Sweet dreams are made of these

At 18 years old, Julia Abueva has already achieved her dreams of performing in London’s West End, and she’s just getting started. Fall in love with Philippine theater’s newest darling.

For Julia Abueva’s 18th birthday, she got her only wish — to perform in London’s West End as part of the cast of the revival of the Broadway musical Miss Saigon.

For those who follow the world of theater closely, Julia is no stranger to it. She’s been performing since she was seven, being cast in around 15 musicals between Singapore and Philippines. Most recently, she played Cinderella in the Resorts World Manila production. She has also played roles in the hits Spring Awakening and Next to Normal. Now, she gets the biggest break of her life — as an alternate to play Kim in Miss Saigon.

Julia was only one of the thousands of girls who auditioned in the Philippines. But the producers of the show held open auditions all over the world. She says the suspense lasted one year before final announcements were made, and she confesses that she prayed every day for her dream to come true. “This is huge. This is Saigon we’re talking about and it’s the West End. This is my dream. I mean if you look at all my interviews when I was younger and they’d ask me, ‘What’s your dream?’ I’d always say to make it to the West End. And now… best 18th birthday present anyone could ask for,” says Julia all smiles, eyes gleaming with joy.

She recalls that her love for music may have been spurred by a near-death experience when she was younger. Once, a very high fever caused her to have a convulsion, and left her bedridden in the hospital. “My mom sang to me all day, because there was a possibility that I would have brain damage. Before that happened, I didn’t talk, I didn’t smile. And after surviving that, suddenly I was smiling. I would grab the microphone at parties and I’d want to sing. I got obsessed with the show Annie, I watched it every day.”

Julia was discovered singing at church. And then she was asked to perform at the Esplanade in Singapore, and everything else, she says, snowballed from there. “I grew up performing. I grew up literally in theater and on the stage. I’ve been so lucky to work with so many amazing people. When I was young I performed with Monique Wilson who also played Kim. After that it was Lea Salonga, who also played Kim. Joanna Ampil, also another Kim. Recently I performed in David Foster’s concert, I got to sing with Michael Bolton, which was very cool. It’s been amazing.”

West End couldn’t come at a more perfect time. Julia just graduated from high school in Singapore, and shares that college may need to be put on hold in the meantime, “because something like this doesn’t come along very often,” she says, laughing at the improbability of her passing up on this opportunity — ever. She speaks often about learning, one of the greatest treasures she has gained from the whole experience. Living in London for a year as part of the ensemble won’t be far from college, she says, because they will be housed all together, and working very hard every day. It’ll be like living in a dorm, she laughs, unable to hide her excitement. “A lot of people are looking forward to the revival, it hasn’t been done in a really long time. And there’s also a lot of new material. People are really interested to see what the new take is going to be about.”

I was lucky to have heard Julia sing through Swatch’s Tita Virgie Ramos, when Julia performed at the Swatch Christmas dinner just last December. Tita Virgie would speak about this raw talent who was going to be big real soon. We don’t often hear stories of little girls and their dreams coming true. It’s a rare tale, in fact. But for the certain lot, when it becomes a reality, we can believe once again that something as magical-bordering-on-absurd is not that detached from reality. Maybe because for young girls as sweet as Julia, it wasn’t a matter of the universe just handing it to her — she worked hard for it all her life, and now at 18, she finally gets what she deserves.