Commencing Week 5 of “Your Face Sounds Familiar” was the promising musical tandem of JM Dela Cerna and Marielle Montellano, who had magnificently transformed into Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for their much-awaited performance of “Defying Gravity,” one of the OSTs of the highly popular flick, “Wicked.”
As part of their preparation for this act, which served as Marielle’s comeback after being absent due to sickness and JM’s first female transformation, they underwent a couple of mentoring sessions again under voice coach Klarisse de Guzman and movement coach Nyoy Volante.
“Noong nalaman po namin na sina Ariana at si Cynthia ang [mga] gagayahin namin as our next icons, siyempre po may excitement but nandoon din ‘yong kaba kasi first time naming gagawin na puro babae,” Marielle related.
JM, on the other hand, disclosed that the first thought that came into his mind was who between the two of them would portray Cynthia. And when he found out that it was him, he gladly accepted the challenge but still with a tinge of jitters.
During their vocal training, Klarisse stressed to them the importance of highlighting the stark difference between the voices of the two powerful singers. While Marielle was able to achieve the lightness of Ariana’s voice as Glinda, JM appeared to have a hard time at first attaining the dark and thick tones in Cynthia’s voice as Elphaba.
Coach Nyoy, who seemed to have manifested that this was going to be their best performance yet, also impressed on them the importance of showing the differences and similarities of Elphaba and Glinda. The spectators must see that despite being opposites when it comes to their personalities, the two witches of Oz remain supportive friends to one another.
Do not miss an episode of “Your Face Sounds Familiar” every weekend night, 7:15PM on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live (KOL), A2Z and iWant. Viewers can also catch it on TV5 every Saturday, at 8:15PM, and Sundays, at 8:30 PM.