Sound of Music

I, together with my mom and my friends, some of whom had their parents with them too, along with several hundred other people, mostly older than myself, watched the second day of the staging of The Sound of Music at the Globe-Repertory Theater at Onstage Greenbelt 1 on the evening of November 12, 2006. Menchu Lauchengco who, 20 years ago played the role of Liesl, performed as Maria while Monique Wilson who also alternates as Maria was in attendance. I was quite disappointed that Captain von Trapp was played by Michael Williams and not Audie Gemora who played Menchu as Liesl's love interest Rolf which that night was played by JM Rodriguez. It is nostalgic that Menchu Lauchengco's daughter played the part of Liesl that night. I had wanted to watch Pinky Marquez and Cherie Gil (who I've seen in Doubt) perform as Mother Abbess and the Baroness, respectively but at least all te actors who performed the lead roles were very good. And of course I was impressed at all their talents, delivering their lines and singing their songs - wow! Why didn't I, or rather, why didn't my mom made me join the Rep? Hehehe. Aside from Menchu and Michael Williams not having chemistry and Freidrich looking a bit awkward, I am all praises for the 2006 Sound of Music production. Best of all, my mom enjoyed it and if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time she has watched a play. All the others in the audience seem to enjoy it judging by the way they applaud every after song. I guess, for their generation, watching the Sound of Music on stage and to hear their favorite songs being sang live is memorable, the Sound of Music movie being a phenomenon in their days. Mom told me that students would go on a field trip to the cinema houses just to watch it, and it was ran for more than a month. Julie Andrews was apparently some sort of a box office queen of that era. Some people in the audience couldn't even keep themselves from singing.

I was gonna write about some tidbits which I learned reading the ouvenir program and some articles but the one printed at the Inquirer is truly worth reading. Here it is:


Monique, Menchu and the sound of Maria
By Gibbs Cadiz
Inquirer
Last updated 01:07am (Mla time) 10/30/2006

Published on page E1 of the October 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

MENCHU LAUCHENGCO-Yulo was 17 and Monique Wilson was 10 when they first appeared together in Repertory Philippines’ 1980 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music.”

That production takes on a near-legendary sheen when you consider the star wattage that went into it. Playing Maria Von Trapp, the role made world-famous by Julie Andrews in the film of the same name, was Baby Barredo. Chito Ponce Enrile was Captain Von Trapp. Irma Potenciano was the Mother Abbess. Baroness Schraeder was Celia Diaz-Laurel.

Audie Gemora played Rolf, Freddie Santos was Max Detweiler (the impresario who got the Von Trapp family singing in public), and the ensemble included Roselyn Perez, Terry Wilson, Enchang Agudo Kaimo and Paul Holme.

Aside from Lauchengco-Yulo and Wilson, the Captain’s seven children included Raymund Lauchengco (then 14), Lea Salonga (9), Risa Hontiveros (also 14, now the feisty party-list congresswoman), Javier Arriaga and Angela Adams.

“We had 15-18 performances at the Meralco Theater,” Lauchengco-Yulo recalls. “We had no lapel mikes on, the mikes were hanging from the ceiling, and we were singing with a full orchestra! So we had to belt our heads off, and Tita Bibot (Amador, the late founding artistic director of Rep) would scream at us, ‘I cannot hear you!’”

The kids also made the rounds of TV stations to promote the show. They performed on the noontime program “Student Canteen” (which says a lot about the sea change that has engulfed pop culture; imagine an English theater group appearing on “Eat Bulaga!” or “Wowowee” today) and on the late-afternoon show “Discorama,” among others.

Full circle

Seventeen years later, Wilson and Lauchengco-Yulo are about to come full circle by alternating in the role of Maria in Rep’s revival of “The Sound of Music,” set to run Nov. 11-Dec. 17 at Rep’s Globe Theater at Onstage, Greenbelt 1.

Liesl, the part played by Lauchengco-Yulo in the 1980 show, will now be played by three young actresses, one of them Lauchengco-Yulo’s own daughter.

Gemora, once Rolf, is now Captain Von Trapp, alternating with Michael Williams, while Miguel Faustmann and Bonggoy Manahan take turns as Max.

