Ma-Yi Theater Company has set two world premieres for 2027. Magno Rubio: The Musical reunites Ralph B. Peña and Fabian Obispo with the Carlos Bulosan story behind one of the company’s defining productions, and opens at Theatre Row in February; in April, Leah Nanako Winkler’s memory play You Seem Sad follows at WP Theater.
The musical is a return as much as a premiere. In 2003 Ma-Yi staged Lonnie Carter’s The Romance of Magno Rubio, directed by Loy Arcenas, with original Filipino text by Peña and music by Obispo; it won eight Obie Awards. The two have now gone back to Bulosan’s short story and started from scratch, with a new book and a new score. Peña writes the book and lyrics and directs, Obispo composes, and Orlando Pabotoy choreographs.
The setting is a migrant labor camp in 1930s California. Magno Rubio, a Filipino farmworker, is putting his wages toward a future with a woman he has only ever met on paper, and the men he bunks with have their doubts about her. As the courtship costs him more and more, the story turns on friendship, dignity and what a man paid so little will spend to feel he deserves to be loved. The score draws on swing, jazz and Filipino love songs.
Two of the cast come straight from that 2003 production: Jojo Gonzalez, who plays Magno Rubio, and Ron Domingo, who plays Tasio; both were Obie winners for it. They are joined by Red Concepción (Chicago on Broadway) as Berto, Marc delaCruz (Hamilton) as Peping, Kris Bona (Ma-Yi’s SUMO) as Amado, Eymard Cabling as Kiko and Francisco I, Jon Viktor Corpuz (The King and I on Broadway) as Ikong and Francisco II, and Alyse Alan Louis (Amélie, Mamma Mia!) as Clarabelle. Nathan Gerard Angelo, Del Diaz Gonzales, Bex Odorisio and Joel Trinidad are the understudies.
The design team is Riw Rakkulchon (sets), Mika Eubanks (costumes), Paul Whitaker (lighting), Daniel Baker (sound) and Thomas Jenkeleit (props), with orchestrations by Tom Myron, music direction by Ian Miller and music coordination by John Miller. Gabbie Ballesteros is associate choreographer.
Performances begin February 20, 2027, at Theatre Three at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, with opening night on February 28. Ma-Yi lists the limited run through March 22, and tickets are on sale through the company’s website.
You Seem Sad brings Winkler back to two companies that helped develop her: she is an alumna of both the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and the WP Lab. WP Theater and Ma-Yi co-produce it, in association with the Lucille Lortel Theatre, and May Adrales directs. The play crosses two eras. In 1950s Nagasaki, Keiko, a young survivor of the atomic bomb, is remaking her life and refuses to apologize for it; in New York in the early 2000s, a half-Japanese woman in her twenties, identified only as Student 1, is working out her career, her love life and who she is. We first reported the production when the Lortel put its name to it this season.
It runs April 3–May 2, 2027, at WP Theater, 2162 Broadway at 76th Street, opening April 18.
Peña, Ma-Yi’s producing artistic director, said the season puts “Asian and Asian American experiences front and center,” and that it celebrates “love, dignity, and survival in all their complexities.”
