A brilliant showcase of Filipino talent on Broadway’s biggest night
I said some issues ago that Filipino music talent is on a roll these days. Think of them winning the Pulitzer, the Eurovision, being in the Spotify Global Chart, etc.
Well, now I proudly say that there were some very important additions to the list last week and they all came from the Tony Awards.
Yes, Broadway’s biggest night, held at the Radio City Music Hall last June 8, was also a brilliant showcase for Filipino music talent.
Darren Criss, the young star of the TV series “Glee,” born of a Cebuana mother and American father and who famously got married in a barong Tagalog, became the first Asian-American to win the Tony for Best Actor in a Leading Role in the musical “Maybe Happy Ending.”
Criss is also one of the producers of the show, which got six awards, the biggest haul of the evening. “Maybe Happy Ending” also won for Best Musical; Best Book by Will Aronson and Hue Park, who also won for Best Music; Best Scenic Design of a Musical by Dane Laffrey and George Reeve; and Best Director of a Musical by Michael Arden.
Next, Nicole Scherzinger, former lead singer of the Pussy Cat Dolls, who was born of a Filipino father and a Hawaiian/ Ukrainian mother, was named Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her performance as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.”
And there is still another one. Marco Paguia, pianist, arranger, composer and musical director, won for Best Orchestration for the musical “The Buena Vista Social Club.” Paguia previously won the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award for the same show. It is about this iconic band of musicians from Havana during the ‘70s and I am not at all surprised that Paguia with his Filipino roots was able to bring the Latin flavor required by the musical to Tony perfection.
Suzie Ibarra, an acclaimed percussionist and composer was conferred the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Sky Islands, which blends the kulintang with Western instruments and field sounds from the Philippines.
Ruby Ibarra, a Leyte-born hip-hop artist who raps in English, Visaya and Pilipino, won the 2025 Tiny Desk Award for her work Kakunawa, which is inspired by the Filipino folk tale of the dragon who swallowed the moon.
Even the fabled Eurovision Song Contest was not spared from the Filipino onslaught. This year’s winner is JJ, born Johannes Pietsch to an Austrian father and Filipino mother. He represented Austria in the competition.
Admittedly, I say, though the Filipino music genes were evident in all of these artists, their training and the breaks they got came from a foreign country. It would be nice to find another Tony and Olivier winner like Lea Salonga, a talent born and nurtured in the Philippines and now among the biggest stars of Broadway.
Hopefully soon. Still, I loved how these winners, all proudly acknowledged that they are also Filipinos.
We already have the band Cup of Joe, born and bred in the Philippines and our first entry in the global hit charts with the song Multo. No foreign help propelled this one to the top. With the attention these boys are getting, I am sure we will have more listeners all over the world discovering and liking Filipino music.
By the way, aside from Criss, Scherzinger and Salonga starring toe to toe with Bernadette Peters in the Sondheim musical “Old Friends,” Pinoys also performing nowadays on Broadway are Eva Noblezada in “Cabaret” at the Kit Kat Club, Tati Cordoba in “Real Women Have Curves,” Conrad Ricamora in “Oh Mary,” Kay Sibal in “Six” and Angelica Hale in “Boop! The Musical.”
Maybe it is now time to start dreaming of a Filipino musical someday on Broadway.
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