Joaquin Pedro Valdes on starring in ‘Percy Jackson’ musical, meeting Judi Dench
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino actor Joaquin Pedro Valdes threw caution to the wind when he left his lucrative theater career in the Philippines in 2018 to try his luck in the United Kingdom as part of the touring ensemble of “Miss Saigon.” But it was a risk that has handsomely paid off for the seasoned theater star, who has since become one of the West End’s busiest and most prolific leading men.
If we go by his body of work in the six years that followed since he and his wife, lawyer Agee Romero-Valdes, moved to London, it’s easy to see why Joaquin’s string of successes can hardly be perceived as a fluke.
After all, no other homegrown Filipino theater performer has been a more regular recipient of colorblind casting than Joaquin, booking back-to-back roles that are traditionally given to Caucasian or West End-bred performers.
After his stint with “Miss Saigon,” for instance, Joaquin hit the ground running with roles in “The King and I,” “Fanny and Stella,” “Heathers: The Musical,” “Vanara The Legend,” “Killing The Cat,” “The Lion King,” “A Song of Songs” and the star-studded “Then, Now & Next.”
Even splashier were the projects that followed, including his career-boosting lead roles in “Death Note: The Musical,” Stephen Sondheim’s “Pacific Overtures” and Stephen Schwartz’s “The Baker’s Wife” — which wrapped up its run at the Menier Chocolate Factory last month.
For any theater practitioner, whether in London or New York, getting cast in 12 productions in six years is no easy feat.
But Joaquin refuses to rest on his laurels. Beginning next month, he will be seen in “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical,” set to open at The Other Palace on Nov. 22 until Feb. 2.
“I play Luke Castellan, the lead character’s main nemesis, who is the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods in Greek mythology,” disclosed Joaquin in an exclusive interview with The Philippine STAR conducted over dinner when he and Agee came home for a visit recently. “It’s a brand-new production based on the 2005 novel by Rick Riordan. It had a limited Broadway run just before COVID (in 2019) and will be making its London premiere in November with a new director-choreographer (Lizzi Gee of ‘Groundhog Day’).”
Aside from Joaquin, the rock musical also stars Max Harwood (from the film “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” and the prequel play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow”) as Percy, Scott Folan as Grover and Jessica Lee as Annabeth.
Riordan’s book was first adapted for the big screen in 2010 via “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief,” featuring a stellar cast that included Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Rosario Dawson, Uma Thurman and Logan Lerman in the title role.
“It’s like Harry Potter set against the backdrop of Greek mythology,” explained Joaquin. “In the story, Percy is this dyslexic teenage guy who always gets expelled from school to school. Trouble follows him wherever he goes.
“Percy was raised by his mom, who’s married to his abusive stepdad. He doesn’t know who his biological father. He wants to do well in school, but the only subject he’s interested in is Greek mythology.
“For some reason, weird things begin to happen at school. Teachers become monsters — and he’s not sure if it’s all just in his head! As it turns out, Percy soon learns that he’s really a demigod, the son of Poseidon, god of the sea.
“When Zeus accuses Percy of stealing his lightning bolt, his mom Sally and best friend Grover Underwood take him to a secret camp for demigods like him. Suddenly, Percy’s inexplicable life begins to make sense. But he only has two weeks to find Zeus’ missing lightning bolt and stop the impending war among the gods of Mount Olympus.”
While the three-week trip back to Manila was a welcome breather for the actor, it was also bookended by gigs that aren’t merely part of his career strategizing — they’re projects, he said, that keep him perpetually on his toes as a theater artist.
To demonstrate, just three days before his flight back to Manila on Sept. 26, Joaquin headlined a one-night theatrical concert called “The House of Edgar,” where he was cast as Edgar Allan Poe’s rival Rufus Griswold.
The darkly intriguing production weaves the author’s most famous stories — including “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” — into a mysterious new tale.
Then, upon his return to London, Joaquin immediately began rehearsing for “The Lightning Thief.” How prolific can you get?
Another thing that recently generated excitement from theater aficionados was Joaquin’s photo with Dame Judi Dench after a performance of “The Baker’s Wife.”
Asked how that enviable snapshot came about, the actor said it happened as a consequence of his participation in the Schwartz musical.
“What I find more fulfilling these days is not just getting lead roles or the noise around them,” he asserted. “Having done what I’ve done so far, what’s even more satisfying for me now is good work or good colleagues.
“My favorite work so far is being in ‘The Baker’s Wife’ because everyone in its cast is a master (at what he or she does). And part of the ensemble is a character named Hortense, played by Finty Williams — a phenomenal actor who also happens to be the daughter of Judi Dench.
“Finty and I immediately clicked on the first day of rehearsals. I think she also saw in me my genuine love for the craft. That’s probably what connected us. She hosted lunch for the whole cast at her mom’s house, where Dame Judi served us coffee! She lives in this lovely medieval fairy tale cottage just outside London.”
Speaking of Joaquin’s passion and love for craft, this intimation didn’t come as a surprise to this writer because we directed the actor in the musical “Into the Woods” and the straight play “The Male Voice” in 2007 and 2010, respectively, for Monique Wilson’s New Voice Company.
We asked Joaquin what it was like for a Filipino theater star like him to start from scratch and work his way up from the chorus in another country where nobody knows who he is.
“You know, I didn’t make the final cut when I auditioned for ‘Miss Saigon’ in 2016,” he recounted. “That was a big reality check for me. But after that, I realized that it wasn’t being in ‘Saigon’ that I really wanted — it was to be an actor in any capacity. It was very hard, but I’ve grown so much from all the challenges. I wouldn’t do it any other way!”
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