happen, like, immediately. Plus, I'm gay. I came out on national TV in 2004, in what was then the country's hottest talent show. Plus, I hated playing the stupid card. Which made many people hate my guts.

Being gay didn't mean I was content to play bit roles in sitcoms or menacing characters created by dead playwrights. I wanted the man, the drama, the kiss, the soaring music, the climax. I wanted it all.

Needless to say, I got none of it. I was barely out of puberty when Rent held auditions in Manila, so was I meant to cry bloody murder that I didn't get to play Angel?

So it was a super-easy decision for me to move to Hong Kong when Mickey Mouse offered me a job in Disneyland.

Of course it didn't take long (surprise!) for me to want it all, all over again. Performing with Disney is fine if you're content enough to do the same show every day, five times a day.

I quit performing altogether when I just got dissatisfied with it, in general. Granted, life is one big audition. But it's downright disgusting to have to count on how many jobs you book in a month to determine whether you're gonna make mortgage.

Recently, though, I've been missing the stage so much. Thank goodness this came along.

And guess what?

I was surprised that I didn't get asked to audition for it...

And guess what else?

I played a no-name drag queen in an acid fantasy, who turns on her party friends.

A sinister character all over again.

And I loved it.





With Affection,
James

"An Invincible Truth," 2011 | Performer Studio / Muse Motion

P.S.
The audience seemed to love it, too.
*Phew*