From the circus we made it back to the Resorts World complex with enough time for dinner at the Pancake House. Despite its name, the place has many decent offerings besides pancakes. We were in our seats at the Newport Performing Arts Theater in what would normally be “on time” but early for “Filipino time”. I was able to take photos before the rest of the audience filtered in.
I have never been a big fan of Martin Nievera. But this time I decided to see him because he was going to do the old standards as a “Tribute” to legends like Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, The Beatles. And we were at the right place at the time. The theater has a nice ambience and is just the right size for a solo concert. Even the last row in the balcony has a good vantage point He opened with a string of Sinatra hits, done a la Michael Buble. After that he could have done no wrong.The stage director did an excellent job. Lighting, scene changes, props, projected backdrop, all went on cue seamlessly. A surprise guest was his son Robin, who regaled the audience with his own style of music-electric guitar and vocals.He almost brought the house down, and would have done so by himself, except that his father joined him and the two built up to a crescendo and ended that set to thunderous applause.
It was a very pleasant evening. Afterwards we strolled around and posed for souvenir photos. The place was bustling with the after-theater crowd. There are a lot of upscale stores and trendy restaurants. The movie theaters are open 24/7 on weekends.
Earlier in the evening Neil Pinarok, a close family friend, had joined us for the concert. With him and Boc I stayed a few more hours at the Resorts World casino to try my luck. Neil won P500 which he split with Boc. Big time gamblers! Just before 3:00 am we walked through a connecting corridor to our rooms at the Marriott. Sound asleep in no time. Could not even soak in the bathtub like we planned. Another big day on the morrow.
