Philippines: Last News

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s Broadway musical Here Lies Love is to close later this month, due to low ticket sales.The production, which depicts the life of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, is based on the two musicians’ 2010 concept album, debuted on stage in 2013 and began its current Broadway run in June this year.Deadline reports that the final performance will take place on November 26. It will have played a total of 33 previews and 149 regular performances at the Broadway Theatre.The report continues that the show failed to attain a sufficiently high level of ticket sales to justify its relatively high weekly operating costs, which required the theatre to extensively renovate its setup to accommodate the show’s dance club setting.In a statement, the show’s producers said: “When we started this journey to bring this bold and original work to Broadway, we asked ourselves: Can anyone produce on Broadway in a new way? Is there a new path forward? What does the template look like? Will audiences want something radically new? Who will those audiences be?”“We have learned a great deal about the answers to those questions.

SM Entertainment has previewed its upcoming music releases for the first quarter of 2024, featuring new music by aespa, NCT’s Taeyong and RIIZE.In the newly published SM Entertainment Earnings Release report for the third quarter of 2023, the company included a preview of the music line-up for the first quarter of 2024 It details a slew of planned album, mini-album and single releases from several SM artists for the period.Following the most recently announced upcoming release of Taeyeon’s mini-album ‘To. X’ on November 27, SM Entertainment has revealed that other artists slated to put out new music for the rest of the year include Super Junior’s Ryeowook, NCT 127 and TVXQ.

IVE have announced the stops and dates for their upcoming 2023 to 2024 ‘Show What I Have’ world tour.Today (November 8), IVE announced the dates for the upcoming Asia, US, Europe, Latin America and Australia legs of their 2023 to 2024 ‘Show What I Have’ world tour. This comes just a month after they kicked off the tour in October with two shows in Seoul, South Korea.The K-pop girl group will kick off the Asia leg of their newly announced tour in November 2023, with two shows in Yokohama, Japan.

, Rocero rose from pageant queen in the Philippines to top fashion model and trans activist in the U.S., having publicly come out as transgender in a now-viral TED talk along the way.As a years-long wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation crested in 2023, Rocero's decision to tell her story—and her subsequent honor as —couldn’t have been more urgent, or timely. And Rocero's honor in particular made for quite a "full-circle moment," as both she and noted in their moving speeches.“Glamour was the first American magazine to , out and proud,” James recalled, before highlighting just some of Rocero's impressive accomplishments.

Here Lies Love — a disco musical created by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the life of former Filipino first lady Imelda Marcos — will close on Broadway on November 26, the show’s producers announced this morning (November 7). An ambitious, $22 million affair, the production took over Manhattan’s Broadway Theatre, renovating the space to accommodate spinning stages and a state-of-the-art audio system that created a club atmosphere.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Here Lies Love,” an unconventional disco musical about the rise and fall of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, will close on Broadway this month due to lackluster ticket sales. It will play its final performance on Nov. 26, concluding a run of 33 previews and 150 regular performances.

Prince William was left stunned when a young royal fan took a bite of his finger while on a royal visit in Singapore.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Unscripted queer reality dating series “Boys Like Boys” is to air on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TLC channel in Taiwan in early 2024, making it the first local LGBTQ+ dating reality show to air on linear TV in the territory. The show is an original production by GagaOOLala, Asia’s out and proud LGBTQ+ streaming service, which is pitching an expanded array of queer content at the Taiwan Creative Contents Fest (TCCF) that launches Tuesday in Taipei. “Boys Like Boys” had its premiere at the Kaohsiung International Film Festival and is now available worldwide on GagaOOLala and WeTV in the Philippines and Thailand, where the ‘Boys Love’ genre has become highly popular.

Taiwanese LGBTQ+ Streamer GagaOOLala has announced a packed slate of originals and acquired titles on the eve of Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF), including unscripted queer reality dating series Boys Like Boys. 

Sarvnik Kaur’s documentary Against The Tide won the Golden Gateway Award at this year’s Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, while the Silver Gateway Award went to Bahadur – The Brave, directed by Diwa Shah. The Special Jury Award went to Kanu Behl’s Agra. 

Singaporean writer-director Nicole Midori Woodford is on a roll with her debut feature, Last Shadow At First Light, which premiered in New Directors at San Sebastian film festival and has two nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs) for best screenplay and best performance (Mihaya Shirata). 

By Photography by The way Geena Rocero stares down a camera is captivating. Here, at in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, she challenges its gaze with the kind of merciless confidence that comes only after nearly two decades of modeling. With each click, the elegant frame of her face tilts, her lithe limbs flick, and her eyes steady on the target.

Naman Ramachandran Bangkok-based film fund Purin Pictures will disburse $140,000 to three Philippines and one Indonesian film as part of its fall grants. The Purin committee has chosen three fiction and one documentary projects for production support and one documentary project for post-production support. “The Remotes” is John Torres’ first fiction film after two decades of making documentaries.

RuPaul’s Drag Race is ready to cast its new season!

After focusing on Taiwanese projects for its first three years, the pitching section of Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) opened its doors to international projects for the first time this year. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief No Maori Allowed, directed by Corinna Hunziger was named the winner of the Pasifika Award and recipient of a $5,000 cash prize at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It recounts the story of a teacher who unearths a secret past in the town of Pukekohe. Thet causes M?ori community figures to come forward to share personal stories that shaped their lives.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Six film projects currently at development stage have been selected to take part in a workshop session as part of mylab+@Jogja next month. The six share a common characteristic of Indonesian co-production and a recurring theme of luminescence. “This theme underscores the importance of having the distinctive light of Asian cinema arise from its own characteristics.

Naman Ramachandran New Philippines anime franchise “Solemn Vow” has set several partnerships across the Southeast Asian region. Conceptualized as an anime series with a strategy for spinoffs into manga, games, music and merchandise, the franchise, created by Lawrence Panganiban, has formed partnerships with Philippines-based Enigma Kai and media startup Fire and Ice, and Singapore-based companies Anito Studios and Silver Media, in collaboration with Japanese animation giant Toei Animation Philippines, which will handle production.

EXCLUSIVE: Array Releasing, the distribution arm of Ava DuVernay’s Peabody Award-winning narrative change collective Array, has picked up rights to the PJ Raval doc Who We Become for the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. The film will debut exclusively on Netflix on Friday, December 1.

Beabadoobee and Laufey have teamed up on a new single ‘A Night to Remember’ – listen to the song below.The song marks the first time that British-Filipino singer-songwriter Beabadoobee and Icelandic-Chinese jazz musician Laufey have worked together.“I’ve been writing with a lot of different rhythms recently, also with strings and nods to more classical sounds,” said Beabadoobee. “Laufey is a great fit for this sound and we had started hanging out in London so we got in the studio together to work on music and try ideas with my producer Jacob Bugden.

Ed Sheeran has announced the cities, dates and venues for the highly anticipated Asia leg of his ‘+ – = ÷ x’ tour.Ed Sheeran will hold a total of nine concerts across Asia, from January to March 2024. It’ll kick-off in late-January with two show in Japan, before heading to Taiwan and Southeast Asia in February.