Gabby hobbled by miscasting in his first TV drama
By Nestor Torre
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:35:00 05/09/2008
MANILA, Philippines—For weeks now, comebacking star Gabby Concepcion has been lionized by fans and media alike. He’s been the subject of so many interviews that he’s begun to repeat himself. All the while, we’ve been asking the key question: How good is Gabby now as an actor? Answered glowingly in the positive, the long-absent actor’s comeback would be felicitous, indeed. Answered sadly in the negative, it would make people wonder: What’s all the fuss over Gabby about, then?
Key question
We were impatient because Gabby’s handlers took such a long time before providing the thespic occasion to answer that key question. Recently on “Maala-ala Mo Kaya?,” however, Gabby stopped talking and started acting, and we finally got the answer we needed.
So, is Gabby Concepcion an outstanding actor, or not? Read on:
We were impressed to see that ABS-CBN’s premier drama anthology show had surrounded Gabby with some of the best talents in the business—costars Tirso Cruz III, Ana Capri and Rio Locsin, plus topnotch production and creative artists.
Script
The script was too talky and declarative, but was otherwise dramatically absorbing. It cast Gabby as a family driver whose boss, Tirso, was a philanderer who plied Gabby’s character with all sorts of “incentives” for him to cover up for him when his wife, played by Rio, suspected him of womanizing, etc.
Gabby did it for his wife (Ana) and their kids, but he became so corrupted by Tirso’s bribes that his own marriage was threatened. In addition, when all of Tirso’s sins were exposed, he lashed out at Gabby, reminding him of all the benefits he’d derived from their “parasitical” relationship.
The entire drama was generally compelling, and the lead actors turned in felt and textured performances. Unfortunately, Gabby’s achievement was less than sterling, because he was miscast as a family driver.
Granted, there may be a few family drivers out there who look and come across like Gabby Concepcion, but believable casting is a question of likelihood, not the exceptions that prove the rule.
Gabby tried his best to downplay his matinee-idol looks and temperament, and act like a simple, “ordinary” driver. But, not all the thespic prestidigitation in the world enabled him to subsume his stellar persona to be dramatically believable as a Filipino Everyman.
Possibilities
We wonder, therefore, why Gabby and his handlers chose this unlikely role, of all the many other thespic possibilities available to them, for his comeback acting vehicle on TV. It was like deciding to run a race with a sprained left ankle: The racer may be exceptionally fit, but how could he possibly think that he could win the race?
The fact that Gabby was not right for the role of a family driver was further underscored by the decision to cast Ana Capri as his wife. Ana is a gifted actress who’s acutely believable in “ordinary” roles, so her exceptional and acutely credible performance made Gabby’s miscasting all the more glaringly obvious.
Sensitivity
Finally, Gabby’s other costars, Tirso and Rio, were so good in their roles that they ended up acting circles around him.
This is by no means an indictment of Gabby’s innate acting talent. We could sense from his performance that he had the thespic intelligence and sensitivity to come up with an exceptional performance—only, it didn’t happen in this key instance, because he and his character couldn’t fuse together.
That really is too bad. The next time Gabby acts on the small or big screen, therefore, we hope that he will be much more judicious in choosing a role that’s dramatically right for him. To do otherwise would be to shoot himself in the foot—again.
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