It was almost 20 years ago when we first met actor Jake Macapagal. He was Monica Wilson’s leading man in Aspects of Love. With Puccini-esque music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Aspects of Love is a provocative romantic musical set in France during the 1940s to 1950s. The songs were lovely though a challenge to the cast.
But the players Ms. Wilson assembled rose to the occasion, especially Jake Macapagal. His was a complicated part. In the beginning he played a love-struck and stage-struck 17 year-old (Macapagal was 30 at the time). In the finale, he was in his late 30s, still love-struck. The role also required him to sing the signature Love Changes Everything like there was no tomorrow. It was the money song, and he had to bring the house down during every performance.
Silver Lining Redux curtain call: Jamie Wilson, Albert Silos, Jake Macapagal, and Drei Sugay.
Last week, we met Jake again for lunch to discuss his latest role. He’s in the cast of Silver Lining Redux. An original musical with songs and lyrics by Jack Teotico and a book by Joshua Lim So and Lisa Magtoto, the show made its debut last year. It has a rerun this month with final performances on November 16 and 17 at Carlos P. Romulo Theater, RCBC building, Ayala Avenue, Makati.
He met us outside the Carlos P. Romulo Theater. Except for the gray hair he now proudly wears, he’s hardly changed. Looking trim and like a mature tennis player whose game is far from over, he still is boyish in the way he moves and speaks. He attributes his youthful demeanor to yoga. He’s actually a certified yoga instructor, and he plans to establish a yoga school for older adults and senior citizens.
Silver Lining Redux is a cheery “let’s put on a show” musical about three men who’ve been best friends since high school days back in 1970. They went to college at UP Diliman, their coming of age. Now they’re organizing their college reunion. A highlight of the party would be a musical that recreates their days of student activism, campus romances, and disco dates. A lot of backstage drama happens due to disagreements over the story angle of their show-in-the-show.
Jake describes the songs composed by Teotico (who is the show’s executive producer) “as part OPM and reminiscent of current Broadway musicals like Hamilton.” He’s having fun doing the hard work that is Silver Lining Redux. He marvels at the way Philippine theater has evolved since the early 2000s.
“For one, here are more original plays and musicals being produced. Unlike before when most theater companies presented mainly Broadway musicals. I almost always had to play a Caucasian character. Now, we can play Filipino and say our lines in Taglish, or in the way people really talk,” he said.
He’s also impressed with the visual technology theater companies now use to heighten the experience for audiences. “And today’s performers are triple-threats. Before, if you were a singer, you just sang. Dancers danced. Today’s Filipino theater thespians, especially the younger ones, can sing, act, and dance.”
He also loves the fact that producing a play can now be done in a congenial and creative atmosphere. Gone are the days when diva directors would scream expletives just to underscore a point. “Some actors can deal with it and become successful. Others understandably couldn’t and wouldn’t put up with it. They walk away from what might have been an illustrious acting career,” he said.
With costar Ricky Davao
Jake and Gina Respall play husband and wife in ‘Silver Lining Redux’.
In the preview we saw, Jake played opposite Jamie Wilson, who alternates his part with Ricky Davao. Having done the likes of Aspects of Love and West Side Story (as Bernardo), performing songs in Silver Lining Redux is probably a walk in the park for him. He gets to sing a traditional love song with Gina Respall who plays his wife. We couldn’t help notice how youthful and powerful his singing voice is. He exudes confidence, and his technique is effortless. He also seems happy to give the spotlight to the younger actors.
“This cast is so diverse, and natutuwa ako sa kanila. They remind me of myself when I was just starting out. So happy to do a performance, bigay na bigay, and excited to be on stage,” he said.
The theater bug bit him when he was a grade school student at Ateneo. “I saw this musical, Bernardo Carpio, and this boy was singing live. I said to myself, I want to do that! So I joined Ateneo Children’s Theater. I was in their shows every year para maka-experience ng teatro.”
