Pinoy girls of the theater
Rachelle Ann Go returns to Les Miz. Rachelle Ann is now a working mom. The singing champion will be returning to the role of Fantine in the staged concert edition of the long-running musical Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre in London from today, Aug. 31, to Sept. 4.
It will be the first time she will be on stage since she took a forced break because of COVID-19 and then since she gave birth to her first born, baby boy Lukas Judah Spies last March 26. The break also gave her the chance to work on decorating the house that she and her husband Martin Spies bought in London.
While she has plans of working full-time in the future, Rachelle Ann will only be taking short stints for the moment. “Easy, short term shows” is how she refers to them. “I want to be able to focus on Lukas.” Since she appears in only six performances, Les Miz definitely fills that bill.
While it is a grand musical and the part of Fantine requires extraordinary singing and acting prowess, she will only be on stage during the first act and then at the ending. This is certainly not as demanding as the song-and-dance, hip-hop extravaganza of Hamilton, where Rachelle Ann portrayed Eliza Schuyler, the girl who married Alexander Hamilton. Still, it is Les Miz at the West End. No comeback stint could be better.
Rachelle Ann is turning 34 today, Aug. 31. One of the most successful among our local singing champions, she later found her true calling in musical theater and built a solid career in the UK. She started out in the role of Gigi in Miss Saigon and then followed it up with Les Miserables and later Hamilton.
She married Spies who she met while doing Miss Saigon on Broadway during fabulous rites in Boracay in 2018. Martin will now be doing nanny duties, while Rachelle Ann is performing in Les Miz.
Speaking of Gigi in Miss Saigon, another girl of Filipino parentage who started her career in that same part is now Broadway’s newest star. Natalie Mendoza is taking on the role of Satine, the Sparkling Diamond in Moulin Rouge: The Musical starting Sept. 24 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York.
Nicole Kidman was Satine in the movie directed by Baz Luhrmann, so it has to be somebody also gorgeous playing the role on stage, which Natalie is. Coincidentally, she was the China Doll in the Moulin Rouge flick.
Natalie was born in Hong Kong to Filipino jazz pianist and arranger Noel Mendoza and Australian TV personality Robin Jackson. She established herself as a singer and actress in Australia and is now active in films, TV and theater in both the US and the UK.
She is best known out here for playing Imelda to Mark Bautista’s Ferdinand Marcos in the David Byrne and Fatboy Slim musical, Here Lies Love, which played at the Royal National Theatre in London in 2016. She was also in the news when she had an accident while performing as Arachne in the musical Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark in 2018. And she is now in the news again as the star of Moulin Rouge.
And now the latest about another talented girl with Filipino roots. Nicole Scherzinger joins Annie: Live. The singer, dancer, actress, ex-Pussycat Doll, Oliver Award nominated star of the musical Cats, panelist of The Masked Singer, and other things besides, will play the role of Grace in the live performance for television of the musical Annie.
Set for airing in December, Annie is the tale of how little orphan Annie won the heart of millionaire Daddy Warbucks and saved her orphan friends from the terrifying Miss Hannigan. It features songs like Tomorrow and Hard Knock Life. Playing Warbucks and Miss Hannigan will be Harry Connick Jr. and Taraji Henson.
Nicole was born in Hawaii to Filipino Alfonso Valiente and Russian- Hawaiian Rosemary Elikolani but grew up in the States. The Scherzinger name comes from her stepfather.
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