Rachel gets her heart’s desire in Avenue Q

Avenue Q has been an amazing journey for Rachel Alejandro. It started when she first saw it on Broadway a few years ago. I remember her being all agog over the musical long after we had left the theater. On the other hand, I was so jet lagged I dozed off in parts  despite the fact that it was very entertaining. Laughter, loud giggles and applause broke out at intervals and would wake me up. Rachel says in moments when I was awake, I would repeatedly say to her, “Oh my — this is so you.”

And I guess just like in the book The Secret  when our mind and hearts make a strong wish and clearly call out our desire, it does come to us sooner or later. So late last year, Atlantis Productions director Bobby Garcia asked me what Rachel’s schedule would be like this year. As I know Rachel always prioritizes theater projects, I told him we would adjust if the project were something Rachel wanted to do. He said, “We are doing Avenue Q and I would like Rachel to audition for Kate Monster/Lucy the Slut.”

A slight problem occurred when by the time auditions were set; Rachel was away in the US performing in shows. But with the advent of new easy technology and a site called YouTube, Bobby asked Rachel if she could sing two songs from the musical and post them on YouTube. Now it just so happened that I had just given Rachel a digital camera that made it quite simple to shoot a video of her on mpeg direct to the memory card of the camera which she  could then just as easily insert in her laptop that already had the memory card slot. However easy it may sound for most people, for the technology-challenged Rachel, it still seemed quite overwhelming. I was in Manila and therefore unable to assist her.

Again, the heart’s wish makes all things possible and “technology- challenged” Rachel got to record the two songs and post them on YouTube which Bobby immediately accessed and declared that Rachel would get the double role of Kate/Lucy. In fact Bobby was so impressed with Rachel’s virtual auditions that he sent it to a colleague of his — a New York casting director for Franco Dragone (he directed Celine Dione’s Las Vegas Cirque d Soleil concert series and many Cirque shows) who was looking for the lead female for his new musical — an adaptation of the opera Carmen. After previewing Rachel’s virtual  YouTube appearances, the NY caster invited Rachel to audition for Dragone in Los Angeles. This would have been a unique opportunity for Rachel. Bobby and I were rooting for her to do the audition. But Rachel’s heart was really into Avenue Q. The dates conflicted with Avenue Q’s schedule and she simply would not trade it. Once again, the heart knows best because in the end Dragone decided to postpone his Carmen project simply saying it still needed work.

On the first day of rehearsals of Avenue Q sometime in July, when the performers met their puppets and took the puppet workshops, it was an excruciatingly painful experience for Rachel. She was in tears by the end of the day when she called me.  “The puppets are too heavy. I can’t even handle it for more than  five minutes. How will I survive this?”

Now for those of us who know Rachel so well, we know that she is a perfectionist and always gets ahead of herself in these matters. And we also all know that in the end, she will work it out. And she did, slowly and painstakingly she managed and with the help of the puppet masters, her directors Bobby Garcia and Chari Arespacochaga, they learned how to sing, act and manipulate a puppet all at the same time. Rachel also spent more time in the gym strengthening her arms and hands with weights.

By the time I attended rehearsals, the cast had pretty much had the puppeteering down pat. And Rachel was a happy camper. She just loved being at rehearsals and with a cast that has now become extended family for her.

From the press preview last Sept. 13 and all the performances that followed it was just one miraculous performance after the other. Word of mouth spread like wildfire. Lots of online blogs sprouted spreading the word that there was magic in the RCBC theater — the raunchy and sometimes racist puppets were taking Manila by storm! Each and every cast member received glowing notices and thunderous applause at every performance. Thanks to the generous support of sponsors such as The Philippine STAR, Avenue Q became a must-see hit!

And once again Avenue Q returns to the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati  up to Dec. 23. Rachel will once again be joined by a wonderfully talented cast — Aiza Seguera, Frenchie Dy, Felix Rivera, Rycharde Everley, Teenee Chan and Joel Trinidad. Tickets are fast selling out, so call Atlantis Productions at 892-7078, 840-1187 or Ticketworld at 891-9999 to reserve them now!