Jose Llana: Broadway Prince

Everybody wants a piece of Jose Llana these days. Since hitting town Saturday before last, Jose–thankfully not Joey or Jojo or Joe, but Jose–has sat as a judge in a national beauty contest, hosted a product launch, began recording his CD of OPM songs, taped an episode with Sharon Cuneta (to be aired next Sunday) and last night performed with Lani Misalucha and RJ Rosales at the Urian Awards, doing a medley of nominated songs. There have also been a series of "Meet Jose" dinner parties, and a press conference last Thursday. There are media interviews and photo shoots; in between all that he’s been rehearsing and learning songs. And he’s looking for a gym where he can work out.

Jose’s reputation as a musical theater performer certainly preceded him. Star-hungry Pinoys got the first whiff of another possible "world class" star when he was cast in the role of Ta opposite the celebrated, venerated Lea Salonga in the revival–author David Henry Hwang, who also has roots in the Philippines, calls it a "revisical"– of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic Flower Drum Song. The show’s premiere run in Los Angeles in 2001 pegged it as a hit; last October the show opened on Broadway, still with Lea and Jose in the lead. The postscript to the show, however, will always be that critics were not unanimously kind, and dreams of another Tony in the hands of a Pinoy were busted when the show closed in March, after only five months.

Much as Jose regrets the closing– "devastated" is the word he uses, adding, "I’ve never been prouder of a show I’ve been in"–it has allowed him the time for this much-awaited homecoming, his first visit to Manila since 1995. Aside from the television and stage guestings and the CD set for release in June, Manila will have two major opportunities to see and hear what all the excitement is about.

On May 31 Jose will have a solo concert at Gourmet’s Cafe in Silang, Cavite (owned by his Philippine agent Ernest Escaler) at which he will sing with only a piano (and possibly a base guitar) as accompaniment. Cris Villongco, home from studies at Sarah Lawrence in New York, and Nini de Jesus, who played Kim in the Toronto staging of Miss Saigon, will join Jose for a duet each. The rest of the show will be purely Jose.

His repertoire will be a popular one, with liberal doses of Broadway and ballads, and some OPM. He’s been practising several Josh Groban songs, which are sure to be audience pleasers, including possibly the My Prayer duet (if he does sing this, Jose hints at a "surprise").

In July, Jose will join the already star-studded cast of Lagi Kitang Mamahalin at the Cultural Center Main Theater, which is a reprise of last year’s blockbuster Lagi Kitang Naaalala, a tribute to National Artists Lucio San Pedro, Atang de la Rama and Levi Celerio. This tribute has been expanded to include other National Artists, and the production can easily be said to be a "bigger, better and improved" version, with some of the entertainment industry’s hottest stars (who will not be named here because this is still a work in progress and "stars"–or their managers–have the nasty habit of changing their minds) slated to perform some of the best-loved Filipino classics, from Bayan Ko to Waray Waray, Galawgaw to Ugoy sa Duyan, from the monumental Alamat ng Lahi to the playful Kalesa.

The tale is going to be oft-told from here on, but Jose’s journey to Broadway began in Quezon City, where he was born, to Virginia where his family (parents Florante and Regina, who divorced when Jose was ten and have both since remarried, and sister Patricia) settled when he was four. Looking at his almost six-foot frame now (one Playbill writer says Jose "looks like a prince") it is hard to believe that he was an awkward kid, "fat with big glasses". He recalls coming down on Saturday mornings and, "instead of watching cartoons on TV like other kids, I listened to my dad with his guitar singing Beatles songs". (Jose says he got his singing from his father’s side of the family and his height from his mother’s.) Growing up in Washington DC, he saw a lot of national companies, remembering in particular Fiddler on the Roof and then Les Miserables when he was a high school freshman. "I bought the souvenir book and cassette tape. That stayed in my walkman 24/7... This was when I said to myself that I liked it and could do it." He says now, "If I could ever play Marius, I’d love that."

In high school he, like his sister, joined the choir. "It became clear that this was something I was good at," Jose says of this experience. "My sister switched to dancing. She became the dancer and I became the singer. I didn’t try to dance and she didn’t try to sing."

Patricia gave that up when she went to college at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, where she still lives) taking up engineering. That was the route Jose was supposed to take as well.

"I was supposed to be born into a math and engineering family," he says with half a grin. His paternal grandfather was a mathematician educated at UC-Berkeley, "but he came back during the war to fight as a guerilla in Ilocos." (As we were going to press, we received the sad news that Jose’s paternal grandmother passed away last Tuesday in Ilocos. Ed.) His maternal grandfather was a police colonel in Manila and his grandmother was a school principal.

"I was supposed to be an architect," he reveals, "then singing happened." There was a "big fight" with his mother during his senior year in high school, because he was "turning down engineering scholarships (including one at Columbia) to pay to go to school in a music conservatory". The compromise was one year, "and if nothing happened I’d transfer back to engineering."

With that deadline hanging over his future, Jose started auditioning while attending the Manhattan School of Music. He was encouraged to pursue his dream of a career on the musical stage by the likes of Lea Salonga, especially when she picked up the Tony for her Kim in Miss Saigon.

