There are simply too many divisive issues distracting the Philippine government from prioritizing programs meant to halt the upward projection of COVID-19 cases here.…
There are simply too many divisive issues distracting the Philippine government from prioritizing programs meant to halt the upward projection of COVID-19 cases here. As we write this, it’s just a matter of time before the Philippines, with 80,448 cases, overtakes China’s total number of “reported” cases, at 83,830.
With nothing much for Filipinos to crow about these days, you can imagine how happy we were to unexpectedly wake up at a little past 4 a.m. last Friday to find “a ray of sunshine” waiting for us on Facebook—and it’s great news coming from homegrown theater heartthrob and filmmaker Joaquin Pedro Valdes, whose prodigious performing skills and potent stage presence we were only too happy to showcase in some of the theater shows we have directed in the past.
For many years since he began acting as a child actor, Joaquin became one of Philippine theater’s top male leads. But he dared to jump out of his comfort zone to spread his wings and see where else his talent could take him.
It didn’t take long before Joaqs, as we fondly call him, found himself performing all over Europe as part of the UK/international cast of Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr.’s “Miss Saigon,” where he was a cover for the roles of the Engineer and Thuy, then of the UK and Asia cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” where he covered for Lun Tha.
Upon the singer-actor’s own admission, when his stint with “King and I” was unceremoniously halted by the lockdown early this year, he went through “a bout of highs and lows”—a period in his life which he described as “extremely uncertain, precarious and sometimes scary.”
Then came the LGBTQ-themed historical musical “Fanny and Stella,” with book and lyrics by Glenn Chandler and music by Charles Miller. The team behind it just announced Joaquin’s participation in the show, which is the first production, musical or straight play, to open in London since the lockdown began on March 23.
“Fanny and Stella” isn’t just a figment of a playwright’s overactive imagination. Set in 1871, the musical is inspired by the true story of entertainers Fanny and Stella, two drag queens who perform in theater shows in Victorian England.
But when they’re caught performing “extracurricular activities” in between shows, they are hauled off to court, then later acquitted for dressing up as women and for a “conspiracy to commit sodomy,” considered a felony at a time when sexual acts between men carried a sentence of two years.
After their unexpected victory in court, Fanny and Stella, along with their theater company, take their unique story on the road.
The show, which begins its scheduled 12-performance run from Aug. 3 to 25 at the Garden Theatre in Vauxhall, will be a “socially distant,” open-air production where audiences will be required to wear masks. Creative team includes director Steven Dexter, with musical staging by Nick Winston and musical direction by Aaron Clingham.
Joaquin, who marks another career milestone with his first London Fringe show, will be joining lead actors Jed Berry (“Kinky Boots”) and Kane Verrall (“The Sound of Musical”), who play Ernest Boulton (aka Stella) and Frederick William Park (aka Fanny), respectively.
Joaquin portrays the role of John Safford Fiske, an American consul in Scotland who was forced to leave his post after getting dragged into the “homosexual scandal.
