First Name A New features today’s singing stars

MANILA, Philippines — The untimely, sudden death of theater and live concert icon Freddie Santos last Dec. 17 was grieved by many in the entertainment industry.

Born in Quezon City, Freddie in his younger years was a Rotex Scholar in Arvada West, Colorado, trained by David Helm in drama and Rex Nelson in music. His career highlighted his theater roots as a regular actor at Repertory Philippines. A prolific songwriter, he was best known for composing OPM hits like Points of View and Yakapin Mo Ako.

The veteran stage director, writer and producer had also mentored and directed successful concert artists in the ‘80s and ‘90s like Lea Salonga, Regine Velasquez, Gary Valenciano, Martin Nievera, The Tux, Raymond Lauchengco, Zsa Zsa Padilla, JoAnne Lorenzana, Gino Padilla, Vernie Varga, Ogie Alcasid, Janno Gibbs, Neo Colors, The Dawn, Joey Albert and the list goes on.

Prior to his passing at 64, his closest colleagues Audie Gemora and Butch Jimenez (heads of the theater company, TRUMPETS, Inc. where Freddie worked as director and playwright for many years) had already been preparing for a grand tribute documenting his life-long legacy in the field of entertainment, including his notable musicals like Joseph The Dreamer, Widows Orphans & Wildebeests, Sabel: Love & Passion, Il Divino and So David.

Butch’s eldest son, Miguel Jimenez, who now runs the fairly new music platform Stages Sessions, produced a weekly tribute for Freddie called The Fathers Festival. Since Nov. 7, 2020, Stages Sessions has been streaming throwbacks of direk Freddie’s works including one of his last collaborations with spoken word poet Juan Miguel Severo.

The Fathers Festival will culminate with First Name A New, a music-docu online show based on direk Freddie’s first written full-length musical, First Name, which was first staged at the Rizal Theater in 1989.

First Name A New will feature never-been-told stories about its music composers Gary Valenciano, Ogie Alcasid, RayAn Fuentes and TUX member Bob Serrano. It also highlights reimagined music performances from its soundtrack interpreted by today’s singing stars, Christian Bautista, Morissette, Sam Concepcion, Aicelle Santos, Jett Pangan, Bullet Dumas, Tim Pavino and Lance Busa with the special participation of Nanette Inventor.

Each performer directed separately by Dave Lamar, Carlo Orosa, Paolo Valenciano, Mo Zee, Daniel Cabrerra, Johann de la Fuente, Cathy Azanza-Dy with new music arrangements by Mon Faustino, Gary, Rony Fortich, Jeff Arcilla, John Apura, Bullet Dumas, Shiela Valderama-Martinez, Tippy Dos Santos, Gio Levy, Yuna Reguerra, Choi Padilla and Jungee Marcelo.

Tickets to First Name A New, produced by TRUMPETS, Inc., are available for P500. It will air on Feb. 27 and 28 via ABS-CBN’s KTX.PH.