Lea Salonga as Grizabella in the upcoming and much-awaited Broadway musical, Cats.

“Remark the cat
Who hesitates toward you in the light of the door
Which opens on her like a grin.
You see the border of her coat is torn
Is torn and stained with sand,
And you see the corner of her eye
Twists like a crooked pin.”

– From T.S. Eliot's poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night".

World-famous Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga appears as the feline version of the woman mentioned in T.S. Eliot’s poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" in the upcoming and much-awaited Broadway musical, Cats.

She plays the role of Grizabella, the glamour cat who left the tribe to experience the outside world and who eventually wants to come back.

Cats is based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, a collection of poems about a unique tribe of cats. The show holds the record as Broadway's second longest-running musical. It debuted in London's West End in 1981. A year later the show opened on Broadway. For the first time, Cats will be staged in the Philippines and opens July 24, 2010 for a limited run at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo, Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The action takes place in a huge junkyard where the Jellicle cats have gathered for the annual Jellicle Ball. The main event of the Ball is the selection of the cat that will be reborn. The Jellicle cats have an opportunity to compete for that honor. Old Deuteronomy, the tribe’s elder, ends up choosing Grizabella, an old, former beauty kitten who has lost the favor of her peers.

As Grizabella, (formerly played by Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley) Lea gets to sing "Memory," one of musical theatre's most popular songs. Grizabella is, at the time of her appearance, a very old cat, withered by her age to the point that she no longer resembles the proud, carefree, flamboyant dancer of her youth. Her fellow Jellicles are quite repulsed by Grizabella's disheveled condition, and taunt her.

Possibly because of this, it is Grizabella whom Old Deuteronomy consigns to the Heaviside Layer to be reborn. During her change, Grizabella sings the song "Memory", which has been thought of by audiences as a very emotionally touching, profound, and even mysterious composition. It has been recorded by over 150 different artists, including Barry Manilow, Michael Crawford, and Barbra Streisand.

“I’ll be playing Grizabella (the non-dancer part). As for what attracts me to her, besides the big song? Grizabella is THE cat that shone in the spotlight once upon a time, and doesn’t anymore. She’s scraggy, dirty, ugly, and relives the Glory Days in her mind. It’ll be interesting to play someone that once shone, and no longer does,” noted Lea.

Far from the grizzly Grizabella that she portrays in Cats, Lea, in reality, is a few months shy of turning 40. Most women dread turning 40, but not Lea.

“I’m excited! I really look forward to turning 40,” Lea Salonga-Chien. “My late (and) early 20s, I was not happy. I was awkward. It was an awkward age for me. Yes, I had a Tony Award but it was a very weird stage of my life because I had not come into myself as a complete human being. I was like, who am I really? And I didn’t really figure it out until my mid 20s and early 30s. Now I am just really enjoying the age that I’m in. I really would not like to go back there.”

She was recently in town for the launch of Avon’s latest skincare breakthrough called Anew of which she is the brand ambassador. Come November, she will be back on the big screen with perpetual heartthrob Aga Muhlach. Although the storyline is yet to be discussed, Lea is already toying with a few ideas of her own.

“I just saw ‘It’s Complicated’ on the plane and I love that movie because the leading artists in the film were not young. They were older, and they were sexy, and smart, and they have issues, and baggage, and I’m like, ‘That’s awesome!’ I mean, we’re not spring chickens anymore so it’s got to be something that really fits us as 40-something.”

Her beauty secret

“The older I’m getting, I’m becoming a little more averse to eating red meat. I mean, I love chicken, fish, lamb, and certain kinds of beef, but for the most part, I’m not a huge beef eater. I like game meat,” Lea discloses, referring to the meat from any land animal that is hunted for food and is not typically raised on farms. (Some of the common types of game meat include deer, rabbit, and duck.

And because game meat comes from wild animals that hunt and forage for their food, it is typically richer in flavor and leaner in fat than meat from domesticated animals like cows and chickens.)

Lea is also proud of having given up coffee. It started out as her penitence last Lenten season that ended up as a permanent preference due to hyperacidity and her doctor’s advice. Next, she began a series of workouts to prep herself for the Cats rehearsals.

Early last year, Lea was almost a fanatic by going to the gym every other day and Pilates in between days. Sunday would be her only day off. While her on and off gym habit started since she was 17, it was only during her work at the Flower Drum Song production in New York that she got introduced to the latter. It was reinforced further when her husband’s cousin gave her free lessons during a family get-together in Hawaii.

