They do meet and when they fall in love, they fall real hard and end up in the altar.
Case in point: Ima Castro, 28, Filipina, and David Shannon (real surname: Greenway), 31, born in England and raised in Ireland.
Miss East and Mr. West met and matched during their stint on the Cameron Mackintosh musical Miss Saigon tour in Dublin in 2002. She played Kim and he, Chris. Unlike their characters torn apart by tragedy and circumstances beyond their control, Ima and David ended up in each other’s arms, happily ever after.
Both Catholic, they got married in civil rites on Oct. 26 last year in London and they’re getting married again in church on Feb. 21 at Villa Escudero (where Rudy Fernandez and Lorna Tolentino were married in 1994).
A theater veteran of more than 10 years, David, a deadringer for David Beckham, has done dozens of plays/musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar (as Christ), Notre Dame de Paris (as Gringoire), Les Miserables (as Marius) and the Andrew Lloyd Webber latest musical The Beautiful Game (as John) for which he was nominated as Best Actor in the Laurence Olivier Awards. He has also done TV shows and movies. It was David who closed Miss Saigon (with another Filipina, Joanna Ampil, as Kim) in l999 at London’s West End.
Born in Lucena City (she grew up in Tiaong), Ima started joining amateur singing contests at age 5. She got her big break when she won the 1991 Panasonic Quest for the Best nationwide competition where she was offered a recording contract by Polygram/Polycosmic even as she represented the Philippines in the International Laser Karaoke Contest in Osaka, cited as Best Singer. She also won as Best Interpreter at the First Asia Song Festival in Bali. Her stint as Kim in Miss Saigon followed, lasting for three years, first performing in Hong Kong and Singapore before she went to the United Kingdom.
The courtship was done via texting and through other Filipinos in the Miss Saigon ensemble because, according to Ima, "David was too shy to directly talk to me," even if, David confessed, "I fell in love with her at first sight." David had had several girlfriends before he met Ima. David is Ima’s first boyfriend.
"He was a persistent suitor," said Ima who offered David the best gift any woman could give to her husband – her innocence on their wedding night. "It was my first time to be away from home for so long and I was getting homesick, so I learned to play mahjong to while away my free time with my kababayan there. To be close to me, David also learned to play mahjong."
Ima got over her initial misgivings (that David was a womanizer, etc.) when she realized how thoughtful and patient and honest he was. He was a gentleman, too, and he never took advantage of Ima during their onstage kissing scene, unlike other actors playing Chris who, said Ima, "would put out their tongue during our love scenes."
David proposed marriage to Ima on March 22 last year, his birthday.
Their civil wedding was held at the Dock Gate 4 where passengers of the ill-fated Titanic stayed on the eve of their doomed voyage. More than 150 guests came, including their cast-mates from Miss Saigon. A vintage car from the National Motor Museum served as their wedding vehicle, lent to them and driven by Lord Montagu, a committee member of the theater where Miss Saigon was being staged.
After their wedding, Ima (youngest of five children and the family breadwinner) and David (younger of two brothers) will settle down in the Philippines where they hope to continue their theater careers.
Asked why he wasn’t attracted to other Filipino girls in Miss Saigon, David smiled. "They were not her."
Told that there are dozen and dozens of pretty Filipinas back home, David smiled, "But I married one of them!"
Reacting to that, Ima broke into a hearty laughter.
"Ang haba ng buhok ko, ‘no!"
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)