STAGE REVIEW : Filipino/American Culture Clash in ‘Tondo’

A comedy from the Philippines is certainly a novelty, and “New Yorker in Tondo,” playing at scattered Los Angeles-area sites this month and next, is a cultural diversion of farcical innocence and bilingual punch--if you know Tagalog.

With county and city support, and presented under the umbrella of the East West Players Foreign Language Tour, the Manila Actors Studio is certainly broadening the meaning of Asian/Pacific theater. The playing style is broad and somehow quaint at the same time. For a white American reviewer, the experience was alternately charming and overbaked.

For members of the Asian Pacific Coalition, who saw the production Monday night at the International Student Center at UCLA, the show was a satiric delight and raucously hit home in the assorted moments when the characters used Tagalog, native language of the Philippines.

The hourlong production, written by Marcelino Agana Jr., follows what happens when a girl from a Manila slum called Tondo goes to New York, gets sophisticated and then returns home and forgets who she is. Actress Gigette Reyes, talking like Bette Davis and begowned like Rita Hayworth, haughtily throws her new-found, phony worldliness in the faces of her slum-dwelling friends and old beau until events hurtle her back to her real Filipino identity.

It’s a cultural identity theme that touched the Asian/American audience to the (funny) bone. The response seemed genuine, and it echoes the cross-cultural issue that has been the theatrical signature of the 21-year-old East West Players.

Reyes is strongly supported by slum queen Corazon Ugalde Yellen (the two actresses alternate roles from performance to performance). Marlon Reveche is a skilled and expressive straightman as the diffident boyfriend with a surprise up his sleeve. And Gerry Espe and Sunnie Kliatchko Alonzo provide supporting flavor.

Director Johnny Jose Cruz wrestles with patchwork production conditions. Talk about a bus and truck show: There’s no lighting scheme and no set (just a few props). But there is panache, and a well-staged brawl to wrap it up.

Performances are Thursday, 8 p.m., Cal State L.A. Arena Theatre, (213) 224-2373; Friday, 7 p.m., Filipino Christian Church, 301 N. Union Ave., (213) 382-1819; June 10, 7 p.m., Philippine Consulate, 3460 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1200, (213) 208-1890; June 18, 7 p.m., St. Dominic’s Parish Hall, 2002 Merton Ave., (213) 742-2489; June 24, 8 p.m., Rosewood United Methodist Church, 501 New Hampshire Ave., (213) 664-9294; June 25, 3 p.m., Cal State Northridge, Sierra Building South, (818) 885-3485. Admission is free.