In a league of their own

IN the course of our long stint in the performing arts and show business, we’ve gotten to know celebrities and luminaries who are truly one of a kind.

As New Year approaches, we honor them in a special way, in the hope that we can meet up with the living legends again in the coming year, or if they’re no longer with us, that we’ll get to know other unique marvels like them in 2012:

Topping the list—by a wide margin, we must say—is the late, great Elvira Manahan, who was not only a dear colleague, but also a great friend—a soulmate, even. She had the generosity and love to include us among her special people, and taught us many lessons about living and loving life and others to the laughing, lilting hilt!

Limited time

We also honor the greatest Filipino we’ve ever met, Rev. Fr. Horacio dela Costa, SJ, who was taken from us much too soon, but made full use of the limited time he had to make his mark in many people’s lives as priest, scholar, leader and visionary. —When comes such another?

Among the many gifted actresses we’ve gotten to know, “Miss” Rita Gomez stands out due to her great zest for life and unique way of “seducing” her audience into rapt attention—not with her body, but with her “knowing” mind and zaftig personality.

The last time she visited the country from her home base in the States, she was ill but made it a point to invite us for lunch at the Manila Hotel. We expected a small group of her other friends to be in attendance, but when we got there, we discovered that we were her only guest!

Final encounter

We talked for hours about all sorts of artistic topics and personal issues that were acutely important to her. —Only after we were told of her demise not long after that final encounter did we realize that she had purposely sought us out—to say goodbye.

The vivacious, sassy and brassy Katy dela Cruz made such a deep impression on us when we became friends that we directed an original stage musical (“Katy!”) about her life and times.

She was a true original in everything she did, so her musical, lovingly mounted in her honor by Musical Theater Philippines, was a sensational success—two reviewers even hailed it as the artistic event of the year.

Bert and Daisy Avellana weren’t just theater-film icons and National Artists, they were our “surrogate” parents in the theater, lovingly guiding us through the many pitfalls in the biz. Daisy is still very much with us and serves as a living inspiration for younger artists to give their art the best they have, because it vivifies them—and everything they can be!

The last time we saw Daisy was at a tribute to her, to which we brought our last unique and most memorable icon in this limited list—Tita Muñoz. We were grateful to Tita when we acted with her years ago, because she was a veritable life force of thespic lessons lived, learned and earned—but, we were even more thankful when she made us valued friend and “wheelchair consort” when she was incapacitated during the last years of her life. Her combination of talent, beauty, voice and great heart remains unmatched.