AS the latest Filipino actor-singer who gave life to the tragic character of Thuy in the international touring production of the acclaimed Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil musical Miss Saigon, Gerald Santos is putting everything he learned from his overseas stint to good use in his new musical theater outing.
Santos plays the lead character of a benevolent Filipino saint in San Pedro Calungsod, The Musical at the Music Museum in Greenhills tomorrow, February 25, and another show on the 29th at the Saint Cecilia’s Hall of Saint Scholastica’s College, Manila. He not only acts in this special production but is also being credited as a cowriter for some of the original songs that will be performed in the musical.
“It’s my attempt at songwriting, if you can call it that,” said the self-effacing artist. Santos is being directed by his mentor-manager Cocoy Ramilo, who has been there for Santos since the very start. Ramilo also wrote some of the songs in this production.
“I am so happy that Gerald continues to spread his wings as an artist. He is very gifted, and his heart and his head are in the right places,” said Ramilo, who told us that part of the proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit those who were displaced by the recent eruption of Taal Volcano.
A few years of experience offshore allowed Santos to truly absorb the spirit of a world-class professional actor. “One needs to be completely focused on the character before he can truly give life to it. You also have to be a team player. Passion is also very important because acting onstage is not only a job, it is a commitment,” he shared.
Santos toured with Miss Saigon and performed in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. He was in 90 percent of the more than 600 shows of the touring company.
He brought that same kind of discipline home and flexed his newfound artistic skills when he was entrusted the major supporting role of Anthony Hope in Bobby Garcia’s local staging of Sweeney Todd during the last quarter of 2019.
“I learned a lot from those I worked with in Sweeney,“ he said. “They welcomed me with open arms, and even if I was starstruck on many days from rehearsals to performances, I worked very, very hard to live up to their expectations. The experience made me affirm that Filipino performance artists are special, and we take care of each other, and bring out the best in one another.”
Santos is excited that he is performing with a relatively young cast in San Pedro Calungsod, The Musical. “I see myself in some of my coactors, and rehearsing and performing with them reminded me of those times when I was just starting to dream of becoming a performance artist. Their energies are simply amazing.”
The 28-year-old artist is aware that balance is the key to success for every show that he accepts. “I train, I rehearse, I workout, I do cardio so I can be at my fittest especially if the role is demanding. I value sleep and I choose what I eat,” Santos shared.
This musical has toured some of the cities in the Philippines prior to Santos’s much-heralded stint in Miss Saigon, and he is happy that he will get to
perform this special role of the Filipino saint once more. “I am more spiritual than religious, and this production is my own small way of saying thank you for all the wonderful blessings that have been bestowed on me. Whatever gifts I have, I know I have to share these to as many as I can—to inspire and, also, make people happy.”
Santos, who recently bagged the Outstanding Performance in a Major Concert—from the newly established LEAF Awards, also let us in on his future projects—a lead role in a film about a struggling musical artist to be directed by Njel de Mesa, a mid-year major concert, and a solo album that he has started to work on. That’s definitely more than just flexing his artistic muscles.