Song changes life of homeless man

Cliff Plummer and Lea Salonga at the Walt Disney Hall concert in 2008……FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF CLIFF PLUMMER

In November 2005, at the end of my Carnegie Hall debut show, I asked the audience if there was anyone who wanted to be my Aladdin and sing “A Whole New World” with me.

Daniel Berlin, a young student at Amda (American Music and Dramatic Academy) quickly raised his hand. I asked him to come up on stage.

The experiment was a success. The audience’s reaction was amazing. Daniel was a pretty good singer and the rousing finale was a tremendous success. Since then, asking someone to sing as my Aladdin at the end of the show has become a trademark of my solo concerts.

Brave souls

Over the years, people from all walks of life have joined me in singing “A Whole New World.” The brave souls come up mostly by themselves, but there have been a few times when more than one person has volunteered.

It’s a fun challenge divvying up what is meant to be a duet into a song sang by four or five people.

I remember once in Bangkok, four young men—three Filipino and one Thai—ran down the aisles toward the stage! It took me by surprise, but it was sweet to have four Aladdins up there with me.

In 2009, at a two-night concert in Manila, we tweaked the formula and chose instead the two young men who would sing with me: Christopher Yu, who sang on the first night; and Rocky Christopher Aquino, who sang the following night. They were chosen from videotaped auditions, and they were both wonderful!

In the Bacolod leg of that concert, a young Gawad Kalinga volunteer was sent on stage by his friends, but he ended up not singing.

In Las Vegas, a guy named Mike came up, and was so visibly nervous that my husband, who was sitting at the back of the theater, could see the lyric sheet shaking in Mike’s hands!

In Hong Kong, a gondolier from the Venetian Hotel in Macau (Chris Vaughn) and a Disneyland performer (Ariel Reonal) sang with me. But the biggest screams in Hong Kong came when a young man called Wong Cho Lam came on stage.

Imagine that

It was a matinee performance with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and a voice from the balcony said he wanted to sing. I called him to come down. It didn’t take him long to reach the stage.

I asked his name, and was startled when the entire audience started roaring. I had no idea who Wong Cho Lam was, so I was a mite puzzled. His voice was lovely though, and he was very handsome, and I thought that was that. But after the song, when he went down the stage, a lady from the audience shouted, “He’s a huge star here!”

To put that in perspective, imagine yourself on stage asking for a duet partner and John Lloyd Cruz bolts up, runs toward you and leaps onto the stage, ignoring the stairs.

In Seattle, only a few nights ago, an ebullient actor named Clinton, who said he had played Jafar at a dinner theater production of “Aladdin,” came up to sing.  No other man had ever shown such enthusiasm before.

But as humorous as the stories generally are, there was one not long ago that was poignant and really touched me.

Tugging at heartstrings

It was the end of my concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall some time back, and a young man by the name of Cliff Plummer had come up to sing with me. Last weekend, he came back up and volunteered again. Before we started to sing however, he asked to share his story with the audience.

During that Disney Hall show, he said he was actually homeless, and a young lady who would later become his roommate had provided him with the means to see the concert. Since that show, his life had turned completely around.

He recounted that that duet served as an inspiration for him to change his life. He got his act together, and now teaches middle school in Southern California. And he was no longer homeless. He also informed us that he had even directed a production of “Aladdin” there.

His story touched everyone in the audience; I was so moved that I didn’t have very much to say the rest of the evening (and I’m normally hardly at a loss for words).

I’m sure there will be many more Aladdins to sing with, and I’m hoping there will be more interesting stories to tell. Until then, remembering these anecdotes will keep a smile on my face.

Break legs

To the cast and crew of “Jekyll and Hyde” on your last weekend, have a fantastic end to the run! Congratulations to you all, most especially to director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, on the glowing reviews and standing ovations. Bravo!