Gian Magdangal, Lara Maigue to sing Broadway duets in first full-length concert

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MANILA -- Just when everyone was not looking, a romance between singers Gian Magdangal and Lara Maigue blossomed this pandemic. Both of them didn’t plan anything. They simply allowed everything to happen freely.

And on November 10, Magdangal and Maigue will stage their first full-length concert, “The Greatest Duets,” at Teatrino in Greenhills.

“It’s just so nice that we got to weave a story why we chose the music for our repertoire,” Maigue told ABS-CBN News. “For the concert, we will be showcasing our stories individually.

“Towards the end, we will be singing about our hopes and dreams. Hopefully, by the end of the concert, it will just make sense to you why we are together.”

Their repertoire showcases the versatility of both artists as singers. “We don’t want the show to be chopsuey,” said Maigue.

“So we decided to narrow it down and sing purely Broadway tunes for the initial concert, the Broadway songs closest to our hearts, the Broadway songs we grew up listening to, the original Broadway cast albums that we listened to.

“We can do songs from the movies next. So this is just the first of the many planned concerts.”

Maigue said that when she was younger, she watched Magdangal play Roger in the musical, “Rent.” At that time, she was with a girl group under Sony Music.

Magdangal noted that it’s not that easy to sing Broadway songs.

“Every time we sing a Broadway song, it’s as if we were given an exam. It’s not like a karaoke song. You can’t just sing a Broadway song. You need to prepare before you can render it. We want to sing more Broadway duets. We want that to be our challenge also,” he said.

The first song that Magdangal and Maigue ever sang together was “I’ll Be There” by The Jackson 5.

“We were paired by our National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab in a gig at the peak of COVID, to sing a duet of ‘I’ll Be There’ in 2020,” recalled Maigue. “There were still too many protocols at that time. But we needed to record together.

“After that we realized, we sang good together. It was so easy to work with this person. It was so easy to sing with this person. It continued from then on.

“He asked if he could take my picture, if we could write a song together or we could sing together. I would always delay it because at that time, I just didn’t see the point. I asked, Why?”

Magdangal later made an effort to get close to Maigue.

“Thanks to the pandemic, we really got close because of working together. We had a lot of training platform. We did a lot of shows online. I would guest in his shows online and he would guest in mine," she said.

“After that, we would do a video call and assess our performances and talked about other things. Coffee was the answer. He was selling coffee and he asked if I wanted to taste his coffee.”

There will be no solos in Friday's show. “We will sing all Broadway duets,” Maigue said.

“It’s going to be a very interesting way of putting all the songs in a show. There will be medleys. It will be seamless. We are trying to avoid that umay factor.”

Musical director for “The Greatest Duets” is Jasper Mercado, Maigue’s schoolmate at the University of the Philippines College of Music.

Stage director for “The Greatest Duets” is Stephen Viñas, who worked with Magdangal as choreographer for “Ang Huling El Bimbo.”

If Maigue will have to pick three dream roles in musical theater, she counted Christine in “Phantom of the Opera,” Maria in “West Side Story” and Tuptim in “The King and I.”

“All those roles are classic Broadway and have very friendly range for my voice, soprano and ingenue in a musical,” she said.

Meanwhile, Magdangal wants to be Phantom in “Phantom of the Opera” or Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables.”

“If I’m of that age or if I have that range or if I’m capable and skillful to do that,” Magdangal said of Jean Valjean.

Magdangal also dreams of playing Chris in “Miss Saigon” or audition for Alexander Hamilton in “Hamilton.”