“Ready or not, here we are.” Maison Margiela coat. Photographed by Artu Nepomuceno, Vogue Philippines, October 2024.
Lea Salonga is no stranger to the stage, but her role in Request sa Radyo departs from her norm. Here, she talks about getting out of her comfort zone, fully inhabiting a character, and the “strange, interesting dynamic” she shares with Dolly de Leon.
Lea Salonga is looking forward to doing a show where she doesn’t have to sing. It’s a break from the usual for the singer and actress, who, among many other honors over the years, won a Tony Award for singing her way through Miss Saigon in 1991, the first Asian performer to win for Best Actress in a Musical.
“Request sa Radyo is a show where I don’t have to sing or talk. In every show I’ve ever done, I’ve had to use my voice in one way or another,” says Lea. “To be challenged into doing something where I don’t have to use my voice, I’ll really have to focus, and let the truth be on my face.
“Both Dolly and I are terrified. But I believe challenge is good, getting pushed out of your comfort zone is good. Learning different ways to act, that kind of thing is cool,” she says. “Whether I succeed or not we have yet to see. If I fall flat on my face, it’s fine. At least I’ll know it’s not for me.”
Lea said it took a while for her to wrap her head around what Request sa Radyo was about.
“I had to have them explain what it was. They sent over the deck, the synopsis of what was going to happen. It wasn’t a script, because nothing is spoken. The tempo will be dictated by the music that’s playing as the character goes through her evening routine. When they were explaining that to me, the moment came. I think it clicked in my head that this absolutely will apply to the situation of certain folks in our society who are actually living this truth. It’s interesting how a German play from 1973 could be so timely in the Philippines.”
Lea, of course, is thrilled to be working again with director Bobby Garcia, whom she’s worked with many times throughout her career, and whom she fondly refers to as “my love.” And then there’s producer Clint Ramos, the first person of color to win the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a play for the 2016 production of Eclipsed. Lea worked with him on the revivals of Once on this Island and Here Lies Love on Broadway.
“The function of theater is to show truth, to illuminate the human condition. Sometimes it means happy, sometimes it means not happy at all. Ready or not, here we are.”
“Bobby has faith in me, and so does Clint. They’ve seen what I can do, and they say this will be right up my alley. It’ll be very special,” says Lea. “I’m so glad not to be doing the ingenue stuff anymore. Hopefully the audience comes away feeling some sort of empathy toward this woman and other women like her.”
Lea thinks that we’re “living in a culture that has learned to put on masks to give the impression that everything’s okay. Here we’re going to see the story of someone who clearly has not. There are folks who might get triggered by it, some who know someone who has been through that. We don’t know what their reaction is going to be. We’ll see what happens when the shows happen.”
She says she herself had never really experienced loneliness until the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was totally unexpected, to be cut off from the world with the only people in my life being the people I was in the same house with,” she says. “I didn’t know if I could ever have a human connection with people outside again. I didn’t know if I could ever hug a friend again. ‘Til that point I had always taken human interaction for granted.”
Lea says she will likely prepare for the show by isolating herself from people, to get into the mindset.
“It’s not a mask, it’s a switch. I want what happens to come across as real,” she says.
Once Lea turns on that switch, she becomes that character, and she has to wind down afterward to turn it back off again.
“Sometimes I’ll take time to just stay in my dressing room and not talk to anybody, to erase the show from my head. I need to take my makeup off before I leave the building. Clean it off, take a hot shower, remove whatever vestiges of the character to leave behind. For me, if makeup is intense, I need to clean it off. I don’t want to take it with me home,” she says. “Sometimes if a show is so heavy, I get exhausted emotionally, and am not the best person to get an autograph from afterward. If I do, I’m doing it as a favor to the audience. But there are some folks who don’t understand it. They have to realize there’s such a thing as boundaries. They just have to respect the actor as a human being.”
Lea says she’s looking forward to seeing more shows in the Philippines that deal with difficult topics.
“It can’t always be the happy musicals. The function of theater is to show truth, to illuminate the human condition,” says Lea. “Sometimes it means happy, sometimes it means not happy at all. Ready or not, here we are.”
Sharing that meal with Dolly was something Lea enjoyed.
“We were just two women in a room, having dinner and conversation. We talked about how we have a lot of friends in common, how we feel about doing this. She’s lovely. I remember how the country was rejoicing about her Golden Globe nomination.”
Lea says she and Dolly will be rehearsing separately, and will never share the same stage.
“There will be two very separate experiences. The character will be two different human beings. We’re not understudying each other. It will be great for audiences to get to see the show from the eyes of two very different actors. Two different personalities, two ways of figuring stuff out,” says Lea. “It’s nice to be able to share this experience with someone. It’s a weird partnership, a strange, interesting dynamic.”
For Vogue Philippines’ October 2024 cover story, the creative forces behind the new stage production Request sa Radyo talk about isolation and loneliness, the need for community, and what it means to feel seen. See the stories of Clint Ramos, Dolly de Leon, and Bobby Garcia below.
By YVETTE FERNANDEZ. Photographs by ARTU NEPOMUCENO. Fashion Director PAM QUIÑONES Beauty Editor JOYCE OREÑA Styling by NEIL DE GUZMAN & LEANNE LEDESMA. Makeup: Ting Duque. Hair: Bill Watson and Cherry Reyes of Toni&Guy. Scenographer: Clint Ramos. Production Design: Ohm David. Nails: Extraordinail. Art Director: Jann Pascua. Producer: Anz Hizon, Bianca Zaragoza. Beauty Writer: Bianca Custodio. Associate Producers: Divine Lorenzo, Julian Rodriguez. Supplementary Interviews: Chelsea Sarabia. Photographer’s Assistants: Jorsette Vallespin, Lourenco Narciso, Meg Manzano, Odan Juan. Stylist’s Assistants: Charlotte Sombillo, Jia Torrato. Makeup Assistants: Nikki Duque, Lalaine Samson. Hair Assistants: Glenda Eugenio, Jessica Riva, and Lindsay Agapito of Toni&Guy. Production Design Assistants: Cheska Cartativo, Boyet Matabulos, Giemmuel Caldona, Raul Avila, Kim Blanes. Production Assistant: Franky Tan. Backdrops: Schmidli Backdrops from Espacio Creativo Escolta. Puppet Designed by Mikayla Teodoro. Puppet Made by Puppet Theater Manila. Scenographer: Clint Ramos.
Shot on location at Samsung Performing Arts Theater. Special thanks to Christopher Monani, Managing Director for Circuit Performing Arts Venues, Kenneth Cobonpue, and Rita Nazareno.
