Last night , we had a chance to watch the world’s longest running musical in its Manila production, which incidentally also casted a Filipina for the role of Fantine.

I was in highschool when the wonderful world of Broadway musicals got introduced to me, and Les Mis was definitely one of those I wanted to see live.

My first taste of a live show was Miss Saigon, as part of our HS educational tour. Naive highschoolers packed the cheapest rows at CCP, and my male batchmates contented themselves with paper binoculars when the scantily clad bar dancers tooks some spotlight. It was not Leah Salonga who played that day, much to my disappointed though. And being a consistent props department person during HS prods, I was very impressed by the gigantic helicopter that landed on stage. Woohoo!

I was already in my early years of earning money when Cats was staged in Manila. I knew immediately that I had to see it, even from the highest rows at CCP, so steep that one slip will send you rolling down to the VIP section (lol). It was a highschool dream come true! You see, we watched a recorded Cats perfomance in HS senior year (my fave even then), and one group tried to perform the whole thing as part of the requirements in our Music class. My barkada was assigned to do Jesus Christ Superstar. I can still remember the cats’ tails and the crepe paper costumes! Conceptualizing the costumes from our meager budget is memorable, too! 😀

—unfinished  blog post from years ago.