9 meow-rific musings from Lea Salonga

MANILA, Philippines - Even before Arnel Pineda toured with Journey and before Charice sang on Oprah, we Filipinos have found inspiration and pride in our very own Broadway sensation Lea Salonga. The Tony- Award-winning show-stopper is probably the Manny Pacquiao of musicals, with her very own version of “championship belts.” At the age of 17, the Filipina thespian bagged the lead role of Kim in the international megahit musical Miss Saigon, where she bagged international awards such as the Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and the Theatre World Awards. That is one crazy lineup. After almost 20 years of her international career when her singing voice in Disney’s Aladdin and Mulan became our usual last song syndrome and when she sang On My Own as the character Epinone in Les Miserables In Concert, Lea finally comes back on stage, in her very own home court, with another iconic role to play. 

Perhaps, this time, her character’s face will stick in our minds. Lea Salonga comes on stage in the form of a feline as she plays lead in one of the greatest musicals of all time, Cats. Coming in July 2010, Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, David Atkins Enterprises, Concertus, and All Youth Channels, in cooperation with The Really Useful Company Asia Pacific, will bring the soul-shaking Andrew Lloyd Webber creation to the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo. Imagine a grand pride of production with cast, stage design, and costume that made Cats the king of Broadway and West End. Unlike any other musical, Cats was based on TS Elliot’s book of poems Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats which appeals to children of all ages. The play, on the other hand, illustrates the personified lives of a tribe of Jellicle Cats gathering at their annual Jellicle Ball (Now, we feel like dancing to the tune). And then, there’s the famous character, Grizabella (played by Lea Salonga), who sings the song standard “Memory.”  

Imagine this: Lea singing the classic popularized by Barbra Streisand. We just had to talk to the international trouper. So, if you had 10 minutes with the greatest Filipina thespian, what would you ask her? Find out what Lea has to say on her role, on acting, and on theater. 

1. “The more grounded you are, the more that the audience will believe — lashed on to whatever it is you’re doing. If you’re doing it truthfully and honestly, then it will be something of an experience for an audience so I have to try and get into the character’s head and work from that way and see how she behaves, see how the people will behave towards her,” she reflects on her acting.

2. “[One big scene] is only 12 minutes, but it’s 12 minutes worth of being hated and then finally loved at the very end. But it’s a lot of emotional baggage. You carry that for how ever long during the show. And I was watching them in the DVD and I said, ‘Oh that’s a really touching moment!’”

3. “Grizabella is a character that’s an outcast, a character who’s hated, and someone who’s just stoned about and disregarded. She’s someone who’s just not liked at all. And when everybody else finally gets to accept her after she makes her plea, then it’s a wonderful moment at the very end of the show.”

4. The actress sees enjoyment in playing characters that are so far away from who she is. “To play somebody who’s very similar to you is not particularly exciting. It’s much more exciting to take on the skin of someone who’s so different, a complete 180 degrees from you, and allow yourself to move in those shoes for a little while,” she explains.

5. “When you’re doing someone dark, someone damaged, you [have] got to wonder, ‘What have made them as damaged as they are?’ It’s a challenge too. You can be an emotional wreck at the end of every show.”

6. And then, we asked her about Philippine theater. The veteran actress shares her thoughts: “There are a lot of really wonderful people that have really come up and have emerged in the industry. But having said that, there are also a lot of mediocre actors. To get to the ones who are really wonderful, you have to just kind of wade through whoever’s just ‘blah’ to get to the ones who are really, really golden. Forever in this industry, it’s all good to wade through mediocrity to be able to get through the real gem.”

7. And do we lack productions in the Philippines? “I think it’s not much of the production. The resources are limited so I have to really applaud and give kudos to those who are able to make do with nothing. Those who are able to create something out of literally nothing.”

8. “I watched Sweeney Todd and they were telling me about Gino Gonzales who created his costumes. [Based on] the story that some of the members of the cast were telling me, they were saying that he literally went into a warehouse of a lot of the Rep costumes that were no longer wearable. He pieced a lot of them together.

9. So what does our local industry need?

“Money. Really, because we’re not lacking in artists. We’re not lacking in people who can sing, dance, act, design costumes.. What we lack is money.”

Now that’s one cool cat.

Whether you’re a “Persian cat”  or a practical pusakal, you’ll be able to afford the show as tickets are priced from P750 to P7,000. Log on to www.ticketworld.com or call 891-9999.