Mackintosh: ‘Finding Filipino artists a miracle’

MANILA, Philippines - World-renowned theater producer Cameron Mackintosh recalled his light banter with Alex Tim, the director of recent hit theater play Here Lies Love, which cast our very own Mark Bautista in the lead role.Alex was ribbing Cameron that he was getting all the talented Filipino actors, both in the Philippines and elsewhere, to play in all his shows.

“Alex keep on saying to me, you’ve taken so many Filipinos that I’ve wanted. So between the two of us, I’ve signed up every Filipino artists here and in Europe,” Cameron told The STAR in an interview.

The man behind Miss Saigon, Cats and Phantom of the Opera breezed into town for a limited engagement to oversee the Manila production of his widely-acclaimed theater production, Les Miserablés.

Cameron said he has always been in awe at the talent and charisma of Filipino artists ever since he first came here in 1988 to look for the lead star of Miss Saigon, which we know by now, is Lea Salonga.

“Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil and myself coming to Manila 28 years ago to look for the lead star of Miss Saigon and finding the Filipino talents here was a miracle. Little did I know then that I would be returning time and time again to find more exciting talents for the worldwide productions of my shows,” Cameron said.

He cited the Filipinos’ American and Spanish heritage as one of the factors why they excel in the international theater stage.

“There’s something about the Filipino soul and the fact that they are born out of their Spanish and American heritage to sing Western music as brilliantly as they do without losing their Asian specialty that made them tell a story of Miss Saigon better than any other nation,” Cameron said.

“Miss Saigon will not be a worldwide success if we have not come here and found the talent here. And because it’s a huge country with Asian talents that have actually gone into other areas of theater as what always happens when you’re really talented people, you get opportunities to do a lot of other stuff, and that’s wonderful,” he said.

He’s particularly in awe of Rachelle Ann Go, who was first cast as Gigi in Miss Saigon and now holds an important and major role in Les Miz.

Rachel plays Fantine, the factory worker-turned-prostitute-turned martyr, who sings the showstopping I Dreamed a Dream, before dying in the musical.

At the gala night last Wednesday night, Rachelle held the Manila audience in rapt, not only displaying the range and depth of her voice while she was singing I Dreamed a Dream, but she also showed the raw emotion of a wretched woman who has lost her job and child. Yes, she got a standing ovation from the audience.

“Rachelle Ann is special. I could tell that from the first time, we auditioned her here. You know, that’s why we took her to London to play Gigi. I wanted to give her the opportunity to play Fantine. She’s Fantine in London and just taking a leave of absence because she wanted to come home here, but you know when we see a lot of artists, when you see someone special, you know there’s something about them. Rachelle’s got it,” Cameron said.

He sees bright opportunities for Filipino talents who want to try it out on West End. When asked if Filipino artists still face discrimination in London, Cameron said, “No, not at all.”

“The problem now is there are not enough Filipino artists in London. I think that if Filipino artists are right for the material, then they will definitely get the roles. I mean Filipino artists over in England are valued. We seek and find them. We found Eva Noblezada in America to play Kim, we found Rachel here. I know Joanna and many, many other artists who have become artists of national theater and work regularly there. If they’re talented, we want them in London,” he said.

Cameron said they’re currently holding auditions for the Broadway, UK tour and German productions of Miss Saigon.

“We’re gonna hopefully open in Miss Saigon in Germany, we’re looking here to take people to Germany as we did 20 years ago,” Cameron said.

A musical-to-movie adaptation of Miss Saigon could finally materialize, he added.

The author with Sir Cameron Mackintosh well

“I think there’s a strong possibility we will have a Miss Saigon in the next few years but first things first, we will release a movie documentary for the 25th anniversary of Miss Saigon in London. We’ve universally filmed all the company shows, plus the extra filming of what they did. It turned out pretty amazing.  I’m in the middle of editing it for the moment and for the special performance, we’ve brought back Jonathan Pryce at the end. This is what we’re gonna bring on the screen at the cinema. I mean this is a stage show but it’s a cinematic version of the stage and so maybe that’s what you’ll see first for Miss Saigon,” Cameron said.

He is happy Les Miserablés is finally here.

“It’s the first time in the Philippines that my production Les Miserablés has come here, hopefully they are gonna see something incredibly special. It’s the play’s 25th production. It’s the same story, it’s the same songs, visually but the design of the show is completely different,” he said.

The show is as relevant as it was first shown in 1985, Cameron added. Part of the emotional tug of Les Miz is that it recounts a familiar story of oppression, liberation and redemption, the themes tackled in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel Les Miserablés, and something that some nations can still relate to.

“They perform it in schools and treat the material as a brand new musical. They don’t go because their grandma or mother saw it. It’s Victor Hugo. It’s the story and there are so many brilliant roles that we see in this story and people, generation after new generation, in every country in the world can relate to the play. It deals with the primal right to wrong their life, and therefore always emotionally-tugging. Les Miserablés is always a story that you could go back after 100 years. It speaks across the ages and I think stories about ordinary people living through extraordinary events and surviving is always the best,” Cameron said. 

(The show will run until April 24 at the Solaire Theatre).