Long-time friend, mentor and director Freddie Santos wrote and conceptualized the entire musicale with Lea. "Lea and I share a history that goes back when she was starting. I was her first leading man in ‘The King & I,’ her first musicale when she was just eight or nine."

Lea supplied Freddie with a lot of personal details about the musicale but when it was time to piece together the details of her young career, it was the director who joined the puzzles for Lea. "We were filling gaps and she would fill in later details but during her childhood, I would be filling the gap for her because she could not remember," said the director who was also Lea’s school teacher.

Freddie recalled, "The first time we saw Lea audition for the King & I, she knew the whole play. She read everything. Her mom made her memorize the whole thing so even back then we knew, without a doubt, she will be making it big internationally."

He added, "At first I did not think that they would go for the idea of Lea’s life on stage to celebrate her career milestone but I was even more surprised that the scripts I sent weren’t touched!"

Equipped with full scores and the 40-piece FILharmoniKa Orchestra, "My Life" marks two other milestones in Lea’s career — her 30th career anniversary and the only local concert before she embarks on her "Cinderella" tour.

Her life

Like the lyrics of the Lennon-McCartney classic "There are places I remember all my life…," the musicale will harp back on Lea's journey as a child actress up to her triumph as a Broadway star. Filipino audience will also see Lea as a daughter, a wife and a mother.

The director said "important people in Lea’s life will definitely be played on stage. Of course Mommy Salonga will be there and her husband Rob will be there. All the important persons in her life will be there. You cannot do Lea’s life without a ‘Kuya Germs,’ so there will be a sort of Kuya Germs there."

Like any musicale of this proportion, the two-time best director tapped reliable actors into his ensemble to play different roles based on real people.

One can not possibly fit an entire life — particularly one as outstanding as Lea’s — in less than three hours of musicale.

Freddie admitted there will be certain details left out. "It was difficult narrowing the events but continuity in the story helped us a lot in deciding which parts to include. So it will really be one complete musicale."

From overture to encore, "My Life" will be obviously be one interesting musical journey.

The plot of the musicale includes Lea’s "auspicious beginnings with Repertory Philippines to her West End and Broadway triumphs all the way to what the public can still expect from her."

"Lea... My Life... On Stage happens in May.