THE MUSICAL THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

For an indeterminate some, it can take just one song to change their
lives but for me, it took one entire musical
That line of thought may not be all too far from the minds of Tony
winner and Miss Saigon legend Lea Salonga and Broadwayworld.com
West Ends 2014 Best Featured Actress Rachelle Ann Go (Gigi in Miss
Saigons 2014 revival production) when they first realized how Miss
Saigon has made an interminable impact on both their personal and
professional lives.
A GOLDEN THEATER TICKET
No, I am not part of the thriving thespian community in the Philippines
and have never held any aspirations towards it, but it became clear to
me that all the music-related roads I have taken have all somehow
converged to lead me to the night of May 28, 2014 - in a specially
reserved aisle seat at the Prince Edward Theater in Londons West End
- mentally preparing myself for that nights run of Miss Saigon.
The dusk-red of the Prince Edward theater was a sobering reminder
that the night holds something hallow, but the irony of that moment
right before the show started was that, in my head, I felt like I was
bracing myself to meet an old friend, a pen pal whom Ive only
exchanged gushy correspondences with throughout the years but have
never actually met.
Thanks to over 18 years of listening to its music and knowing almost
each song lyric by heart without having ever watched the 25-year-old
musical I half-heartedly knew the drama behind the words, but never
understood the magnitude of its passion. Ive even sung its songs in so
many school pageants.
That over-wound Original London Cast Recording cassette tape became
the very symbol of my indoctrination into the world of musical theater.
without me never really knowing what it really was about Miss
Saigon was the first.
NO EXPECTATIONS NO RUSH
When I wrote my first legit musical theater review for
Broadwayworld.com (Wicked Manilas touring production) there was a
fervency to his counsel to watch the show with a fresh set of eyes,

and never compare, and to not rush a review, take your time. For
this reflection, I more than took my time I marinated.
Never before has there been a musical that has given so much to one
country than what Miss Saigon has given to the Philippines in terms
of talent recognition and validation.
PUTTING A FACE TO THE FACELESS PEN-PAL
LEA SALONGA THE ACCIDENTAL LIFE COACH
A reflection on Miss Saigon will never be complete without the
mentioning of the legend that is Lea
.
But Are You Happy? Lea asks during an encounter at the gym a year
ago after I caught her up on what Ive been up to which at that time
was making the rounds across hotels and bars in Malaysia as a band
vocalist (a profession which heavily involves a lot of alcohol-induced
hung-over mornings) since I was given the once-in-a-lifetime chance to
be Aladdin to her Jasmine in her Your Songs concert exactly 5 years
ago to this very day.
Looking at it now, I may have subconsciously kept holding of
completing this 7 month overdue reflection on Miss Saigon just so it
could be released in time for the 5th anniversary of that amazing night.
Left and right, the original Kim and Disney Legend is inspiring and
changing lives at the same time whether she intends to or not. Her
stint as a Coach on The Voice of the Philippines alone is one of the less
discreet ways she goes about playing fairy godmother to the aspiring
artists of the talent tilt.
THE TRUTH ABOUT RACHELLE ANN GO
I am proud to declare that Shin lovely, happy, veneer-less Rachelle
Ann Go was my first - a rite of passage into the world of exclusive
interviews.
This was a baptism of fire. Rachelle has all the distinguishable traits of
the well-loved thespian: hectic without being willy-nilly and down-toearth, real almost to the point of being self-efacing.
As I ask her the questions
I THOUGHT LEA SALONGA WON A BEAUTY PAGEANT

I was nine-years-old when fresh-faced Lea Salonga who remains

fresh-faced until now - put the Philippines on the international
entertainment map when Miss Saigon creators Boublil and
Schoenberg declared her Kim.
How was I to know then that Miss Saigon was not something like Miss
Philippines?
Miss Saigon is far larger than the stage that it occupies, and it is a
little-known fact that most critics dont necessarily fully comprehend,
but ask any red-blooded Filipino and he will be sure to tell you that it is
a cultural phenomenon that the country embraces as its own.
Perhaps that is why most reviews of the 2014 revival production keep
pointing out that the set and the show seems compact and scaleddown, giving the musical a hectic nuance. But then again, that might
just be the magic of the musical itself overpowering expectations
such is its magnificence that any minor scaling down of the production
even stage size - seems a huge travesty to its quintessence: a show
that has grown a spectacular life of its own outside the bounds of the
theater it plays in.