•Alicia Keys at MOA Nov. 25 •Curtain call for Behn, 74

BREAKING NEWS: Multi-Grammy winner and R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys will perform in a major concert at the Mall Of Asia (MOA) Arena on Nov. 25, this was announced by Ovation Productions, the producer.

The one-night show will be produced by Blackberry. Tickets priced at P13,200, P10,560, P8,976, P5,808, P4,725, P3,696 and P1,056 will be on sale starting tomorrow, Aug. 17, available at all SM ticket outlets or online at www.smtickets.com.

Widely recognized also as a pianist, record producer and actress, Keys is behind such best-sellers as If I Ain’t Got You, No One, Empire State Of Mind, Girl On Fire, Fallin’, Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart, among others.

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Two months ago when, as one of the 11 recipients, he received his Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) during the 2013 UP Alumni-Faculty Homecoming and Reunion, Benjamin “Behn” Cervantes (AB 1962) was on a wheelchair but he looked very happy.

“I was there with some of our close friends,” actress Lollie Mara told Funfare Update, “I told Behn, ‘Magpagaling ka because we will have a big celebration on your birthday.’ He answered, ‘Yes, of course!’ Then I gave him a hug.”

Behn didn’t live long enough to share that planned big celebration set for Aug. 26 when he would have turned 74. Yesterday morning at 10, he succumbed to pneumonia at the Asian Hospital.

A diabetic on insulin (one time, he had to be confined at the Philippine General Hospital when he suffered from hypoglycemia [low blood sugar]), Behn, according to Lollie, had been in and out of the hospital, the last time having been four weeks ago when he was rushed to the ICU with pneumonia. He recovered and after the respirator was removed, he was transferred to a private room. He got well enough to be brought to his sister’s home in nearby Las Piñas City but then he suffered a relapse  and brought back to the ICU.

“I visited him early yesterday morning and I kept talking to him even when he had his eyes closed and he had difficulty breathing,” added Lollie, fighting back tears. “But I knew he was listening and I told him, ‘I love you, Behn!’ He pressed my hand in response.”

Those were also Behn’s last words to Lollie during that UP event. When Lollie hugged him and told him, “I love you!”, Behn flashed a weak smile and replied, “I love you, too!”

A multi-awarded actor and director (he megged the 1976 social-realist film Sakada), Behn, together with the late Lino Brocka (also a UP graduate) was active at the forefront of the anti-Marcos protest movement during the 14-year dictatorship.

In one of his last interviews, published in The STAR, Behn told writer Pablo Tariman, “My elder sisters made me recite a line that went, ‘I shot an arrow into the air’ on top of our parents’ large iron bed which served as stage during our Saturday performances for our neighbors in Iloilo. That was my theatrical debut. I also sang in our version of the cherubim choir in our Protestant Church in La Paz, Iloilo. Yes, I started early!”

More excerpts from Tariman’s story:

Behn’s first play was Hay Fever performed in Central Methodist Church in what is now T.M. Kalaw. In the cast was Eleanor “Didi” Reyes, the youngest sister of Norman Reyes, the youthful radio announcer who witnessed (with Leon Ma. Guerrero and Raul Manglapus) the Fall of Bataan. “After a couple of plays like A Happy Journey from Trentonto Camden by Thorton Wilder and Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliott in the UP Dramatic Club, I directed a scene from Mister Roberts. Cast as Ensign Pulver was Lino Brocka. I had an auspicious beginning as a director, I must say.”

As a student, he said he bravely directed Lawani, an original musical, Idiot’s Delight, A Hatful of Rain and The Play Is the Thing.

When he returned from the United States, he turned to Broadway musicals like Bye Bye Birdie, Once Upon a Mattress, Guys and Dolls and the first production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Soon after, he became an activist and directed Theatre in the Streets and Theatre of Protest. “I continued to direct such plays after Martial Law was declared and received an A-B-C-B Degree for plays as Pagsambang Bayan, Sigaw ng Bayan and Estados Unidos versus Juan Matapang Cruz and other Ibagsak plays. By the way, ABCB stands for Aguinaldo, Bicutan, Crame and Bonifacio, the military camps I was detained throughout those years.”

As of presstime yesterday afternoon, Lollie still wasn’t sure where the wake will be held.

“What I know is that his wish is to be cremated,” said Lollie.

Johanna Datul ready for Miss Supranational 2013 contest

2013 Bb. Pilipinas-Supranational Mutya Johanna Datul has come a long way from being “simpleng probinsyana na may matayog na pangarap” to being the country’s bet in the 2013 Miss Supranational to be held on Sept. 6 in Belarus where the reigning title-holder Ekaterina Buraya hails from.

At the send-off last Tuesday at the Gloria Maris restaurant at Gateway Mall, the 21-year-old 5’8” stunner (Miss Photogenic and Best in Long Gown at the Bb. Pilipinas pageant) told the media, “I am overwhelmed and excited to represent the Philippines.”

The battle-ready Mutya has undergone rigid training including lessons on the culture and general information about Belarus, gym sessions, pasarela lessons, and language and personality development classes to television guestings, ramp shows, photo shoots and various appearances at high-profile events. She’s the first binibini to compete overseas this year. 2013 Bb. Pilipinas-Universe Ariella Arida will compete in the Miss Universe Pageant in Russia on Nov. 9.

—Text and photo by CELSO DE GUZMAN CAPARAS