Going Home to Christmas (Repertory Philippines)

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Passengers of a Liberty Airlines flight headed to Cebu are stranded at the Ninoy International Airport amidst the Christmas rush, all of them frustrated despite the cheers of the holidays. The airport janitor keeps on improvising the lyrics of Christmas in Our Hearts based on his observations while people-watching. Bickering husband and wife Arnie (Lorenz Martinez) and Josie (Neomi Gonzales) might not make it to their cruise, which they hope would be the answer to their marital woes. Father and son JR (Floyd Tena) and JD (Neo Rivera) run into aunt and niece tandem Em (Mayen Bustamante-Cadd) and Raya (Justine Narciso), with whom they both have romantic histories. Ground attendant Pat (Carla Guevara-Laforteza) is lonesome because her pilot husband Richard (Noel Rayos) is working away from home in Dubai and won’t be home for the holidays. Will the Christmas spirit eventually take over or will all of them succumb to misery at one of the world’s worst airports?

When it comes to Christmas sirens, America has Mariah Carey. The Philippines has Jose Mari Chan. The latter getting his own jukebox musical has never been a matter of if but rather when. And then you realize, but does he have any other songs aside from the nation’s de facto holiday anthem Christmas in Our Hearts? Off the top of my head I can name Please Be Careful With My Heart, Beautiful Girl, and A Perfect Christmas, all of which are sung along with Can We Just Stop and Talk Awhile which I’ve always thought to be a Lea Salonga song. Seems easy. Do we have a legit Christmas hit in our midst? Unfortunately, not quite.

Christmas in the Philippines is a visceral experience. From the visuals of colorful lanterns enveloped by twinkling lights to the aural appeal of Christmas carols aplenty to the scent of butter on bibingka later melting on your tongue all the way to the cold December breeze brushing against your skin. I’m not saying that the staff of Going Home to Christmas should have served us puto bumbong to provide a legit 5D experience, although it would have been appreciated. All I’m saying is that instead of stoking the holiday glee through this wealth of options, they opted for a messy airport drama with too many contrived subplots.

There is a scene where one of the characters jokes feeling as though they were in a Hallmark Christmas movie. In a way, they actually are. The interweaving storylines do not really have anything coherent binding them. There is no life-changing big event aside from the flight delay snafu. Conflicts are resolved as quickly as they are pointed out. In short, there is nothing exciting about the premise, which is fine because that’s how Christmas narratives usually are. The thing is, you can watch a Netflix Christmas movie at home for free using your neighbor’s password, while the cheapest ticket for Going Home to Christmas costs PHP1,500 ($30).

And I believe that’s what really hit audience attendance. I bought that cheapest ticket for a Sunday night and was asked whether I wanted to upgrade from Balcony to Loge for free. Who am I to disagree? As I looked down the seats right in front of the stage, most of them were empty. For you to convince cash-strapped Filipinos to exchange their PHP1,500 for a theater ticket, that musical has to be an audio-visual spectacle, an experience they can talk about for weeks on end on social media. Unfortunately, despite Jose Mari Chan’s beloved compositions, Going Home to Christmas just doesn’t fulfill those expectations.

As for acting, we have no complaints here. Repertory Philippines relies on a small pool of talented triple threats that always deliver the goods. Going Home to Christmas is no different. They even do an encore of Christmas in Our Hearts where they encourage the audience to sing along! Production design is simple with two movable flights of steps and a pair of three-seat airport benches. Projections are used to supplement the minimalist set but seem too faint for them to capture the audience’s attention. Personally, I feel like this could’ve been more memorable had they opted for a jukebox musical based on a mix of popular Tagalog/English Christmas songs instead of Jose Mari Chan's discography.