His first major part was Captain Hook in the school’s production of Peter Pan. His first role as professional actor came when he was only 16, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, staged at Metropolitan Theater, and directed by the revered Tony Mabesa. It starred Dulce as Grizabella and Ray-An Fuentes as Rum Tum Tum. Jake was Fuentes’ understudy. He was more of what he called a “saling pusa” in Cats—one of the dancers in the rear of the chorus.
“I wasn’t really to play Ray-An’s part. There was actually no concept of having an understudy in local theater at that time. But Ray-An was very very busy, and there was the possibility of him not making it to a performance. So somebody had to be on stand-by. One evening it seemed that he wasn’t going to make it to the Metropolitan Theater. I was prepped to play it. But then he arrived. Napaiyak ako!”
As early as high school, he was all over the place acting and singing. He performed with a band with Mags Bonnin, the sister of Bagets star JC Bonnin. He joined Tanghalang Pilipino, and though he insisted he wasn’t ready for it, Nonon Padilla cast him as Bitoy in Larawan.
Jake lived in Germany for several years after joining the German production of Miss Saigon. “Miss Saigon opened doors for Filipino performers. Many of us stayed on in London and Germany. There wasn’t an actors’ union there so it wasn’t hard for us to get cast in theater productions. Eleven of us went to Germany, others went to Holland, and Australia,” he said.
He returned home in 2002 and headlined many of the shows of Bobby Garcia’s Atlantis Productions. But still he’d fly back to Germany when there was a role. “But every time I’d go back there I’d feel sad. I felt that there are more things happening for me here at home. Many of the actors chose to stay in Germany and found work as singers in cruise ships. I couldn’t see myself doing that. I wanted to go home for good, even if it meant restarting my career because no one really cares if you say you were in Miss Saigon,” he said.
Working exclusively in theater seldom guarantees a life of comfort, so Jake expanded his career by appearing in independent films. Indie filmmakers aren’t concerned about having popular stars, he pointed out. “What’s important for them is the actor delivers. I did teleserye but I was always playing a doctor or lawyer. I felt walang mangyayari sa akin dito (nothing would come out of this). Instead, I taught acting for children in Star Magic. I took it upon myself to obtain certification from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sidney. Everything I learned there I passed on to these children in Star Magic,” he said.
‘The challenge is to break that style of acting and help them find their own voice’
He stressed the importance of studying acting because many actors who start their careers on TV tend to say their lines with a cadence that sounds unnatural. “The challenge is to break that style of acting and help them find their own voice. That’s my advocacy up to now,” he said.
If anything, Miss Saigon provided the opportunity for the Filipino actors to hone their craft. In Germany he continued to study acting when he wasn’t auditioning for roles. In 2013, he passed an audition to play the lead in a British independent film set in the Philippines. He plays a farmer from Banaue who looks for greener pastures in the concrete jungle of Metro Manila. With a screenplay in Tagalog, this gritty action thriller is simply titled Metro Manila. It’s been uploaded on YouTube.
With Althea Vega in The British independent film ‘Metro Manila’
Jake is remarkable in the film. We’ve always sort of expected theater actors to use broader gestures when they act in movies. But Jake purposely avoids doing a star turn. He simply is the farmer-turned-armored vehicle-security guard entangled with corrupt characters. His director—and screenwriter—Sean Ellis sought his advice on who could possibly play the other roles. He was instrumental in getting several Filipino actors play pivotal parts—Althea Vega played Jake’s wife, while John Arcilla also did a major role.
Metro Manila won five nominations in the British Independent Awards (Sean Ellis won Best Director), and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival. “The movie opened a lot of doors. I was on the radar now. Because of that film I was able to do a Paramount series called No Escape,” he said.
Jake is the only Filipino in the cast of this thriller set in Australia. Its seven episodes were filmed during the pandemic, and it’s now streaming on Paramount+. Because of his work in the two British productions, Jake found a new advocacy—which is to put Filipino performers on the international map. “There are many talented Filipino performers who remain untapped. They just need the right contacts to get an audition. The life of an actor is all about auditions,” he said.
Right now he has representation in the US and Europe, and here in the Philippines (Ricky Gallardo). He still auditions and he still gets rejections. “But I’ll never stop,” he said.
