Lea Salonga was feeling under the weather earlier this month.
“I had to miss shows, which is unfortunate,” she said before one of her final performances in the Broadway disco musical “Here Lies Love.” “But I was still able to stand over a stove and cook this soup that had a lot of garlic and a lot of ginger,” she recalled during a phone interview from her Manhattan home.
“It’s called tinola, which is a Filipino chicken soup.
It’s what would be cooked every time I was sick at home.”That connection to the Philippines — where Salonga was born and raised — is one she also feels with “Here Lies Love,” which recounts the rise and fall of the country’s ousted leader and first lady, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
“Normally, if I’m watching a theater piece, I could just feel whatever feelings there are, or that the show wants me to feel,” said Salonga, 52, who on Saturday finishes her guest run as Aurora Aquino, the mother of Benigno Aquino Jr., Ferdinand’s political rival.
Persons:
Lea Salonga, “, ”, “ It’s, Salonga, Ferdinand, Imelda Marcos, Aurora Aquino, Benigno Aquino Jr, Kim
Organizations:
Aurora, Broadway
Locations:
Manhattan, Philippines, “