Meldy’s ‘Magnificat’ connection–‘out of the Marian blue’

Key involvement in the success of the long-running religious musical

THE RECENT demise of the iconic Imelda Cojuangco has moved us to join others in thanking her for her gifts and graces, many of them not known to the general public.

In our case, our gratitude is for Ms Cojuangco’s key involvement in the initial success of our religious musical, “Magnificat,” with music composed and arranged by Ryan Cayabyab.

The production has been performed many times all over the country. How did Imelda Cojuangco got involved in the show?

Many years ago, we thought of writing and directing a full-length musical in Filipino about the Blessed Virgin Mary and her life, within the context of her son, Jesus’ salvific mission for mankind. It was a difficult show to write and direct, so we rehearsed it for five long months with an excellent and similarly committed cast of actor-singers, to make sure that it would measure up to the demands of “the greatest story ever told.”

Our original plan was to “open small,” in a modest performing space, so that we could work on refining it into the spiritual and dramatic gem it aspired to be.

A week before our “small” opening, however, we got a phone call from—Meldy herself!

It came completely out of the blue, because we hadn’t even announced the existence of our new work. But, it turned out that the “out of the blue” image was exactly right for that unexpected confluence of events—because, as Marian devotees know, blue is Mary’s color!

In any case, Meldy had apparently heard from the “Marian grapevine” about our “Magnificat”—so, she reached out to us via our “Elvira connection,” to ask if the report was true.

Yes, we said, but we were starting our run really quietly, since the musical was meant to be a “staged prayer” rather than a big, bright theatrical production.

Touring production

Imelda Cojuangco

In fact, our new musical was so small that it didn’t even have a set, because it was meant to be a touring production that could be performed all over the country, down to the smallest sitio, so its salvific story could be experienced by everybody.

Meldy quietly assimilated the information we provided—and then threw us for a loop by asking, “Can you open this week? I have a Marian event coming up, and your new musical would be the perfect highlight for it.”

Since we had agreed with our cast to never turn down an invitation to evangelize by telling Mary’s story, we took a deep breath and said “OK.” Meldy was exceedingly happy that her last-minute “suntok sa buwan” was panning out (later, we agreed that it was “meant to be”).

Then, she dropped her next bombshell: We asked her where the performance would be—and she replied, “At the Quirino Grandstand.”

That really shocked us. —And it also “put us in our place,” because we had planned to “open small”—but it now turned out that the first “Magnificat” performance would be—in a really huge venue!

It was like Mama Mary was whispering in our ear, “I understand the humble, prayerful place you’re coming from, but remember what my Son taught—‘Do not hide your light under a bushel!”

So, “Magnificat” at the Quirino Grandstand it was—and the overwhelming reception it received resulted in many requests for follow-up performances in parishes, schools, offices, hospitals, even prisons—up to the present.

Thanks to devotee Imelda Cojuangco’s unexpected phone call many years ago—“out of the Marian blue!”