“I had had no time to work out anywhere because I’ve been busy every day. I’ve been working, so whenever I’m not working, I’d just rather rest, sleep, read a book, or play video games. I’ll see what kind of schedule I can build once I get back for a longer stay,” she tells.

As for plans of going back to Pilates, “I love how strong I was getting and how flexible I was. I really felt changes in my body and it’s really a great way to get flexibility without adding bulk. It’s also a great supplement or complement to an already existing weight training or gym program. It just adds more strength to your core and strengthens your back. And for my singing, my abs need to be really strong because that’s what brings the voice out.”

Perhaps another reason why Lea is younger-looking these days is primarily due to her skin regimen.

Being a brand ambassador of Avon’s Anew, she submitted herself to become a ‘guinea pig’ of the product. She tells, “When I started using it, it’s not like I became a million shades whiter but I did notice that there was a glow that wasn’t there before."

Doting mother and loving wife

As Lea’s career continues to soar, nothing (not even the klieg lights that accompany her all the time) lights up her eyes more than her three-year-old daughter Nicole Beverly does.

“She’s an interesting kid who seems to have an inclination for dramatics. If it translates to a career, we don’t know yet, so I don’t want to see it as a sign that this is what she’s going to be doing because that would just be me projecting something on to her. I’d much rather she figures out that for herself. If she becomes an entertainer, that’s carrying on a family tradition. But if she decides to become a scientist, I wouldn’t be mad at that either,” Lea states.

The proud mama shares how her little bundle of joy continues to amuse her. “She’s a pretty little kid. She’s really blessed with what God gave her and she’s a girly-girl. She loves necklaces, jewelry, and different colored pony tail holders and headbands, frilly clothes, sequined and sunglasses.”

Lea recalls one instance when Nicole saw her putting make up on. “She goes, ‘Mommy, I want make up. Can you put on make-up?’ And I’d go, ‘Sure, honey.’ And then I’d take an empty brush just so she can feel the brush on her face. Then she asks, ‘Can I put on lipstick?’ ‘No you’re not putting on lipstick. Here, you have Barbie lip balm. Put that on.’ She’s funny and she’s a girly-girl. Much more girly than I ever was.”

Lea seems to be enjoying motherhood so much so that she wishes to have another child. “I’d love for there to be another one. Probably, I’d be limiting my travel at that point if I do get pregnant, but not this year – 2010 is gone. It will have to wait till 2011.”

If there’s one thing that Lea is forever grateful for, it will be the strong family support and her ever encouraging husband who never fails to make her feel good. Lea’s husband Robert keeps on reminding her of the unique position she is in: to be able to inspire and influence and change other people’s lives, apart from the obvious fact that she’s really good at what she does, which is performing on stage.

“It’s nice having married somebody who’s so supportive. We do have sacrifices and that I have to travel a lot but that in itself is also a gift. My family recognizes it, which is good because it gives me the freedom to do my best at what I do without the guilt or having to think about ‘what am I missing?’ or ‘what can I do to change this?’ or ‘I wish I could be doing that.”

She adds, “I’m really thankful for everything that I’ve got and for the career that I do have. I’m really quite pleased and happy, there’s really nothing else I can ask for. It’s as if to ask for much more would be almost criminal. If my star gets bigger, then, fantastic, that’ll be great, that’ll be a blessing. But I don’t want it to come at the expense of something I really love which is my family.”

A Different Side to a Feline

“I’m good at household repair. When I was living in the States, I had to do it because it’s just too expensive to have somebody else do it. Something needed to get fixed, a doorknob, a shelf, I could do it myself. I had a tool box, I had a really great hammer, I got all kinds of screw drivers, and I know how to use a drill. I assemble furniture really well, that kind of thing.

“I can’t leave the house without lip balm – I don’t know how many kinds I have in my bag but I like using the stick kind because it won’t explode when you’re taking off or landing. I have to have a hand cream in my purse because my hands tend to get dry especially when I’m abroad. My glasses, I have two pairs – sunglasses and distance glasses for driving.

I also make sure I have a pony tail holder on my wrist. I always wear a watch. I always have a cardigan or a sweater in my car and any light material scarf to wear inside air conditioned room to protect my voice.

“I think my life as a performer got to the point where fallbacks are not an option. I was preparing for med school but then I don’t know if I would have continued on that plan. My gift seems to stir me into this direction so I don’t really want to think of the alternative because God didn’t give me one, so I’m not about to think about it now.

“The rest of me is low maintenance. It’s my voice that requires the most maintenance which is why I probably don’t like putting make up on. I don’t like dressing up necessarily because I have to undergo so much care for my voice. I have no more energy to do anything else - everything is my voice.” (Style Weekend)