Sweeney Todd meets Tony Bennett on Valentine's

MANILA, Philippines - From among the inexplicably large number of Valentine shows this year despite the economic crisis, everyone will be promising to be different from the rest. What shall spell the difference? The biggest names? The best performers? The price of tickets? Track record? The unique concept?

Competing for the audience on the 14th are Charice with Ryan Cayabyab, Kuh Ledesma with Christopher de Leon and Jomari Yllana, Ai-Ai de las Alas with a bunch of guests, the eternal Valentine un-couple Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez, and the brother-sister tandem of Raymond Lauchengco and Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo. It is anyone’s guess who will emerge big winner. However, Sibling Revelry at Rockwell Tent, including a four-course dinner to die for looks like the biggest bargain in town, considering such significant talents, a great repertoire, and a 300-seating capacity where everyone gets prime view.

Eating and chatting are from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m., after which the show starts promptly at 8 p.m. And we can bet, whether or not there are late-comers complaining about the traffic, the show will start as announced. Some habits are just difficult to break especially since Raymond and Menchu had been reared in the legitimate theater.

Holding Valentine shows yearly on Valentine’s Day itself had become traditional with Raymond since 2006. The back-to-back with Ate Menchu conceptualized by Raymond’s wife and self-confessed greatest fan Mia Rocha has been on the blueprint for some time. It will be a first for the two of them which they will co-direct, with Raymond choosing the music, Menchu doing the choreography.

“We used to sing together all the time as kids; we were a team like Donnie and Marie, inseparable. We even had our beds adjacent to each other. And later in the ’80s as part of the Pepsi New Generation we performed on stage together. But then we went solo and our separate ways. I realize now though that as different as our worlds have become, our common denominator is still music and the joy of performing.” Raymond muses.

Throughout Raymond’s career in mainstream show business, his love affair with music never really dwindled; he just got seduced by other interests like acting, movies and television, photography, but his one true love for singing always claimed him, especially every Valentine’s Day.

Menchu, similarly, is happiest when performing on stage. As part of Repertory Philippines, they were together in her early musicals like West Side Story, Fantasticks, Sound of Music, the 1982 Sweeney Todd. (She recently gained rave reviews with her portrayal of Mrs. Lovett in 2009’s Sweeney Todd.). She got Raymond started in theater when accompanying her to the auditions of King and I he got cast and she ironically didn’t.) The following year, she got into Fiddler on the Roof.

It is in the choice between theater and concert singing that they differ. Raymond explains that while both use music to tell stories, in a play you do a role singing a single storyline; in a concert you play yourself singing multiple stories. “Because I tend to get bored doing the same thing over and over, naturally I prefer concerts,” he declares.

Menchu, on the other hand, states, “I’m really not comfortable just standing on stage singing as Menchu. I’m most comfortable doing ‘acting’ songs if I need to just stand and sing. But I’m learning how to make that transition.”

So fun it will be when the siblings cross swords on Valentine’s — he who has done 40 solo concerts since he started singing, and she who has played over 50 lead roles in theater and now has been bestowed the title of First Lady of Philippine Musical Theater.

Nine session musicians under musical director Jun Austria will reproduce the big band sound of the era of Tony Bennett who remains Raymond’s very favorite singer of all times. The show promises music from Sinatra, Streisand, OPM songs, and naturally Broadway and the West End. Raymond will sing his favorites, and Menchu the theater-based songs like What I did for Love, Don’t Rain on My Parade, Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered. There will be many duets like in the Carpenters and Osmond medleys, As Time Goes By, Lullaby of Broadway, More Today than Yesterday, and dancing numbers ala Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or maybe Nida Blanca and Nestor de Villa? And naturally singing and dancing from Bagets, the movie catapulted Raymond into matinee idol status.

Both have won awards too numerous to list. Raymond has recorded eight albums with more coming. There are things they still have to do. Raymond would love to compose and learn to play the piano. Menchu would love to do a recording “while I still have the voice” and do a teleserye if the role is interesting and challenging and her Tagalog would pass muster. After all, she confesses she has always believed herself to be “an actress who can sing rather than a singer who can act.” She has also never yet played a lesbian and a man onstage. So many more things to do, and so little time.

Sibling Revelry someone told us was also used by the Jonas Brothers and Ann Hampton and Liz Callaway in their concerts, but the Lauchengcos will be something altogether different. Raymond confesses, “It seems that every show I do gets bigger than the last one. Not particularly in scale but in the challenges I pose for myself.”

A chat with Raymond will never be complete without talking about Tony Bennett. “To sound that good at that age is a singer’s dream. But then, it’s not even his voice that I’m crazy about. It’s the joy he puts into his music that has given him both his identity and his longevity.” While influenced by classical singers in college at UP Conservatory, Raymond eventually went for those who crossed over, sang in Broadway soundtracks, Elvis and MJ. But in terms of phrasing and musicality, he goes back to Tony Bennett with a little bit of Sinatra.

His last album Full Circle: the Big Band Album from Viva had music reviewer Pocholo Concepcion applauding. “ Though it’s purely an all-covers set, the concept that gave life to it is so beautifully executed, that this may well be the standard by which succeeding ‘revival’ projects will be measured.” Raymond is so taken by the Big Bang sound he adopted it in his Valentine show two years ago.

It was therefore a matter of course that it would similarly dictate the sound of Sibling Revelry. A four-course, sit-down dinner has been designed and prepared by Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Him Uy de Baron of Chef Cuisine (which we in the press launch sampled courtesy of Imarflex/Cuisinart/Saeco). Major presentor is Chevrolet. Tickets are at P3,300 (inclusive of dinner).  For free delivery of tickets within Metro Manila, please call (0939) 128-6569. Tickets are also available at TicketWorld with tel. no. 891-9999.

(E-mail me at [email protected].)