Ermats: ‘Bagets The Musical’ as seen through the female lens
Anyone who has seen or is even slightly familiar with the 1980s hit movie Bagets knows that it is a coming-of-age male-centered film that launched or solidified the careers of then five rising ingenues who would later on become showbiz stars: Herbert Bautista, J.C. Bonnin, Raymond Lauchengo, William Martinez, and Aga Muhlach. While Bagets the Musical, set to open on Jan. 23, will relive that era and inevitably take a trip back to nostalgia, the women–namely the mothers of the main characters–will have more prominent roles and stronger voices. The result is an inter-generational journey where the ‘ermats,’ as mothers were called back then, and their bagets sons will learn important lessons about, from, and with each other.
As director Maribel Legarda put it in an interview with TFM, it is an interaction that is often forgotten or disregarded, but is actually more important to the family and even society than they realize. “The clarity of a woman’s mind and what she thinks is also what goes into mothering,” Legarda said. “If we are more clear about what we want, then we also raise stronger, better men.” And to become such a strong mother, “you have to grow within yourself.”
Watching the movie several times, playwright J-mee Katanyag realized several things. First, while the Bagets stars were front and center, they were surrounded by the legendary character actors of that time like Liza Lorena and Celia Rodriguez who played their mothers with very strong personalities.
Second, the movie’s milieu was set at a time when women themselves were undergoing a tremendous societal shift. As she put it, “the surge of the working mom” was happening. The younger female part of the Baby Boomer Generation could finally enter the workforce. Yet, they also had to be faithful to their duties as wives and mothers—which many believed had to be their priorities at that time.
“You need to be a mother,” Katanyag described their dilemma. “But kailangan mo rin magtrabaho. There’s already a tension. Lahat sila nag-co-coming of age, iyung mga babae, iyung mga bagets. Doon namin napalalim ang perspective namin.”
Evolving material
Unsurprisingly, Legarda, Katanyag and their Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) colleagues made the material more empowering to the women of any generation. They also had to be true to its 1980s roots, which producer VIVA Communications felt was essential. This balancing act led to an interesting challenge: how to show and stage today many of the outdated precepts and behavior of a more traditional era.
Many scenes in the movie can come off as outdated, politically incorrect, or even offensive to the Millennial and Gen-Z crowd. Some can even smack of misogyny or the beginnings of toxic masculinity.
Legarda acknowledged that many of those tropes were “a reflection of its time and thinking. I didn’t want to ultra-sanize it but we wanted to find a way to say something that’s relevant now.”
Katanyag offered one creative solution: showing those narratives in the musical and accepting them as a representation of their era but questioning them “so that there is also a conversation that is asked by the audience when they watch it.”
She reiterated that the conversations will continue because despite the passage of 40 years, many of the issues that the bagets and their mothers wrestled with then are still present today.
Prevailing issues
For example, one reason why Delia’s incessant nagging (alternatively played by Kakai Bautista and Natasha Cabrera) is driving away her son Tonton, the barkada’s maverick (alternatively played by Migo Valid and Milo Cruz, played in the movie by William Martinez), despite her overprotectiveness. The reason behind that is a mountain of frustration brought on by mounting bills and an unemployed house husband. Cabrera laid out her character’s predicament which even the women of today can sympathize with: “Lahat ng bigat na sa kanya. She feels like she’s the one who’s taking up all the responsibilities. Parang wala siyang partner.”
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Luz (Ring Antonio) is in the same boat. Her perpetual busy-ness does not give her any time with her son, the comedic Gilbert (alternatively played by Noel Comia Jr. and Tomas Rodriguez, played in the movie by Herbert Bautista). To put food on the table, she sells everything from insurance policies, Tupperware, to leche flan to her neighbors. Her husband, a policeman, refuses to give her his salary with no explanations.
Antonio said that she and Luz realized that their son needed to feel comfortable with their mother. “Para open din sila magsabi sa atin. They have security from their parents, not just their barkada.”
