Still fresh from receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last June, international actress Lea Salonga was more than happy to step into the role of the Witch in Theater Group Asia’s Into The Woods. The musical opens this month starring an impressive all-Filipino ensemble cast. During the presscon for the show held last July 31 in Makati City, the Tony-award winning actress talked about the advantages of having a more compressed rehearsal schedule for this project.
“The whole process was fun but it’s a lot. It’s a Sondheim musical and it’s challenging on the brain. Finding entrances, figuring out what the internal logic of the music is challenging. And Chari (Arespacochaga), our director, staged the show with such speed, like in two weeks. And that is a feat for any musical. But the cool thing about that is that we had the luxury of being able to do a gazillion run-throughs before today, which allowed all of us the opportunity to take ownership of the material and ownership of our characters, and to really further deepen our relationships as characters with one another in the show,” Lea shared.
Lea also credited the late director Bobby Garcia, who was supposed to be one of the directors for the musical but passed away unexpectedly last December. “That is how I remember Bobby (Garcia) doing things. So his legacy of ‘let’s stage it quickly and give these actors the luxury of multiple run-throughs’, that’s continuing. And it was to great to be able to find that moment of, ‘Oh, I’m not thinking as much anymore.’ But obviously every one of us has a different experience going into it. Each of us is taking away something different. But I think on the whole, it’s been fun. We’ve all gotten to know each other quite well over the last few weeks in the rehearsal room, for better or worse,” she added.
Lea also shared her thoughts on working with seasoned actress Eugene Domingo, who plays the role of Jack’s mother of Jack and the Beanstalk in the show.
“You’re all going to be surprised how amazing she is in this. We know that she’s funny, we know that she’s an incredible actor. But the fun thing about watching her — I don’t think we have scenes where we’re talking to each other — but every time she does a line read, it’s never the same each time she does it. Napansin ko ‘yun,” she shared.
Lea went on to share how it was working with Eugene and how each rehearsal with the seasoned actress felt like a masterclass in acting.
“But here’s the thing, each line read that she chooses on that day will be correct. When she does it, and I’m not going to give you context because in the show it makes absolute sense. She’ll come in on a random Tuesday and she’ll say it in a way that’s happy. She’ll come in on a random Wednesday and be totally pissed off and say it. I don’t mean that she’ll be pissed off in real life but that’s how the line read will be. And then it’s like, she isn’t wrong is how the internal thing in my head would go. So it’s a lesson in acting and it’s a lesson in safety of how a rehearsal room is supposed to be,” she explained.
“You can basically throw all the stuff at the wall and see what sticks. In her case, she throws everything at the wall and everything sticks,” Lea added. “So I think she can just pick any random line read for any of her lines and they will all be correct and we will all just have to react and respond accordingly to what that might be.”
Into the Woods will run from August 7 to 31 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater at Circuit Mall Makati, with shows running from Thursdays to Sundays.