REVIEW: ‘We Aren’t Kids Anymore’ brilliantly offers a reprieve from the real world
How do you keep your childhood dreams alive and formative beliefs intact when adulthood’s exhausting, heartbreaking realities catch up to you? Broadway songwriter and composer Drew Gasparini navigates this push-and-pull in his song cycle We Aren’t Kids Anymore, first staged in 2019 and now brought to Manila by Barefoot Theatre Collaborative (Mula sa Buwan, Bar Boys: A New Musical).
The show runs through 19 tracks exploring the artist’s varying relationships—from their work to their family, the city they live in, addiction, and legacy. As a song cycle, the music moves the audience through the joyful and painful textures of adult life; and while each song tells a whole story on its own, a similar empathy strings the entire show together.
Helmed by director Rem Zamora with musical direction by Myke Salomon and Farley Asuncion, Barefoot’s tight, 90-minute staging takes you through the spectrum of the human condition. It stars five of the most exciting theater performers today: Gab Pangilinan, Maronne Cruz, Gio Gahol, Luigi Quesada, and co-musical director Salomon.
It’s easy to believe they’re five parts of Gasparini’s consciousness, taking turns singing about the writer’s life, loves, and losses. But they’re more accurately stand-ins for the different kinds of people who may find reprieve in the show. By writing about his life’s specificities—both good and bad—Gasparini taps into something we all go through yet remain afraid to admit, and the actors approach the material with so much care. Reality bites, they seem to say, but we’ll be there with you as you tend to your wounds.
Beyond catharsis, the show is a blast. It’s fun, frankly, to watch good actors show just how good they can be. Cruz’s performance of the titular song We Aren’t Kids Anymore is a standout.
Everything onstage is laced with intention. Movement director Jomelle Era, lighting designer and technical director D Cortezano, and production designers Joey Mendoza and Hershee Tantiado create a world that draws you in and invites you to fill in the blanks with your own stories, your own relationships with others. The characters, despite remaining nameless and wearing the same costumes throughout, transform before your eyes.
At the center of the stage are the instrumentalists, the show’s beating heart—they operate with the precision of a well-oiled machine while staying in tune with the actors and responding in real-time to the audience. Near the show’s end, a poem by Keith White precedes the hopeful track I’ll Stick Around. Quesada beautifully delivers the piece, and watching the verses meld with the song is easily one of the most memorable parts of a show chock-full of showstopping numbers.
We Aren’t Kids Anymore begs to be witnessed live. You can listen to the studio recording on streaming, but seeing it onstage—having the actors’ voices fill up the room, the crescendo sending chills down your spine—communicates something that a recorded track or spoken dialogue alone can never completely capture. Anyone with the misfortune of having to grow up will be moved, comforted, and reminded of how much they have yet to figure out, but also of how far they've come.
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Barefoot Theatre Collaborative’s We Aren’t Kids Anymore will be staged from May 2 to 25 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater in Circuit Makati. Tickets are available at bit.ly/m/wakatickets. Get to know the cast and creative team behind it here.
