Mix of old and new
THE 16-member cast of ‘Once On This Island’ is a mix of old and new. Lorenz Martinez, who plays Papa Ge, had never seen any previous staging of the musical.
“I watched the rehearsals in 1995, but I was never able to watch the show,” Lorenz shared. “We wanted it on the same year Miss Saigon Germany and Holland came out.”
In 2015, a new theater company Ephesus, staged its version of ‘Once On This Island’ directed by Baby Barredo. “I was supposed to be Armand, but after two weeks, they made me Papa Ge.”
Radha was part of the 2004’s Once On This Island for Bart Guingona’s Actor’s Actors company. When she watched Rent, Santi mentioned to her that 9 Works was restaging Once On This Island.
The next time Radha got a call from Santi, she was on her way to Paris. She was asked to audition for Once On This Island as soon as she returned.
Sam Libao snagged the Storyteller part. She had to rehearse during Rent without the cast. So a “fumigation session” was scheduled on a Sunday for her on the day she had to .
Jazmine Fitzgerald alternates with Shiela Valderrama Martinez as Erzulie. The former didn’t know a song of Once On This Island before. On the day her friend died from a heart attack, she could hardly learn the song The Human Heart, which she was asked to render.
“The music was just beautiful and truthful,” Jasmine said. “Everyone wants to do a show. When I heard the music of Once On This Island, I fell in love with the music.”
For Sheila, she was too young to play Erzulie when she was younger. And she was too fair for a Ti Moune. “I was never able to do it but Once On This Island is one of my favorite shows. The role of Erzulie is in my bucket list.
On her 30th year in musical theater, Sheila cannot be thankful that she will get a chance to tick Erzulie off her bucket list.
“Menchu told me that if I wanted something, tell them if I’m interested. There’s no harm. So ever since that time, I called up Tita Baby Barredo and told her I wanted to do that role, I was not shy anymore.
“From that time on, I was never shy anymore about anything. So when I saw the announcement of Once On This Island, I immediately called Robbie and told him I want to do Erzulie. He said, ‘Pwede, pwede.’ Sige, we’ll invite you to audition.”
“I was the first to audition because I had to go somewhere. But when Rob told me I had to sing (The) Human Heart memorized, I snapped back, ‘I sang it memorized.’ But when he told me I had to sing it on September 6 since I’m playing Erzulie, I was really so happy.”
Now, Sheila is even including Erzulie’s The Human Heart in the set list of her Triple Threat concert for the CCP in October.
PJ Rebullida initially thought he would be called on to choreograph a musical, but when he received a call from Santi who asked him if he wanted to be part of Once On This Island, he gave his nod without hesitation.
“The last time I performed was 2017. I really wanted to perform again,” PJ said.
Lani Ligot plays Mama Euralie. “My prayer was that if it’s not your will, just take away the desire to be passionate about this again. “I’m grateful to be part of this musical,”
“I’m grateful to direct Rob foin giving us the freedom to craft our role and give us that trust to create our role (me as Mama Euralie).”
