Always fun on Wednesdays
Wednesday! It was Wednesday, March 1, already. It was the opening night of our show at Punta Bar. I was up early, scribbling in my journal. Please, please, God, send us a crowd tonight. Even just a handful of people. I knew I was a nervous wreck, anticipating Loy and his harem putting on a little drama with our songs. Tonight.
We — Chay, Marilou and I — met at the Ness Astilla Salon across Punta to have our hair and makeup done. That was Chay’s salon and it was close to the bar. Bambi did my hair and makeup, pasted on the false eyelashes and made me look gorgeous. You look like a movie star, Loy said later. I was flattered to death. All three of us who went to have our makeup done there looked gorgeous. The magic of makeup, false eyelashes and sexy clothes.
Time crawled like a crippled turtle. I wore a black outfit that I had worn before for meeting the guests who I hoped would come. At four o’clock they began to arrive. First Grace, then Toti, then Alex. Were they old friends of mine? No, they were fans who had read my column and came to watch. Many more fans arrived. My former writing students from various classes were also there. Menchie Abelardo brought her brother who joined in the singing afterwards as did Bernice Tagle, pregnant and ready to burst, who sang in her beautiful voice. My Arguelles the Panlilio sisters, Corito and Connie, were with their friends. Friends from my childhood like Tillie Pelagallo and Nina Yuson, people who wanted to sing and had read about it. Oliver Roxas, Carissa Singson Mabasa, and Papo Pardo came. Oliver was the one who accidentally reminded me I wanted to be a torch singer. Papo is my singing teacher. Carissa is always encouraging me to do what I want. An old friend Manito de Leon. More friends and fans whose names I don’t remember (I’m so sorry). Slowly they trickled in.
At six the house was almost full and Loy signaled that we should start so I picked up the mike, welcomed everyone and then introduced everyone who was going to sing from Loy’s Harem. We had a lot of songs and we needed to connect them together. So we wrote a kind of little play, where Loy was a man who was always in search of women and always found them. Then Chay, dressed in black see-through pants, broke out in song and our musical farce formally began.
Chay and Loy were followed by Marilou Pellicer, sexy in her red dress, who first sang Besame Mucho with Loy then a Tagalog song and then Too Young, the famous song by Nat King Cole, whose words she changed to: “They tried to tell us we’re too old, too old to really be in love...” But Marilou was sent off to Iraq and so Loy found Maricris Heras, sensually clad in an outfit with long strings of beads, and they sang Cuando, Cuando, Cuando. But then Loy broke her heart and she sang How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?
This was my cue to disappear with Chay and change into the dress for my role in the drama. So while Loy sang Fly Me to the Moon and I’ve Got You Under My Skin, I changed into a long, sequined gray dress with a slit I had moved to one side for my song.
When the opening chords of Big Spender from Sweet Charity rang out, I walked slinkily down the aisle. After all, Big Spender is sung by a woman who puts herself up for sale, who shows a lot of leg, and makes suggestive gestures with her hips. Yes, I did all that to compensate for my voice, which is not fully developed yet. I asked Danny Advincula, choreographer and chair dancing instructor at the Sunshine Place, to please, please choreograph me. Then I sang La Vie en Rose in French and English. Then Loy and I sang To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before, my words changed to, “To all the men I once caressed.” Finally we ended with our theme song, Young at Heart.
Our little show was a lot of fun (and heartache, to design and stage) but in the end, we really enjoyed ourselves. Note well it was in four languages — Tagalog, English, Spanish and French. That, to me, was a golden senior moment! We can sing in a variety of languages!
After the show we were suddenly exhausted from our success. We went to Loy’s condo in the sky and had a wonderful dinner of scrambled eggs, Spam and a variety of breads from the Family Mart downstairs washed down with his stock of cabernet sauvignon.
Let me say everyone loved our show. Everyone promised to return. Come join us on Wednesday, and every Wednesday until May 24. I promise we will always all have fun on Wednesdays.
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