Colma: The Musical Rocks

COLMA: THE MUSICAL is a quirky coming-of age tale that rocks.

COLMA: THE MUSICAL rocks!

Director Richard Wong and screenwriter/composer/actor H.P. Mendoza have created an infectious, quirky coming-of-age tale that rocks with 13 musical numbers, featuring all original music and lyrics by Mendoza, who also plays Rodel in the film. The songs provide a tight narrative for this thoroughly original take on suburban malaise. I liked it even more the second time around.

The opening scenes of downtown San Francisco and the drive out to Colma, a San Francisco suburb where the dead outnumber the living, set the scene for best buddies Rodel, Maribel, and Billy. In Colma, a suburb most noted for its cemeteries, this trio of recent high school grads are trying to figure out what they are going to do with the rest of their lives. Billy (Jake Moreno) is an aspiring thespian and gets cast in a musical which he tries to juggle with his mall job. Rodel (H.P. Mendoza), the writer, cant come out to his dad. Maribel (L.A. Renigen) just wants to get laid. While crashing college parties and scoring fake IDs to get drunk, they burst out in song in bars and graveyards, as they navigate new loves and fractured family relationships.

COLMA: THE MUSICAL unspools at New York's Quad Cinema on Friday, July 6, 2007, and plays through Thursday, July 12, 2007, at The Embarcadero Cinema Center in San Francisco.

New York
Friday, July 6, 2007
New Yorks Quad Cinema
34 W. 13th St.
Buy Tickets in New York

San Francisco
Through Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Embarcadero Cinema Center
One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level
Buy Tickets in San Francisco

COLMA: THE MUSICAL Trailer
COLMA: THE MUSICAL Official Website