G Tongi on lessons learned as Broadway producer, promoting PH culture

G Tongi (left) with Vina Morales, who played Aurora Aquino in “Here Lies Love” —G TONGI/ INSTAGRAM

I think Broadway was just not ready for all the Filipino awesomeness,” said actress-producer Giselle “G” Tongi as a way to explain the unexpectedly short run of the rock musical “Here Lies Love” on Broadway in 2023.

“We opened on July 20 and closed on Nov. 26. Financially, it was very difficult. To mount a Broadway show every week requires hundreds and thousands of dollars. When ticket sales aren’t at capacity, meaning if there are unoccupied seats, the production suffers,” Tongi, who was a coproducer of the musical, told Inquirer Entertainment in a recent interview. “However, we chose to look at the victories. One of this was that a Filipino narrative with an all-Filipino cast was able to do this.”

“Here Lies Love,” a collaboration between David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, tells the life of former First Lady Imelda Marcos until she and her family were forced to leave the Philippines in 1986. The venue, Broadway Theater, which has the capacity to seat 1,700, was transformed into a disco with the ticket buyers included in the action.

“Ibang iba ang dating! My observation is that Broadway, which is such an established industry, still needs to innovate. This is because what people there deemed as Broadway is still just the very limited understanding of what theater should be,” Tongi pointed out.

“Here Lies Love” was a hit when it premiered off-Broadway in 2013. It also had a sold-out run in London in 2015, and did well in Seattle in 2017. When asked what led the producers to finally decide to go for Broadway in 2023, Tongi said: “We had five lead producers, two of whom are Filipinos. I think it’s because everybody wanted to bring something new to Broadway, and everybody who had seen ‘Here Lies Love’ knew how powerful the story was.”

She continued: “Second, because of the current administration. We felt that it was even more important for people to know what really happened in the past. I still believe that there was merit in what we were able to do. Lahat kami taas noo, despite all the difficulties we had faced. Of course, there were detractors. Some said it was the present administration that paid for the production—this isn’t true! I think that’s the real power of art—to make you think, to make you feel, even though these feelings aren’t good. You are able to feel how hard it was for a lot of Filipinos to live during Ferdinand Marcos’ time.”

Accomplishment

Knowing what they know now, Tongi was sure the producers would still choose to push for the project. “Here’s a thing about Broadway. The reason it’s called such is the seating capacity. Our theater could seat over a thousand. We played eight times a week. That’s more than eight thousand people a week. That is an accomplishment in itself.”

Tongi continued: “Even those who aren’t Pinoys, when they came out of the theater, said, ‘We should Google that. I didn’t know that.’ Everyone got the perspective, no matter what side of the coin you’re on. It also became an opportunity for multigenerations of Filipinos to finally talk about it.”

G Tongi–G TONGI/ FACEBOOK

While Tongi claimed she will always be an actress at heart, the LA-based celebrity is busy producing events as the executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture. “We advocate Filipino-American and Filipino cultures by creating programs that promote cultural identity, especially in the diaspora and in America. We do this to make sure we’re represented properly, that we embrace our culture, and that we are not ashamed of it. Most importantly, we want to preserve Filipino culture for future generations,” she explained.

Tongi, who lives in the US with husband Tim Walters and their two kids, said there was a time when Filipinos who grew up there were ashamed to even talk about their roots. “They don’t understand what it means to be a Filipino. This is because they learned that a lot of their ancestors chose to leave the country to escape a dire situation. We do the work that we do so that they will become proud of being Filipinos,” she said.

Own screenplay

Tongi said their biggest is the annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture, which happens every September. “This year will be our 30th so we are preparing in advance. The grant we requested from the California Arts Council has been approved,” she declared.

Tongi said she still welcomes acting jobs, but her dream is to be able to come up with her own screenplay. “I bet it feels fulfilling to know that professional actors are performing the story you wrote. As an actor, I feel that producers typecast me. Since I’m mestiza, they get me as kontrabida. But look at the likes of Dolly de Leon, who can really represent us. I’ll always love acting and will never turn down opportunities to work, but I have to be able to balance my time. I want to still be able to drive my youngest to school.” INQ