View this post on Instagram
Ana (Neomi Gonzales) treats her son, martial arts buff Topee (alternatively played by Jeff Moses and Sam Shoaf, and essayed by J.C. Bonnin in the film), like a baby as overcompensation for her absence. The boy is maturing in front of her eyes but she can’t see it. What is blinding her is her ambition to become a movie star, banging her head against the glass ceiling in a male-dominated industry.
Gonzales says she can relate to Ana because they are both freelance actors who have cherished career dreams. The difference is, she is a hands-on mother supported by a husband. “I’ve been homeschooling iyung anak ko since grade 1,” she said. “Grade 9 na siya. But I couldn’t have done it if I didn’t have an equally nurturing partner. We share everything, even the education of our kid.”
View this post on Instagram
Ditas (Mayen Cadd) is the richest ermats in the movie and musical. She is the calculating socialite whose money grants her and her family luxury and lifelong security. But this affluence brings out her darker side, especially in her relationship with Arnel (alternatively played by KD Estrada and Ethan David, played in the movie by Raymond Lauchengco). It is a behavior that Cadd believes is still prevalent today. She said, ”Ditas plans and dictates her child’s future without considering his dreams and aspirations. She is smothering and controlling, thinking she is doing it all out of love. How many nurses, doctors, lawyers, and engineers do we have just because their parents dictated that path for them?”
View this post on Instagram
Virgie (Carla Guevara Laforteza) is probably the median of all characters. She is a middle-class, career-driven super parent who takes care of her son, the romantically-inclined Addie (alternatively played by Mico Hendrix Chua and Andres Muhlach, played by Aga Muhlach in the film) and attends all his events. But for all her professed enthusiasm, “there is no emotional connection,” said Guevara Laforteza, “even if the mom is there physically, emotionally and mentally she is not.”
Guevara Laforteza gave a clue as to why this disconnection is happening: “Virgie is probably on the verge of having a midlife crisis because she is caught between her column deadlines, making her husband happy, and trying to keep her son out of trouble.”
View this post on Instagram
Parenting styles
While many of these issues that the stage moms deal with in the play are still present today, motherhood has evolved in nearly half a century. Guevara Laforteza named some of them: “Every woman has a different style of expressing that innate motherhood. Some don’t actually like children, but choose to have pets. Some choose to have men to take care of.”
Certain developments over the years also might have breached certain walls and precipitated some dialogue, if not entire conversations. Guevara Laforteza believes that technology is one game-changer. “Wala pang cellphone noon. Putting myself in 1984, pahirapan to talk to your kids especially when you are out, when you are juggling things. Hanggang landline lang kami,” she said. “Today, there’s cellphone, Facetime, a video call to prove where the kids are. If Virgie exists in 2026, it would have been easier for her to fix her problem with her son.”
Then there have been certain learnings like positive discipline which encourages parents to recognize that a child is a full human being and have a conversation with them instead of just giving instant commands or instilling punishment.
Finally, a mother’s innate instinct can initiate a conversation even when those learnings have still to be formalized. Legarda narrated a childhood story where her Spanish-speaking mother surprised her with an apology. The elderly lady had disciplined her for not getting high grades. “I’ll never forget it,” Legarda said, “She goes to me and says, ‘I didnt realize mali pala ako. Hindi ko dapat ginagawa iyon.’”
That interaction could have been part of the joint journey that happens between mother and child. Gonzalez described it this way: “As people, we are flawed, we are not perfect. You have to understand that the journey is not perfect. But as long as you are together, you are communicating, you hurdle all the challenges, that is your journey.”
For all the parental and child development changes that have occurred, Antonio said that “it is innate for mothers to be nurturing. Kahit anong mangyayari, hindi mo pababayaan [ang anak mo].”
Bautista summed it all up for the women in the musical, onstage and behind it, when she described the core of their essence: “Kahit trabaho [ang pagiging ina], ang totoong nagmamahal ay ang babae. Hindi tinitingnan ang mga bagay-bagay na obligayson, dahil ang pinaka-core ng babae ay pagmamahal.”
Bagets The Musical runs from January 23 to March 2026 at the Newport Performing Arts Theater. A production of Newport World Resorts with Philippine STAR and VIVA communications, the show is staged by PETA plus. This show is also presented in cooperation with Sun Life Philippines.
Comments