Lea Salonga on her ‘Perfect 10’ milestones

SHE revealed that the show’s set list will consist mostly of songs from films and musical theater.

Just like in the famous musical theater productions she has headlined over the years, Lea Salonga’s concerts are momentous events.

And it’s not just because of the elaborate preparation she is known to give every show, it’s also due to her carefully “curated” repertoire that in recent years has been sprinkled with surprise numbers here and there.

In 2013, the Tony award-winning actress celebrated her 35th anniversary in the entertainment industry by mounting Playlist, a show that revealed a different side of her by performing pop songs she said she enjoys singing “when no one is looking.”

These songs included contemporary numbers like Adele’s “Chasing Pavements,” Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” and Robin Thicke’s R&B smash, “Blurred Lines” which she admits to having enjoyed singing because “people didn’t expect it.”

In later shows like 2017’s Songs From The Stage and her 40th anniversary concert last year, Lea continued to sprinkle her repertoire of Broadway and West End musical numbers with pop chestnuts like Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” Lady Gaga’s “I’ll Never Love Again,” Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and medleys of the hits by Abba and even Aegis.

For her “Perfect Ten” concert from 30 to 31 August at the Newport Performing Arts Theater, Lea gave an “even mix of everything” including some surprise OPM and pop gems. Lea, however, also revealed that her set list would consist mostly of songs from films and musical theater.

“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and at the same time appropriate to be doing a lot of musical theater for this concert since Resorts World Manila seems to be home to musical theater especially with the original material they’ve been coming up as of late,” she told the Daily Tribune and other entertainment media during the press conference to promote the show.

As a sneak preview, Lea performed “The Human Heart” from the musical Once On This Island and “Reflection” from Disney’s Mulan.

Lea gave more hints on her repertoire when she talked about her guests for Perfect Ten starting with Broadway actor Michael K. Lee.

“Michael has been my leading man onstage for quite a few times. We’ve done concerts before but never had any duets. He played Chris in Miss Saigon so we should be able to do the duets and then he also played Aladdin in Disney’s Aladdin so we could also that duet, too” Lea mused.

“We interact really well. We have great rapport with one another and we have seen each other grow from our mid-to-late 20s. Our friendship has grown stronger over the years and he’s just somebody who’s supremely talented.”

Tanya Manalang, who alternated with Eva Noblezada as Kim in a recent West End staging of Miss Saigon, has done several shows in Resorts World Manila including the Air Supply musical, All Out of Love and has just finished her run as Joy in Ang Huling El Bimbo.

“Tanya Manalang is like a mainstay here in Resorts World Manila. She’s garnered a lot of positive notices for her performance in Miss Saigon. Here’s a story about her: Her house and my house when I used to live with my mother were literally sharing a wall. If I was in the right spot in our house, I could hear a young woman singing. That turned out to be her,” she recalled.

There’s 12-year-old Esang de Torres, best known as Lea’s “MiniMe” on ABS-CBN’s It’s Showtime and Lea’s protégé in The Voice Kids Philippines who was also a guest in her Songs From The Stage and 40th anniversary concerts.

“Esang was also in Matilda. She’s growing up to be more beautiful and more talented. I love guesting her in my concerts because she is so good,” Lea quipped.

And then there’s Nicole Chien, Lea’s own little girl who is now 13 and has also appeared in her last two major concerts.

“This is something that my daughter loves to do. She has appeared professionally onstage in Matilda as Alice and that’s a role that she auditioned for and worked very hard to prepare for. I wanted her to experience that and realize that (theater) is not something easy to do,” the proud mom, in The Voice coach mode, pointed out.

As her concert is called Perfect Ten, Lea was asked what she considers the “Perfect Ten” moments of her life and career. She replied by recalling some of her most famous milestones.

“If I have to go back and (even) way back, I’d say there was the time when I got to play Annie at the CCP when I was nine; getting cast as Kim in Miss Saigon and being able to do that show both in London and in New York; being the first Asian performer to do Les Miserables; getting cast to sing in the Disney movies; just being able to say that I’m a working actor; and of course, getting picked to be a coach on The Voice of the Philippines.”

To be a coach and mentor on the said show is a particularly big deal for Lea because for her, it was an opportunity to “pay it forward.”

“It allowed me to pay back all my coaches and teachers that have taught me so much by being able to throw that energy back to the universe, and to see how your team and all that promising talent is doing,” she further explained.

Looking back at what has been an astounding career with more than her fair share of perfect ten moments to last an entire lifetime, Lea said, “It has been quite a ride.”

“And it hasn’t stopped yet so I think there will be many more of those ‘Perfect Ten’ moments that will happen in my life as I continue,” she concluded.

Tickets to Lea Salonga’s Perfect Ten concert are available at the RWM Box Office at the ground floor of Newport Mall and all TicketWorld outlets. For more information, download the RWM Mobile App or visit www.rwmanila.com.