REVIEW: ‘We Aren’t Kids Anymore’ is a vocal showcase of millennial angst

REVIEW: ‘We Aren’t Kids Anymore’ is a vocal showcase of millennial angst

“Without a standard plot, characters, or spoken dialogue, Barefoot Theatre Collaborative’s musical expresses its anxieties about adult life and relationships entirely through song.”

 

By design, a song cycle like Barefoot Theatre Collaborative’s We Aren’t Kids Anymore asks not to be taken like a traditional musical. Without a standard plot, characters, or spoken dialogue, the production is built entirely around Drew Gasparini’s score—19 tracks (and one poem by Keith White) about the anxieties of adult life and relationships, performed by five actors playing different aspects of one person’s psyche on a generally nondescript set.

Within these limits, the show has fewer tools at its disposal to emphasize themes and deepen the connections between characters, which it attempts to do to varying degrees of success. However, the music at its core proves surprisingly potent, not only in keeping the production engaging, but in giving purpose to the form of the song cycle itself. The directness of how it’s staged and the candid way it’s performed allow We Aren’t Kids Anymore to use all its powerful singing as a cathartic release for these pent-up quarter-life hopes and fears. 

Simple and Immediate

The musical keeps things simple, with the action restricted to a raised, square stage in the round (production designed by Joey Mendoza), bordered by wooden benches, with pits in the middle for the show’s four-person band. D Cortezano’s lights also widen the sense of space by shining through the set and out to the surrounding audience. And while the few props that appear—a guitar, music studio equipment, a swing descending from the ceiling—feel purely ornamental without much personality, the bare stage still gives the impression that these five parts of Gasparini’s brain are trapped here until they can finally come to some sort of mutual understanding.

The simplicity of the set and the placement of the musicians also resolves an issue that has burdened other productions at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Theater: for once, the sound (designed by Aron Roca) is full and clear, and the music mix is as balanced as it deserves to be. This lets Myke Salomon and Farley Asuncion’s musical direction show off the full scope of the score’s contemporary pop-rock foundations and musical theater flourishes. But the sound design also brings a real immediacy to these songs, charging them with urgency even when these five personalities sing about specific and potentially unfamiliar American middle-class experiences.

Challenges of the Form

However, whenever each song ends, We Aren’t Kids Anymore can’t help but find itself back at arm’s length. As dynamic as Rem Zamora’s direction of the musical numbers is (with the cast frequently acting as one, leaping around with Jomelle Era’s playful movement design), the interludes between songs often feel like waiting time rather than important moments in themselves. There are instances when some unspoken tension clearly hangs in the air, like in Salomon’s tentative paces toward Luigi Quesada’s character, or in Gio Gahol’s constant fidgeting with his lighter. But these moments never accumulate into something more; they’re overpowered every time another song starts.

Establishing a cohesive arc through the score just seems to be part of the challenge of doing this kind of show. Still, even if these five characters don’t get complete personal journeys, the parts of themselves they reveal through song remain emotionally resonant because of how expressive Zamora lets them be when the music is in full swing. For example, group number “The Thing I Like Most About New York” takes out one’s frustration about the inertia of their life on the strangers around them. It’s pure, controlled chaos, the cast’s energy threatening to spill over the edges of the stage before snapping back to safety. 

Pushing the Limits

So if anything actually ties this musical together, it’s the rawness with which these actors sing Gasparini’s confessional, angry, self-loathing lyrics—and how each performer finds nuances for expressing them, no matter if the songs occasionally repeat the same ideas. Gahol’s voice rings out with remarkable clarity, even if it seems like he’s on the verge of panicked tears in songs like “I’m Not Falling for That.” Quesada brings humor and drama with unexpected range, most notably in the slow jazz of “I Wish I Never Met You.” And Salomon varies his tone and intonation to tell the story of a family through different perspectives (“Danny & Andrew,” “Little Sister,” “The Essence of George,” “Mom Could Play Guitar”).

But it’s ultimately Gab Pangilinan and Maronne Cruz who fully animate the production and take the score to places altogether healing. Pangilinan shows off her sheer vocal stamina by running laps during “On the Edge” and “Caught in a Loop,” refusing to break under the demands of the music; while Cruz’s vocal runs in “Turn the Page” and the title song transform her angst into something graceful, discovering her own path through the melodies. With five performers interpreting this score at such a high level throughout We Aren’t Kids Anymore, the limitations of the song cycle take on greater meaning. The more we’re reminded that this structure is all we’re getting from this musical, the more that the songs become an expression of wanting to break free—before accepting that, sometimes, we just have to grow up and move forward.

 

Tickets: P2700 – P3200
Show Dates: May 2–25 2025
Venue: Power Mac Center Spotlight Black Box Theater, Circuit Makati, Makati City
Running Time: approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes (without intermission)
Company: Barefoot Theatre Collaborative
Creatives: Drew Gasparin (Book and Lyrics, Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements), Justin Goldner (Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements), Keith White (Poetry), Rem Zamora (Direction), Myke Salomon (Musical Direction), Farley Asuncion (Musical Direction), Jomelle Era (Movement Direction), Joey Mendoza (Production Design), D Cortezano (Lighting Design, Technical Direction), Aron Roca (Sound Design)
Cast: Myke Salomon, Gab Pangilinan, Gio Gahol, Maronne Cruz, Luigi Quesada, Katrine Sunga, Gelo Lantaco