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REVIEW: FELIX STARRO A NEW MUSICAL AT MA YI THEATER COMPANY
Felix Starro, a new musical about faith healing, ended this week at Ma Yi Theatre Company on theatre row. Many things set this fascinating piece apart from the usual musical fete that we get to see. I was delighted to appreciate this universal topic explored through the prism of Filipino culture. A rare treat also to enjoy such a talented cast of actors. The story follows Felix Starro played by Alan Ariano, a television star and once revered psychic surgeon who made it big and fell just as profoundly into disrepute. He tries to reclaim some of his former glory in a dingy hotel room in a seedy section of San Francisco letting it be known he is in town for healings. Along with him is his grandson of the same name whom he calls junior. A teenager Felix has raised since the death of the boy’s parents.
Junior yearns for an authentic and honest life as he watches his lolo (grandfather) perform scam psychic surgeries on desperate, sick people with chicken innards bathed in blood. Making believe that he is pulling them out of the body of his subjects, pronouncing that each slimy thing is a “negativity’ which he drops into a metal bowl.
When an aids patient arrives, he turns him away, both obviating his lack of abilities and asserting judgment. We are not quite sure where Felix’s faith healing begins and ends in terms of…
