Lea Salonga, Miss Saigon star, on heading the first all-Filipino Broadway show, Here Lies Love: ‘There’s absolutely no way I would have seen this happening’
- Miss Saigon star Lea Salonga and the rest of the cast of Here Lies Love are portraying Filipinos for the first time. ‘I’m just incredibly grateful,’ she says
- She and other cast members deny the show about Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, with a soundtrack by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, glorifies the Philippine dictator
Lea Salonga is back on the stage where her Broadway journey began. And for the first time in her career, the Filipino star is actually playing a Filipino.
What’s more, she is surrounded by an all-Filipino cast and is part of a team of mostly Filipino producers that includes singer H.E.R., comedian Jo Koy and Black Eyed Peas’ Apl.de. Ap.
Even though she was the lead at the same theatre in Miss Saigon in 1991, and acted her way to a Tony Award, Salonga never imagined a Filipino-dominated production would become reality.
She’s topped other all-Asian Broadway casts (Flower Drum Song, Allegiance) but Filipino culture was never the one spotlighted.
It seems to be more of him and how his death sparked this anger and rage in a country, and how it led to the People Power Revolution
“There’s absolutely no way that I would have seen this happening. Ever,” says Salonga. “So, for it to be happening while I’m still actually strong enough to be on my feet and be a part of it, I’m just incredibly grateful.”
The anticipation of playing a Filipino character for the first time is shared by the entire company of Here Lies Love. It opens on July 20, a decade after it played off-Broadway.
But this isn’t some light and airy musical. It chronicles the dictatorship of Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and ’80s and the pro-democracy People Power Revolution movement.
Jose Llana, who was in the original show, and Arielle Jacobs play the dictator and first lady Imelda Marcos.
Musicians David Byrne and Fatboy Slim provide the soundtrack. The theatre is laid out like a nightclub complete with disco ball. Audiences can choose to join or be in a standing-only area, making them feel a part of the party.
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But Here Lies Love is more about the sacrifices made by anti-Marcos leaders like Ninoy Aquino (played by How to Get Away with Murder star Conrad Ricamora), she argues. August will mark 40 years since Aquino was assassinated at the airport in Manila, creating a flashpoint in the movement.
“It seems to be more of him and how his death sparked this anger and rage in a country, and how it led to the People Power Revolution and how that led to the ousting of the Marcoses,” says Salonga, who plays Aquino’s mother, Aurora.
Llana, who was born in Manila but raised in the United States, is playing the man who drove his family to flee their country.
When he told his parents 10 years ago he’d be portraying Marcos off-Broadway, they watched the show without hesitation and liked it enough to make repeat visits. A decade later, they’ll be there for opening night on Broadway.
“They know that I would never be a part of the show that glorified the Marcoses,” Llana says. “Telling the history of the Philippines, sometimes it’s not easy … When history repeats itself is when you don’t talk about it and when you don’t remember the bad things that happened. And that’s really what our show is about.”
In fact, after all these years, Llana’s confidence in the show has only grown.
“There’s less fear of whether it’s going to work,” says Llana, who was Salonga’s love interest in Flower Drum Song more than 20 years ago. “Now, it’s just about polishing it, fine-tuning the story and really resting into the new elements, which are our Filipino producers, Clint Ramos and Jose Antonio Vargas.”
Arielle Jacobs, known for lead Broadway roles in Aladdin and In the Heights, recently unearthed old emails from when she auditioned for the off-Broadway production.
“The feedback my agent was told from the casting director was they loved my audition, it’s not going to work out right now but maybe potentially for future productions,” Jacobs says.
“That’s so funny because at the time they didn’t even know when or if it might come to Broadway.”
We’ve always felt that, because nobody knows we’re Filipino, there’s also this feeling that nobody ever really knows who we are
Being in the show has helped Jacobs not be as “naive about the history”. She has been doing research to try to give her Imelda extra dimensions.
Jacobs, who was born in San Francisco, says her Filipino mother didn’t really talk about the Marcos’ era. But, nobody cried more happy tears than her mother when Jacobs landed this role.
Her mother was “just so proud that I’m getting to tell the story and lead this company and play a Filipino and a Filipino story”. Since childhood, Jacobs and her brother, Adam (also a Broadway actor), always landed so-called “ethnic” theatrical roles, from Puerto Rican to Middle Eastern.
“It has been a blessing in terms of our career growth. At the same time, we’ve always felt that, because nobody knows we’re Filipino, there’s also this feeling that nobody ever really knows who we are,” Jacobs says.
Working with Salonga has added to the joy for Jacobs and other cast members. Salonga is pretty much considered a first lady of pop culture in the Philippines and a Broadway icon. But in Here Lies Love, she is venturing into a whole new world of producer.
Just entering the stage door where she was once the young ingénue and is now a boss has been “magic”, she says.
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“How is this happening? And how fortunate am I that I get to see all of this happening in real time?” says Salonga, who is also known for singing in Disney’s Aladdin and Mulan films.
“Maybe I’ll get behind more shows and put my name behind something else that I really, really believe in, see where my career goes as a Broadway producer.”
The show is adding to several Filipino American entertainment “firsts” that have made a splash in the past year.
Koy starred in Easter Sunday, the first all-Filipino major studio movie. Sesame Street introduced TJ, the first Filipino Muppet. Several Filipino American chefs were recognised last month at the James Beard Awards.
All of this happening now seems simultaneously “synergistic and serendipitous”, Salonga says. It’s heartening for a country that has been colonised by Spain, Japan and the US.
“It’s like one thing is supporting this other thing and that thing is supporting the first thing, and it’s fantastic,” Salonga says. “It’s like the universe giving us permission to just be who we always knew we were.”
