Monday, March 2, 2020

“TABING ILOG” MUSICAL Fires TV REVIVAL Hopes for BARON GEISLER


It can be said that the 1990s was the decade when shows about young people, from teens to those in early years of adulthood, both local TV shows and programming from overseas networks, were prominent. Filipinos would likely recall watching shows like GMA7’s “TGIS” and ABS-CBN’s “Gimik” and “Tabing Ilog,” and from former late-night timeslots or Cable they would know of dramas like “Dawson’s Creek” or sitcoms such as “Friends.” Speaking of which, with the media attention being given to a reunion special of the “Friends” cast on HBO Max, there has been a quiet clamor for either reviving or reuniting casts from these old TV series for the youth.

As it turns out, “Tabing Ilog” is being adapted by the Kapamilya network into a stage musical, with original series executive producer Raymund Dizon hoping to update the joys and struggles of teens with the world around them in the new production’s story. But as The Philippine Star has it, a “Tabing Ilog” musical does not seem enough for one of the show’s main cast. Actor Baron Geisler is expressing his interest on the well-remembered teen drama getting a TV revival, and he would not mind joining the project if he has friends coming along.

Geisler, more recently famous in-camera as the unkempt and ax-crazy criminal terrorist Bungo on ABS-CBN’s hit tele-serye “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano,” and off-camera as a recovering alcoholic making up for a spotty public persona, reveals in an interview that he is interested in seeing “Tabing Ilog” brought back to television. It would be fun though, he adds, if his former costar John Lloyd Cruz. Baron sees their return in a revival of the show to be them portraying the parents of the new main cast, similar to how Bobby Andrews and Angelu de Leon reprised their “TGIS” characters as parents of the main teen cast in GMA7’s 2012-13 series “Teen Gen.”

Such an approach, muses Baron Geisler, is appropriate for him and potentially John Lloyd in a potential remake of “Tabing Ilog,” seeing as with Cruz already a parent and Baron a fairly new father since last month, their being cast as parents will make them effective due to their real-life perspective. Geisler notes that he first met his wife Jamie Evangelista at an alcohol rehab center, but only entered into a relationship with her when he had finished sobering up.

Meanwhile, preparations for the premiere of the “Tabing Ilog” musical continue apace according to Raymund Dizon, currently business unit head for ABS-CBN’s Star Hunt. Agot Isidro is among the known veteran actresses cast for the project, which will be performed on the Dolphy Theater from March 6 to April 26.

Image courtesy of CNN Philippines

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