Resorts World Manila is staging the musical “The King and I,” with Leo Valdes and Bo Cerrudo as King Mongkut and Monique Wilson and Sheila Valderrama as Anna, starting this September.
When the star of “The King and I,” Leo Valdez, takes off his shirt and bares his chest to whip a slave girl, he’ll be showing off his 29-inch waistline and a lean runner’s body.
My fascination with theater began at a very young age. I clearly remember watching “The King and I” at the Meralco Theater and being enthralled by the singing children and of course, the King of Siam and Anna.
It took only one night in Bangkok to discover the perfect female body. Dita Von Teese, the renowned Queen of Burlesque, showed off her most graceful and curvaceous form in a one-night show in Bangkok’s posh Peninsula Hotel.
At the recent “Mint Knows Monique” lecture at Meridian International College last week, students and fans got to know Monique Wilson on a deeper level—from her naughty childhood moments and her life in London during “Miss Saigon” to her unwavering passion for theater and her One Billion Rising campaign against violence against women.
On the opening show of the extended run of “The King and I” in Newport Theater, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and Nonie Buencamino, who respectively play lead characters Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut, reveal that they were—gasp—still “winging it.”
The romance could never be overt. Still, at the end of the day, it is the relationship between the titular characters in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” and the actors who play them, that can make or break any new incarnation of this beloved musical.
During a break from rehearsals one day, Paolo Rodriguez found out that some women in the cast were willing to skip a meal in order to save money to buy a pair of earrings.
“We’re the ultimate leading man and woman for this play—we have steamy scenes and you’ll sweat when you see them,” declared Nonie Buencamino, referring to his partnership with fellow multiplatform actor Ana Abad Santos in Red Turnip Theater’s season-opener, “Time Stands Still.”
At eight years old in his first summer workshop, he cried when he thought he wouldn’t get the role of a snake. Now, at 18, he’s been called ‘excellent’ by the New York Times
