A group of Filipino prisoners who just want to dance are the central characters in a new musical. Romeo Candido‘s Prison Dancer, which is beginning a limited run at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, is based on a viral YouTube video that has picked up nearly 60 million views since 2007.
Prison Dancer is co-created by Candido and Carmen Leilani De Jesus and directed by Nina Lee Aquino. The musical’s star, Julio Fuentes, is also credited as its choreographer. According to CBC News, the new show is the first musical fully created by a group of Filipino-Canadians.
“I thought it was a no-brainer — I thought other people were going to write a musical about this,” Candido told CBC News. “I just thought it was ripe for storytelling.”
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The “no-brainer” in question is a timeless viral video that was first uploaded by creator bryanfgarcia. The video handed the spotlight to 1,500 inmates from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, who performed a tight, choreographed routine set to Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller“. In 2010, Time named the video as one of YouTube’s 50 greatest hits.
To turn a viral smash into a full-length musical, Candido composed 50 songs, 13 of which ended up in the final version of Prison Dancer. Thanks to funding from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, Candido and his team visited the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in order to study the setting of their show.
An early iteration of Prison Dancer took the form of a 12-episode web series that hit YouTube in 2012. A concert and a regional production in New York followed after that. A decade after the launch of the web series, Candido premiered a stage version of the show at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. Prison Dancer‘s national run in Ottawa began on November 23.
Prison Dancer will continue its limited Ottawa run until December 2. Thus far, reviewers have praised Candido’s project as an ode to the rehabilitative power of dance.
