Insightful, Hopeful

On our northern Luzon trip, Mimay played Broadway musical soundtracks on their car stereo. Thanks to that, Broadway songs are now playing on my head which are mostly from "Wicked" and "Miss Saigon". I was bitten by the Broadway bug when I became a fan of no other than Ms. Lea Salonga (winner of Tony Awards for her role of Kim in Miss Saigon) in 2000. I was awed by her talent when I watched her Millenium Concert at the CCP together with my friend Cat, her mom and my sister.
That same year, Lea also starred in a musical, They're Playing Our Song, which was the first musical I ever saw. It was a romantic comedy, and I absolutely loved it, and it still is my favorite musical! :)
I loved the songs too - especially Fallin', I Still Believe in Love, Right and If He Really Knew Me. Too bad, the Manila production was not allowed to have a cast recording. But Lea was able to include two of the songs from the musical in her "By Heart" album.
Lea also reprised her role as Kim here in Manila, and I was lucky to have been able to witness her performance. Compared to They're Playing our Song, the set was much more extravagant, and the whole time, the performers had to sing. It was really a world-class musical.
Aside from those two, I was also able to watch "Baby the Musical", "Rent", and "Tick Tick Boom" all from Atlantis Productions. I was also able to see the Blue Rep (Ateneo's theater company) production of "Into the Woods", and Mimay's theater recital in Repertory -  West Side Story.
For a while, I have stopped watching musicals, and had no news about what's playing on Broadway. But one of my "Lea" friends, Tin, introduced us to "Wicked". It is a comedy about the Wicked witch of Oz. It shows her life before she became wicked, and also shows her college friend, Glinda, a good witch. It stars Idina Menzel in the original Broadway cast, who is now Mimay's current idol hehe.
Musicals are great because they tell stories through songs. And don't we all have a theme song for special moments in our lives? I hope one day I can watch a musical in Broadway, and hope that Lea's in it too :)