Lara Maigue and Gian Magdangal return with new edition of ‘The Greatest Duets’

MANILA, Philippines — Who is not in love with movie themes? In one way or another, people definitely love a song from the movies.

That is what artists Lara Maigue and Gian Magdangal will collaborate onstage in “The Greatest Duets: Special Screening” at the Gateway Cineplex, the biggest one with 400 seats. Last year, the duo presented “The Greatest Duets Goes Broadway” at Teatrino in Greenhills.

“What makes this new concert interesting is that it will be held in a movie theater, giving the audiences a dose of live movie songs in an actual movie house,” Lara said. “The first one in November last year was a sold-out show. So, we promised a bigger and better show.”

“We are so lucky that A-Team is producing our second ‘The Greatest Duets,’ but this time, our director came up with ‘Special Screening,’ because the theme is movie musicals and songs from the movies in a movie theater,” she added.

The one-night only concert date is slated on Aug. 30 at the Gateway 2 Cineplex in Cubao, Quezon City.

The concert will be one night only since Gian is flying the next day to Singapore for the Southeast Asian premiere of the musical, “Dear Evan Hansen” at Victoria Theater. He will be away until November.

Lara, meanwhile, will also fly to Singapore on Sept. 27 and 28 to perform with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at the Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, with Gerard Salonga conducting.

“Our core is musical theater, Broadway and classical,” offered Lara. “The concert will be a fusion of movies that became musicals or musicals that became movies. We have same songs from our last concert because they were successful movies. People love ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and the movie was such a hit.”

When they recently uploaded their duet of “Phantom of the Opera,” the video garnered more than 100,00 views after only one day.

“The song is powerful and people like it, so it’s exciting how we’re going to do the song in a movie theater,” said Lara.

One of Gian’s favorite duets is “A Million Dreams,” from “The Greatest Showman,” where the song was originally rendered as a duet.

The couple is very hands-on with their set list for “Special Screening,” carefully chosen with their concert director, Paolo Bustamante and musical director Chuck Joson.

“There are so many beautiful duets,” said Gian. “It’s so hard to trim the songs down. When we are lining up the repertoire, that was how ‘The Greatest Series’ came about.”

“We want more people to see the repertoire that we did the last time, so 50 percent of the songs will also be included in this new one. They will still like this new one. There are definitely more songs,” added he.

Some of the beautiful duets that will make it to their set list and are close to the artists’ hearts include “Moulin Rouge,” “West Side Story,” “Les Miserables,” tunes from “Evergreen,” “Dirty Dancing,” “Despicable Me” and more.

“There are beautiful lyrics from ‘The Godfather’s’ theme and we will do that,” granted Lara. “There’s an English and Italian version and we are both doing that.”

Yet, they both insisted there is a “big difference” when they render Broadway tunes and pop songs.

Lara and Gian proudly came from parents who are music teachers. Gian’s mom is a piano and music teacher all her life, while Lara’s parents are both professors at the UP College of Music.

“Broadway songs have a longer story to tell,” informed Lara. “But the beauty of pop is also different, especially when you belt.”

“Every time we sing a Broadway song, it’s as if we were given an exam. It’s not like a karaoke song. You can’t just sing a Broadway song. You need to prepare before you can render it. We want to sing more Broadway duets. We want that to be our challenge also,” said she.

They are reserving OPM (Original Pilipino Music) love songs for another concert, ideally on Valentine’s Day. “That will be for something special,” said Gian. “Our main goal is to make ‘The Greatest Duets’ thematic every time and highlight OPM.”

Their special guests on Aug. 30 will be Regine Velasquez and Ogie Alcasid, “the greatest duets of the country,” beamed Lara. The couple will be doing their share of movie themes, too.

“They are very, very generous to say yes and give their nod to us,” said Lara. “That’s exciting.”