"Funny but I never went to a Saigon audition," he confesses. "I don’t think there’s a part in Saigon for me." He auditioned everywhere else though, including, fortuitously, at a March 1995 audition for The King and I. He was technically ineligible for any part, being non-Actors’ Equity, but "I snuck in...pretended to be somebody else"–and, ten callbacks later, got the part of Lun Tha. Although the part hardly had any dialogue and little stage time, he did have two beautiful duets. "It was the breeziest job on Broadway," Jose, then only 18, laughs. "I had three scenes and two great songs, and I sat on my ass the rest of the time."

And he also met Lou Diamond Phillips, another Fil-Am who was playing the King and who has since had a great influence on Jose. "He (Phillips) was 19 when he had his first job, and I look up to him. He said no matter where you are working, no matter how big or small your part is, always treat people well. People will always remember that, whether it is the leading lady, the doorman or the fans that wait outside."

Jose has apparently taken this advice to heart, because he is unwaveringly open and pleasant, patient and charming, quick with a laugh and quicker with a smile, despite pesky interview questions, repeated demands for costume changes during a shoot and requests for songs ("Gee, I haven’t done this since school," he says of Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera, but he sang it anyway) at an impromptu jam session with a piano tuner who happened to be around.

After a successful 15-month run with that production, Jose was hand-picked by director George Wolfe to lead the revival cast of On the Town as Gabey in Public Theater’s New York Shakespeare Festival, winning raves for his singing and–finally–dancing, and making musical theater history in the process by being the first actor to play the role as well as dance Dream Gabey in the ballet.

In 1997 Jose was singing a different tune–the Motown soul and R&B hits of the ’60s and ’70s in Street Corner Symphony. From there he joined the Broadway cast of the trail-blazing show Rent, making his mark–despite bad hair and costumes way beyond outrageous–as Angel. He then played the maniacal murderer Guillaume ("I was the bad guy, and it was fun because I kill everybody!" he jokes) in the American cast of Cameron Mackintosh’s Martin Guerre, winning rave reviews across the country as the production toured.

In between were concerts like Saturn Returns with composer Adam Guettel at The Public Theater (the concert was later made into an album) and the world premiere in Chicago of Ballad of Little Jo at the Steppenwolf Theater Company. His wonderful classically-trained baritone can also be heard on The King and I cast album and charity albums like Broadway Sings Paul Simon and Broadway Romances Manhattan.

Most of us, even the most die-hard television fans, probably missed it, but Jose was in the third season premiere of Sex and the City, the episode about the fashion show with Carrie falling flat on her face while strutting down the ramp in skyscraper heels and a knock-out Dolce & Gabbana number. Jose had auditioned for a part for which he was "all wrong", but they apparently liked him enough to write in a new part for him, as Damion opposite stand-up comic Margaret Cho, and though the role had no dialogue, he had a lot of screen time.

Jose is fortunate not to be stereotyped into Asian roles, and has used his ethnicity to great advantage. As he says in an interview with Talkin’ Broadway published last month, "My edge is that I’m ethnic. I came into Broadway at a good time. I was able to break the ice with The King and I, and Rent happened later... This show helped me embrace who I am. I love walking into an audition room with ten white guys. I’m different than those other ten guys. In fact, sometimes I hate commercial auditions because there will be 20 Asian guys but even in the Asian spectrum I’m different looking. I’m taller and Filipinos tend to be a little more Spanish looking so I can go to Latino calls. I have sort of the ‘mutt’ quality and that can be helpful."

And then came Flower Drum Song. Jose won the lead role the conventional way: he auditioned. In the interview with Talkin’ Broadway, Jose recalls: "I remember at the audition, her (Lea Salonga’s) boyfriend was auditioning as well. I thought, ‘This is great; her boyfriend is auditioning to see what kind of chemistry they have.’ So, he’s in there for a while and I’m waiting outside and thinking it isn’t mine and I’ll just go in and have fun with it. Well, I went in there and completely owned the room. I didn’t care, I just wrapped that part up. Lea was great. I always try to find a way to get the casting people to remember I’m there."

His singing, particularly in Flower Drum Song, has been described as "magnificent" (Wall Street Journal) and "powerful" (Washington Post), praised for the "sheer beauty of his voice and simplicity of his delivery" (Chicago Sun Times). Indeed, the purity and clarity of his voice uplifts every song–and seemingly with so little effort.

Jose credits his training in classical music, gained at the Manhattan School of Music, which gave him the "stamina as well as the mental, vocal and intellectual preparation it takes to do a legit piece like (Flower Drum Song)". While he appreciates the training, Jose insists that "classical music and opera (are) not what I was meant to do... Opera doesn’t interest me, but I’d love to sing the Mozart Requiem someday."

While he is definitely making his mark in the musical theater stage, Jose says he still prefers doing straight concerts. "As a performer, to be able to sing on stage, nothing really matches it," he declares. "In a concert it’s just the music, and it’s just me; there’s nothing else involved–no story, no costumes, no blocking..."

Jose is joining the cast when Flower Drum Song embarks on a 16-week US tour that starts in Dallas, Texas in September. An international tour is in the works for 2004, hopefully to include the Philippines. "I really believe this musical has a purpose," he says earnestly. "We’re not just putting on a show. We’re proud of the story we’re telling and we want everyone to hear it."

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For information on Jose Llana’s concerts, call 843-7661 (look for Magoo) or Gourmet’s Cafe in Silang at 046-4140209 (look for Batch), or the Cultural Center of the Philippines at 832-1125 (Performing Arts Department).