Jenine fulfills a dream in New Year concert

Not a few have tagged Jenine Desiderio as London’s sexiest Kim in the original cast of Miss Saigon.

She has also been billed as the Third Kim after Lea Salonga and Monique Wilson as she delineated the sensual but vulnerable bargirl who touched the hearts of both US marine Chris assigned to Saigon during the ’70s and the West End audience.

Returning home after more than 700 performances of Miss Saigon, Jenine caught the attention of recording, TV, the movies, live concerts, the corporate sector, and she hasn’t stopped since. This New Year’s Eve, Jenine headlines the bio-concert of Queen of Disco — The Musical Journey of Donna Summer, on Dec. 31, 8 p.m. at Onstage, Greenbelt. To her, it is a fantasy that began with Miss Saigon, her biggest break in the industry.

Not many are aware that it was Donna’s hit song MacArthur’s Park that was Jenine’s audition song, that she performed before Cameron Mackintosh with a cassette player as accompaniment as she was the last auditioner to arrive. “The song has always been a favorite,” she reminisces, one she would sing in all her gigs in hotels and with bands while starting off in the business at age 14. And, of course, the entire range of Donna’s most popular songs were an inevitable part of her repertoire.

“There was a time when I wanted to do a revival of Donna’s songs in my album, and the Donna Summer medley was always one of the more requested ones in my shows. I never imagined that one day I would be playing her. It’s a dream come true.”

All these, however, were completely lost on Filipino-Canadian writer, choreographer and director Leandro Mendez, who came over to Manila with his own dream of staging Queen of Disco, totally unaware of Jenine’s own predisposition towards Donna Summer.

Leandro came over to Manila in September with the sole intention of staging Donna’s musical biography starting from scratch — without a venue, staff, dancers and without a star. His only contact was a brother Oliver who promised to support his dream all the way, and who recommended Jenine to him.

 “I must admit I had second thoughts primarily because she was too fair and might not fit the bill,” he confesses. But upon meeting Jenine and finding her avidly enthusiastic towards the project, all these uncertainties were completely erased.

The fresh concept of presenting musical bios in a live multi-media stage show tells the story of Donna’s life, personal tragedies and musical career through her own chart-topping hits, with musical arrangements of Donna’s songs reinvented and revitalized in dance-electronica style by Miguel Cortes. Jenine calls the concept a most innovative way of doing a musical review.

Enhanced by dynamic video imagery, state-of-the-art sound and lights plus an ensemble of dancers, most of them unknown to TV and first-timers carefully auditioned from schools and dance studios, Queen of Disco presents Donna’s hits (Enough is Enough, On the Radio, Hot Stuff, Last Dance, Bad Girls, Heaven Knows, and but naturally MacArthur’s Park) and her lesser known songs (Anyway at All, My Life) chosen to present some highlights in her life.

This concept of musical bio is not new to Leandro, having helped pioneer as writer and choreographer the first ever such show titled TINA: A Rock ‘N Roll Journey (based on rock icon Tina Turner) which debuted to a sold-out crowd and rave reviews in Vancouver, British Columbia back in September 2006. A review from The Northern View in Canada gushed, “The writing and pacing of the story truly captured the life of this unique performer…Just as spectacular as the story was the performance put on by Luisa Marshall and her dancers…Her powerful vocals and stage antics mimicked those of Turner herself, and the variety of costumes and looks she brought to the show helped across the different eras the evolution of the singer.”

The tremendous success of the Tina Turner concerts still touring North America convinced Leandro that he had found his métier. Chancing upon a book on Donna Summer he quickly devoured its contents and just as quickly decided that his first solo venture into the musical bio field would be on her.

The problem of Jenine’s fair complexion quickly solved through makeup, Leandro sat down to work on the concept that involved Jenine donning various wigs and swift costume changes, with only dancers as support in the ground-breaking world premiere production.

Jenine is still incredulous over the circumstances that led Leandro to her, and the role that MacArthur’s Park has played in her life. Many of her successes were attributable to the song. “I feel I owe everything to MacArthur’s Park. I identified with Donna, growing up with her music. As a singer, I felt the sensuality in her was like that of mine.”

Queen of Disco, presented by Triple Threat Creative, Inc., promises to be a unique theatrical spectacle directly inspired by some of the edgiest live shows of Madonna and Fosse.

As she takes to the stage alone, Jenine tackles the difficult one-woman musical tribute taking the audience on an emotional journey of Summer’s complex life — as a deeply religious child growing up in Boston, as a struggling stage actress in Munich, as a highly successful recording artist during the disco era in the US which earned her the title Queen of Disco, and as a depressed and suicidal woman who lost her own identity to the pressures of fame, wealth, motherhood, drugs and forced sexual image. Eventually, she was able to achieve true happiness and a stronger sense of self when she renewed her faith and focused more on the writing of inspirational songs. Today, Leandro reports that Donna has retreated to a life she is more comfortable with, away from the klieg lights and the fame.

With video imagery by director Arbie Bulaong of Cornereye Filmz, twin brothers Paul and John Herrera as costume designers, Sandra Salumbides as production manager, Queen of Disco is presented by GMA Kapuso Foundation, Ascend Club on Bonifacio High Street and Stage Craft International for special sound and lights. Tickets priced at P2,500, P1,500 and P800 are available at Ticketworld. For details, call 915-4941868 or log on to www.queenofdisco.com.