Lea Salonga to try on Cinderella’s glass slippers

By Nickie Wang /Manila Standard Today
5 July 2008

Tony award-winning Broadway singer Lea Salonga continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

This month, she plays a beautiful girl rescued from a life of drudgery by her fairy godmother and eventually marries a handsome prince in the lavish production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

Running for a month at the Cultural Center of the Philippines starting July 29 (it closes on Aug. 14), this Broadway Asia Entertainment (BAE) production is directed by top-caliber music theater helmsman Bobby Garcia with Michael Duff as musical director, and Vince Pesce choreographing the dance numbers. The opulent designs are the result of the work of a team led by renowned Italian fashion designer Renato Balestra.

The production will also be engaged in a 30-week Asian tour. After running in the Philippines, the Cinderella ensemble and creative team will mount the musical in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

A whole new world

Lea gained international stardom for her award-winning role as Kim in both the London’s West End production of Miss Saigon and on Broadway. She eventually landed coveted roles on and off Broadway, including Les Miserables, Into the Woods, My Fair Lady, and Flower Drum Song among many others.

She also rendered her talent as the singing voices of Jasmine and Mulan in Disney’s blockbuster animation flicks Aladdin and Mulan, respectively. Now, she is in the thick of things of the preparations for Cinderella as she gives life on stage to one of the most beloved music theater characters.

“Well as we know, here there’s a struggle between two powers: it’s good versus evil, that Cinderella found her prince and they live happily ever after. The getting to that point of the story is really going to be fun to watch,” Lea said during the press conference at the CCP Main Theater Lobby. “I think what the audience will be able to expect is coming away with having seen something magical and wonderful. It’s really about that. Bobby [the director] explained that this is the type of magical production that would tame the audience’s eyes and this would make them say: ‘wow that’s a visual trip!’,” the international theater star added.

Lea announced that she will be playing Cinderella eight times a week and the rehearsal for the production that started June 23 has given her an opportunity to discover a lot more about the character. She revealed that she does not have any apprehension in performing before a mostly Filipino audience, albeit feeling more at home with a crowd that instantly reacts when she drops a punch line.

“I feel more comfortable. I do know where the punch lines are going to land. It’s like playing a football game at the home stadium. You are with people that you know. So it’s comforting for me to actually be performing the show here at the CCP,” she shared.

During rehearsals, Lea brings her two-year-old daughter Nicole to the set. The little kid doesn’t really know that her mother is playing the role of a chimneysweep-turned-princess character but is actually aware that her mother is Princess Jasmine.

As a child, Lea doesn’t know if she ever fantasized wearing glass slippers or really buying the fairytale. In reality, she doesn’t even know how a glass shoe feels like on her feet.

“Now that I am going to play this character, during acting exercises I was able to figure out who she is so I have to keep her very lively because she’s good through and through,” she told the press.

When asked if there was ever a point in her life that she could relate herself to the character she is playing right now, she said that being cast in a major West End musical is the closest thing coming to that.

The prince charming

In every fairytale where there is a prince charming who marries the princess to live happily ever after, Cinderella has found her prince, and he is originally from Brisbane, Australia.

Peter Saide was recently seen as Tony in Saturday Night Fever.

The tall and dashing Australian will play the role Prince for the whole Asian tour of this BAE production. During the press conference at the CCP, Saide and Lea treated the media to a song from the show entitled Ten Minutes Ago. Saide, who is in the country for the first time, expressed his excitement to perform with Lea and work with director Bobby Garcia.

“There is more excitement than apprehension. Lea is much more than an Asian superstar. I am tremendously excited to perform with her. This is a whole bunch of first. This is my first time in Manila and my first time to work with a Filipino director. I can’t wait to work with Bobby Garcia. I am very excited to go on with the rehearsal process,” he said before inviting everyone to watch the show.