“Next To Normal” is the opening salvo of The Sandbox Collective for 2025, right on the heels of its 10th anniversary season, with artistic director Toff de Venecia at the helm and musical direction by Ejay Yatco.

Opening tonight, February 1, at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Theater on Circuit Makati, it stars Shiela Valderrama-Martinez and Nikki Valdes alternating as Diana, a mother diagnosed with bipolar disorder, with OJ Mariano and Floyd Tena alternating as her husband Dan.

“Next to Normal” also features a set of young rising theater stars from Star Magic, who continue to make their mark in the local theater scene after breakthrough performances last year.

Sheena Belarmino

Nineteen-year-old Sheena Belarmino started acting in theater when she was only eight as she was growing up in her province of Cebu, where she was born. She started singing at a young age of four.

Her first play was “Nangabaling Sanga (Broken Branches),” back in Cebu followed by “The Lost Anthem.”

Belarmino uprooted to Manila when she was 10 and joined “Dance Kids,” where she became the youngest contender from the Visayas and made it to the quarterfinals. Lucky Aces, the duo of Lucky Anteater and AC Bonifacio, won the contest.

In 2017, Belarmino joined the first Tawag ng Tanghalan Kids (2017), ended up in the grand finals and landed in fourth place. She stunned the judges with her performance of Demi Lovato’s “Stone Cold,” that amassed more than 5 million votes. But it was John Clyde Talili who won that year. 

Belarmino subsequently joined “Your Face Sound Familiar Kids” (YFSF) Season 2 in 2018.

“That was where my performing skills were really harnessed when I impersonated a lot of artists,” she said.

She impersonated Popstar Royalty Sarah Geronimo and rendered “Tala,” which bagged her first win. The performance became viral and registered 9.8 million views on YouTube.

Her performance as KZ Tandingan earned her a top-trending spot on YouTube. She had a total of five wins, the most for a contestant, in the entire “YFSF” run. She finished fourth again, while the TNT Boys won the competition.

“I guess there’s something with fourth place for me,” Belarmino said. “That was close to heart. I got to love performing more when I joined ‘YFSF’.” 

In June 2021, Belarmino signed a contract with Star Magic along with more than 40 other new stars during the ABS-CBN Black Pen Day. 

Last year, she did “Tabing Ilog,” her first musical in Manila, where she played Eds de los Santos, originally essayed by Kaye Abad in the popular and widely-followed afternoon series.

“Before that, I did ‘One More Chance,’ the musical. Both with PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association),” she said. 

Belarmino dreams of one day making it in Broadway. “I want to play Eurydice in ‘Hadestown’,” she said. “That’s my dream role. It’s a beautiful story. Eva Noblezada earlier starred in ‘Hadestown’ both in West End and Broadway.”

She was invited to join the invitational auditions for “Next to Normal,” where she plays the daughter Nathalie, alternating with Jam Binay.

“I had the idea of everything in the musical, what’s the plot,” she said. “I already came in emotionally prepared and ready for lots of crying. The role is not just heavy emotionally. We’re just six people moving onstage.”

Omar Uddin

Star Magic artist Omar Uddin was totally busy in 2024 with three theater projects that came one after the other. “The year was packed,” he proudly beamed.

He was in the cast of “Bar Boys,” “Mula sa Buwan,” and “Tabing Ilog.” The year before, he was in “Snow White” with Repertory Philippines, where he was one of the seven dwarves.

Uddin was only eight when he did his first straight play for Virgin Labfest, “Bata sa Bus Stop” with Jojo Cayabyab.

His stint in “Next To Normal” is the most challenging for him. He plays Henry (alternating with Davey Narciso), the boyfriend of Nathalie. 

“Most of the plays I’ve done in the past were musicals,” he said. “This ‘Next To Normal’ is a sung-through, so it will look like a straight play. I will have to make my choices very minimal, not too extravagant or exaggerated so I have to make it clear.

“While singing, I have to make it look like I’m just talking. I have four solos which will have Nathalie parts in some. The other songs are ensemble vocals, so I’ll be part of the background voices, as well.”

“Next To Normal” might just be the most difficult one Uddin has ever accepted for stage. “I need to contain myself from very big acting from the musical stage,” he said.

He was invited to also audition for the role. “There weren’t too many auditionees late last year,” he said. “Fortunately, I got in.”

The American musical, with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, was first staged in 2008. “It was not too much known in the Philippines yet at that time,” he said. “When I listened to the songs on Spotify, I cried. 

“But when people got to see it, it becomes their favorite musical because of how beautiful the story is written and how it remains relevant until now. 

“That’s why it’s nice that they are doing this musical again and again to remind people this story that we are doing is actually happening in real life.”

At 17-year-old and at the verge of being an adult – he’s turning 18 this March – a play like “Next To Normal” undoubtedly appeals to Uddin. 

“It’s really nice that I learn a lot from plays that are serious,” admitted Uddin, who’s the youngest in a brood of five. “It’s nice to know more about this play because I’m a very curious person.”

Uddin expressed his desire to appear on TV one day. “I tried auditioning for teleseryes before, but mostly, Star Magic asks me to audition for musical theater, like when they asked me to audition for ‘Tabing Ilog’ and ‘Next To Normal’,” he said. 

“But when they ask me to audition for film or another teleserye, I just don’t get it,” he said. “But in due time, I guess.”

His dream role is to one day play the lead in a film, perhaps like the adult Simba in ‘The Lion King.” He previously played the young Simba in “The Lion King” that they presented in The Theater at Solaire in 2018.  

“Next time, maybe,” he smiled.

