Life After BROADWAY

It has been eight years since I last worked with Lea Salonga. The show then was Grease. She played Sandy and I was one of the gang of girls, Jan. I remember watching her one rehearsal and marveling at her concentration, focus and discipline. She came into rehearsals almost like she rehearsed ahead of us. She knew her lines and everybody else’s too. She knew the music in and out and upside down. She knew the choreography in one try. And I thought, if getting it right is the stuff that Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway actresses were made of, then Lea certainly had her stuff down pat.

Mind you, Lea wasn’t just a star. She was a true company member who established relationships with us all. And for the two of us it has been eight years of keeping in touch through career milestones, holidays, celebrations, opening night break-a-leg’s, homecomings and lifetime commitments.

Today, eight years after, we are working in the same rehearsal hall again for the Atlantis Production of Baby. The show is a heartwarming musical tale of three couples at different stages of living and giving life. Lea plays Lizzie, the ambitious, driven half of the youngest couple who are still in school and coping with the surprise of pregnancy–a timely concern for the newly married Lea.

Lea Salonga is now Lea Salonga-Chien in real life, doting wife to equally doting husband Robert, based in Los Angeles. Asked what she has been doing since getting married, she says quickly, "Well, my laundry skills were already pretty good, so that wasn’t too much of a concern. It was the whole cooking thing. I knew that I was generally a fast learner when it came to things, but I didn’t know if that also applied to the skills in the kitchen. Turned out that it did... I have a few tried-and-true recipes in my head that Rob (my husband) really enjoys. He’s also been very encouraging, so that makes me want to get better at cooking. As for cleaning house... well, let’s say that having a housekeeper is definitely necessary... Rob and I are tornadoes. We have the best of intentions when it comes to cleaning up, but after long, busy days, it isn’t always easy."

A typical day for the Salonga-Chien household begins with Rob waking up, fixing his breakfast while Lea is still sleeping. "My schedule is still pretty much a show schedule, I have to peak at night and fortunately, he understands why I have to keep that," Lea explains. "But we eat dinner together, I make sure there’s dinner at home whether I cook or get something. If I cook, I usually call him in the middle of the day and ask, ‘Hon, what do you want for dinner?’ then he’ll say, ‘What do we have?’ I will go through the list whether we have curry or afritada and then when I get to something that he wants he’ll just say, ‘That’s it! That’s the one!’ Or sometimes, he’ll have requests like he’ll say, ‘Hon, I want oyako don.’ So then I’ll go look for the recipe on the internet, paste it up on the kitchen, cook it up and when he gets home and eats, he’s happy!"

Some adventures for this couple though, happen even while they are sleeping. Lea says, "I sometimes talk in my sleep... my brother and my mom have both witnessed it happening. Now, Rob has joined their little group. One early morning, I started talking as I was sleeping, and he, cute man that he is, wrote down everything I said. When I woke up sometime later, after our requisite ‘good mornings’, he quietly told me, ‘Honey, you talked in your sleep.’ He then proceeded to dictate what he wrote from my nocturnal ramblings and, of course, it made absolutely no sense. It was pretty funny, and we laughed quite a lot that day. Rob, on the other hand, snores... loud. When it gets louder than is tolerable, I wake him up... ‘Honey, you’re snoring,’ then he apologizes. I then count 20 seconds, and it starts up again. I’ve found myself getting used to it over time, and am actually kind of missing the sound he produces in his sleep. I find it difficult to sleep alone now."

Lea is happily leading a domesticated existence in L. A. but is quick to point out that she has a great husband who understands if on some days she needs to go out for acting class and he’ll have to fend for himself on Wednesdays.

Yes, this award-winning actress still takes class. "I try to keep busy with classes. It’s an investment in what I do," she says. "It’s weird... whenever I tell someone that I was taking an acting class or a singing class, the reaction would mostly be, ‘Huh? You still need to take classes? Kailangan mo pa ba?’ My answer is always yes. There’s never too much to learn, there’s always room for improvement. I know that there are ways in which I can really improve... it’s not that I want to be the best; I just want to be better than I already am. It gives me an edge of sorts, something to strive for, something to aim for.

"I took an acting class, a comedy intensive class. I made some new friends–all of whom are talented, extremely funny actors, and cool people–and learned a lot. We put in some real long hours both in class and in rehearsal, and discovered things in the text of what we were rehearsing that we never thought were there. It was a great learning experience. When I look at a script now, I can see things that I wouldn’t have thought were there before, something that I was always able to do when I was learning a song.

"As an actor, I always found myself ‘winging’ it, which if you have the instincts of Nora Aunor is the best way to do it. Unfortunately, no one has the instincts of Nora Aunor; I only have mine. So, I went there to get better, to see what stumbling blocks I did have, and how to get over them."

She continues: "I also returned to taking voice lessons with a teacher that I met when I was 14. When Baby came up, and when I started learning the material, I knew that I had to get myself worked on by a professional who knew how to get my voice to do what I needed it to do. About two months before our first rehearsal date, I started lessons with her and it has made a difference. The thing is, it’s not always a physical thing, but a psychological one. If I’m confident that I can hit a note, chances are I can and will. If I think I can’t, then I won’t. What my teacher helped me with was making me realize that it’s all in my head, that once the proper technique was in place, and once my body was strong enough to make the demands of the piece I was learning, then all would fall into place and I would have a great time singing it. For Baby, I have to hit D’s, E-flats and a few E’s plus some head-voice F’s, notes even higher than those sung in Miss Saigon! So, you can imagine how my mind was going, ‘it’s higher than what you’re used to! Kaya mo ba? Hindi ka sanay sa ganyan!’ Once my singing lessons got into full swing, then the show became easier to sing. Note: EASI-ER, not EASY. This material will always be a challenge for me and I like that."

With the insight of her husband, in fact, Lea is reminded just how much she likes–in fact, loves–her work. "Rob always says I’m in a very unique position because I am allowed by my work to inspire so many people. He always says he will never want to take me away from that. He influences me to treat people well, especially my fans... to work hard... to be loving to everyone. He’s a wonderful, very special man, and I’m only too blessed to have him in my life."

The glow that comes from Lea whenever she talks about her husband is evident. The intertwining of her career with her marriage seems to be seamless and settled. She has been daughter, sister, friend, singer, actress and becoming wife has just made her all the better.

When asked about the near possibility of being mother as well, she says, "Well, there’s Baby, and a concert in Manila at the end of the year... Mulan and Aladdin are being released on DVD this October... Mulan II in February 2005 and then I have a concert tour in four cities in the US. Then Rob and I will start trying to have a baby of our own. If anything, we’ll have a lot of fun trying! God willing, it will happen."

When I watch Lea in rehearsals now, I see the Lea I saw then and so much more. The star I met in Grease is now a consummate musical theater actress who brings so many more years of discipline, experience and achievement to each rehearsal.

When she was fully present then, she is now in the moment. And while it seemed to me her power then lay in not making mistakes, I see a Lea today who is more than willing to make mistakes and with that, manages to get everything right.

"Baby The Musical" runs from August 18 to September 5 at the Meralco Theater, presented in cooperation with The Philippine STAR and Creamsilk. For tickets call Atlantis Productions at tel 892-7078 or 840-1187 or Ticket World at 891-9999.