In a further case of generational symmetry, the role of Sister Margaretta, the strict nun, will be reprised by Joy Virata, who played the part in 1980.

The Mother Abbess’ operatic pipes, meanwhile, will be provided by Camille Lopez and Pinky Marquez. The role of the glamorous Baroness goes on some nights to former movie actress Rina Reyes, a Rep alumna herself, and on some nights to Cherie Gil.

“Isn’t Cherie fabulous?” exclaims Wilson. “She’s just perfect! She just walks in all so glamorous and regal, and parang we look so dowdy na! We don’t have to act anymore, she really intimidates us!”

Which is quite surprising to hear from this actress, who, at 36, has become one of the country’s undisputed pillars of the stage. Wilson’s resumé of onstage and offstage accomplishments here and abroad are daunting (simultaneous with “The Sound of Music,” she’s also doing Eve Ensler’s “The Good Body” for New Voice Company. See story above). She attributes much of that drive and her success to Rep’s extensive training.

“I remember that, in our 1980 show, we kids had to sing a difficult version of ‘The Sound of Music’—the a cappella version with the three-part harmony,” she recalls.

“All it took was for Tita Bibot to scream, ‘I’m gonna fire all of you tonight!’ and we learned it. We were in Roper’s Studio for our pictorial and we were all crying because she said we were all going to be fired! Menchu, who was our ate then, brought us to the corner and told us, ‘We have to practice, we have to practice!’ That night, during rehearsals, we were so nervous, but we got it! It was only later on I realized, nag-pictorial na tayo e, di na niya tayo pwede i-fire!”

Call it tough love, especially for kids barely out of their puberty, but both Wilson and Lauchengco-Yulo look back with fondness to Amador and Barredo’s uncompromising standards as the crucible that steeled them to excel as artists and individuals.

“More and more, we’re realizing as we get older that all those hard years when we were kids and they were so hard on us, it’s really what prepared us for what we’re doing now. Tita Bibot and Tita Baby didn’t excuse us because we were kids. She treated us like adults, and so we rose to that. We got the best out of them and their example. I mean, Tita Baby had bronchitis during the opening of ‘The Sound of Music,’ but she finished the show! That was how it was,” says Lauchengco-Yulo, at 43 the country’s leading musical-theater actress.

Different version

Barredo, who played Maria twice (in the 1975 and 1980 seasons), is directing this new production based not on the movie but on the original Broadway musical which starred Mary Martin. However, some changes incorporated into the film and a 1998 revival headlined by Rebecca Luker have been added, including the songs “I Have Confidence” and “Something Good,” which were not in the original version.

Wilson and Lauchengco-Yulo agree that playing the same character doesn’t mean ending up as carbon copies of each other.

“For sure you will see two different interpretations, because we’re two different performers. But, of course, the similarities will be there, too, because it’s the same character and we can’t deviate too much from that,” says Lauchengco-Yulo.

“What you will see,” says Wilson, “is her indomitable spirit. I just read her biography, and she’s really amazing. She had so much positive energy, and she was the one who strengthened and kept that family intact. That’s what we would like to capture—how she was such a unique individual.”

Or, as Lauchengco-Yulo puts it, “she was a nun with balls.”

On top of the challenge of playing an iconic character like Maria, these two actresses also relish the chance to mentor and perform onstage with (as of last count) 21 children who make up three sets of the Captain’s kids, whom they will have to shepherd in 40 performances.

Finally, this “Sound of Music” is also a long-dreamed-of reunion for Wilson, Lauchengco-Yulo and their Rep peers.

“This is really our batch—Michael, Audie, me and Monique, plus Enchang Agudo Kaimo, Freddie Santos, Junix Inocian, Juno Henares, Pinky Amador, Cocoy Laurel, Bart Guingona, Jaime del Mundo, and Lea, except Lea left early when she went to the movies,” says Lauchengco-Yulo.

“Every year, we’ve been looking for a production where all of us can work together. So, for the four of us—Menchu, me, Audie and Michael—doing ‘The Sound of Music’ is a dream come true,” says Wilson.

Rep’s “The Sound of Music” runs Nov. 11-Dec. 17 at Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1. Call 8870710/8919999.

E-mail the author at gcadiz@inquirer.com.ph, visit www.gibbscadiz.com