Vino Mabalot

Vino Mabalot alternates with fellow Star Magic artist Benedix Ramos for the role of Gabe Goodman in “Next To Normal.”

The first time the 24-year-old Mabalot heard about “Next To Normal” was with the Ateneo Blue Repertory staging in 2020. “Of that cast, there were Davy Narciso, Jam Binay and Jef Flores,” Mabalot said. “All of them were also in this cast. I didn’t know about the musical yet at that time.

“I realized when I joined this latest production, ‘Next To Normal’ was really serious, mabigat. It was an invite-only audition and it was the associate director (Mark Dalacat)) who invited me to join the rounds of audition.

First, Mabalot auditioned for Gabe and Henry in November last year. “I didn’t know about ‘Next To Normal’ so I was more excited than challenged,” Mabalot admitted. “I was just happy that I was doing this new theater project.” 

Since he also attends Ateneo de Manila University, Mabalot’s maiden musical was “The Addams Family,” with the Ateneo Blue Repertory. He was only 16 when he played Lucas, the love interest of Wednesday Addams.

After that experience, Mabalot’s theater projects “snowballed” and assignments came one after the other. He is still part of Star Magic, where he has done a few teleseryes, like “Viral Scandal” and “Huwag Kang Mangamba,” his pandemic projects.

“Aside from musicals, I started doing more straight plays,” he shared. “After ‘The Addams Family,’ I did ‘Batang Rizal’ for Ateneo Entablado in 2017. Next was an adaptation of a children’s play, ‘Ang Pitong Gunggong, (2018), another musical by Ateneo Entablado.

He joined “Fluid” by Floy Quintos (2014), “Dekada ’70: Isang Musikal” was his first professional theater experience (2020) before the pandemic started, then he was cast in “Tabing Ilog.” 

“I focused on theater and I have yet to finish my college course,” Mabalot said. “I took up Communications Technology, major in Management. I was in second year when I stopped, although I still plan to pursue my college course.

“I’m just trying to stay stable in my career and I still plan to finish college. That’s still part of my long-term goals to finish my education.”

Although he has done theater and TV, Mabalot expressed his desire to do full-length films. “I’ve done a few short films,” he said. “But film and TV are different creative processes which as still alien to me.” 

He also wants to experience the classics, like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” which is part of his bucket list. “I’m not sure if I can tackle a Shakespeare role already or I’m still too young for it. Eventually, that’s my goal. Shakespeare gives a different level of training to experience the classics.” 

He’s done one Shakespeare production, “Richard III,” directed by Anton Huang and the late Ricky Abad.

“I learned from my mentor (Ron Capinding) that 90 percent of acting is clarity,” said Mabalot. “Clarity of speaking, gesture and the text,” he maintained. “So far, he has been successful in doing that in his musicals and plays. 

“If I can say one thing about my performances and past musicals, my characters were clear. Aside from Sir Ron, I look up to Sir Jerry Respeto and other theater directors that I worked with when I was still in college.”

Benedix Ramos

While rehearsing for “Next To Normal,” Benedix Ramos had to excuse himself for a week to shoot a Taiwanese film with a working title that will be shown early next year.

He plays the son of Angel Aquino, an OFW. The film was shot in English, Tagalog and Hakka dialect spoken in Taiwan. 

An actor, singer-songwriter, commercial model, host and content creator managed by Star Hunt/Star Magic, Ramos joined “Pinoy Big Brother” in 2021. 

A vibrant theater talent, Ramos joined the cast of the hit musical adaptation, “Bar Boys,” where he essayed the role played by Carlo Aquino in the film version. Back in 2023, Ramos was cast in the re-run of “Ang Huling El Bimbo,” where he played the young Anthony. 

“That was my first theater experience,” Ramos said of “Ang Huling El Bimbo.” “I was an understudy although I never got the chance to sing and perform onstage. We had a principal cast.”

They were merely on standby and never got to go onstage even for one performance. “That was the job I signed up for, so that was fine with me. During that time, I was still very, very scared and unprepared,” he recalled. 

“Maybe God did it on purpose not to make me appear onstage. He knows I was not prepared yet. I was already 28 at that time.”

Ramos was admittedly not familiar with “Next To Normal” when he was first asked to audition last year.  

“I had to research about it and watched some clips for reference,” Ramos said. “I had to take some crash course for my role. I didn’t grow up watching theater plays since in the province in Pangasinan (Dagupan), there were no plays where I was born and raised.”

During the pandemic, Ramos was offered to do a six-part series in a boys’ love (BL) project directed by Carlo Obispo back in 2020. “I started acting then and I learned so much about acting,” Ramos said. “Our creatives there were very good. I got to love about acting.” 

One of his mentors was director Zig Dulay, who megged “Green Bones” (2024) and “Firefly” (2023). He uprooted to Manila also in 2020, then discovered Kumu and also became a housemate in “Pinoy Big Brother.”

He described his stint in “PBB” as life-changing. “I felt very fortunate to have that PBB experience and opportunity,” Ramos said. “I was inside Bahay ni Kuya for 57 days. From ‘PBB,’ so many doors have opened. After I went out of ‘PBB,’ my projects didn’t stop. 

“I feel blessed because even after I got out of the house, I got constantly busy. I got to venture into a lot of different things. I was able to try theater.

“After a month when I got out of the house, I got my first teleserye with Dreamscape, ‘Love in Forty Days,’ with Lisa (Andalio) and Ronnie (Alonte).” 

In theater, Ramos hopes to play the lead in “Dear Evan Hansen,” his dream role.  

“It’s so nice to say that the story revolves around your character,” Ramos said. “That’s one of my dreams.”