DELIA D.: A DRAG QUEEN GETS HER SPECTACULAR MOMENT OF FAME

Delia D.: A Musical Featuring the Songs of Jonathan Manalo, playing at Newport World Resorts, has been getting a lot of buzz for being the first full-blown original theater piece dedicated to a Filipino drag queen in the titular role, which is a big deal for the LGBTQIA+ community that has always been lamenting how they are not represented enough in mainstream culture or if ever they are, it is through gross misrepresentation via stereotypes like neighborhood parloristas who are loud, frivolous and the butt of jokes, often of the slapstick variety, if not downright toilet humor.

- RICKY TOLEDO & CHITO VIJANDRE

Phi Palmos, who plays Delia, knows this only too well as he grew up never seeing a character that he could identify with because on film and TV, the bakla was always persecuted by the family and society, or was there for comic relief, "yung tinatapunan ng tubig o cake o sinasampal" — things he never experienced with his own family with whom he has a loving relationship.

The musical changes all that as the drag queen is humanized through Delia, an Ozamis native who finds support from a mother who shares her dream of one day making it big as a singer in Manila, and from her adopted family at the Drag & Tell Nightclub, run by the flamboyantly hysterical Mama Eme (John Lapus) who rules a la-Bella Flores in her own kingdom of camp which the scenic designer Lawyn Cruz has conjured realistically enough with all the glitter concealing the grime reminiscent of seedy bars from Manila to Bali to Bangkok. Contained in a floating module that turns and switches into Delia's pad, fabulous numbers by the Divalettes segue into Delia's private moments with her mother and brother.