Category Archives: Music

TRANSGENDER CAST AS UNDERSTUDY FOR THE ROLE OF KIM IN “MISS SAIGON” REVIVAL

November 22, 2013 Pol Pinoy

London, U.K. – The West End revival of “Miss Saigon” is scheduled to open on May 3, 2014 at the Prince Edward Theatre in London. The new Cameron Mackintosh production coincides with the musical’s 25^th anniversary next year.

Set in 1975 during the final days of the American occupation of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), the musical tells the epic love story between Chris, an American G.I., and Kim, a young Vietnamese bargirl, and is loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” It features music by Claude-Michel Schönberg with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil, adapted from the original French lyrics by Boublil.

Mackintosh has announced that 17-year old Eva Noblezada, a Charlotte, North Carolina native, has been cast to play the lead role of Kim. Noblezada currently attends the NorthWest School of the Arts in Charlotte. The plan is for her to perform four shows a week when “Miss Saigon” opens, with understudies covering the rest of the performances so she can keep up with her studies.

The Adobo Chronicles learned from inside sources that a 21-year old transgender will train and rehearse as understudy for Noblezada. The sources declined to reveal the name or ethnicity of the understudy. They, however, said that the transgender actress looks and sounds like a young Lea Salonga who originated the role of Kim when it first opened in London.

It will be recalled that when “Miss Saigon” opened on Broadway, the show was met with protests from Asian Americans because it cast a Caucasian, Jonathan Pryce, in the role of the Engineer. This time, Mackintosh has cast a Filipino actor, Jon Jon Briones, to play the all-important role.

Entertainment critics have speculated that the casting of a non-Caucasian for the role of the Engineer and a transgender understudy for the role of Kim, is the production’s way of sending a message that the new “Miss Saigon” is quite sensitive to issues of racial and sexual diversity.

Upon learning of the news about the transgender understudy, a small group of LGBT activists held a peaceful demonstration in front of the Prince Edward Theatre yesterday, chanting “We’re here, we’re Queer, we’re celebrating with our peer!”

Film and TV, Music

LADY GAGA’S “CONCERT IN SPACE,” MILEY CYRUS’ “TWERKING IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA”

November 7, 2013 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Lady Gaga's new album is called "Artpop" — Lady Gaga’s new album is called “Artpop”

Los Angeles, California – The competition for the title of “Avant Garde Performer of the Year” is heating up, and the two top contenders remain the same: Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus. Music fans will recall the performances of the two ladies at the last MTV Video Music Awards where they both stripped to their bikini outfits. Cyrus, with her now infamous “twerking” clearly outclassed Lady Gaga that night. The awards show was billed “MTV’s Porno Music Awards” by The Adobo Chronicles.

Today, Lady Gaga announced an out-of-this-world concert in 2015 — a concert in space. She says she plans to perform aboard the Virgin Galactic, the passenger spaceplane being launched by British billionaire Richard Branson to popularize space tourism. When she officially launches her new album, “Artpop,” this Sunday, she will perform one song on the spaceship during the Zero G Colony high-tech festival in New Mexico.

As expected, Miley Cyrus immediately countered with her own first-of-a-kind concert plan. Cyrus said she is currently training for a spectacular concert at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific Ocean. The planned 45-minute concert will be beamed worldwide by satellite and will feature Cyrus singing and twerking inside a special submersible. Although this is not the first time that a celebrity will be lowered into the deepest bottom of the ocean (Titanic producer James Cameron did this in March of 2012), it will be the first time that anyone has ever attempted a live concert under water.

Neither performer has indicated the exact schedule of their planned unworldly concerts, but sources close to The Adobo Chronicles said that the concerts could be scheduled on the exact day and time. Neither will be recorded, so watching the concerts other than “live” will not be an option. Which begs the question: which will the fans watch — Lady Gaga in space or Miley Cyrus in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean?

Film and TV, Music

ROBERTSON FAMILY SUED OVER CHRISTMAS ALBUM

November 4, 2013 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

West Monroe, Louisiana – Last week, The Adobo Chronicles reported that Hallmark Greeting Cards was sued for changing the lyrics of the Christmas carol,” Deck The Halls” from “don we now our gay apparel” to “don we now our fun apparel” in a Christmas ornament it was selling on the Internet. The copyright lawsuit was brought on by the estates of the composers of the traditional song.

Today, the same estates are suing the Robertson family and Duck Dynasty over the family’s newly-released Christmas album. Duck Dynasty is an American reality TV series on A&E. It shows the lives of the Robertson family, who became wealthy from their family-operated business, Duck Commander, operated in West Monroe, Louisiana which makes products for hunters, primarily the duck call named Duck Commander. The show has broken several ratings records on both A&E and cable television as a whole; the fourth season premiere drew 11.8 million viewers, the most-watched nonfiction cable telecast in history.

The Christmas album is titled, “Duck The Halls,” which is also the title of one of the songs in the album. In the song, the lyrics “fa la la la la la la la la” were changed to “quack quack quack quack quack quack quack quack quack.”

In documents filed with the federal court, the lawyers for the estates said that the new album and song make a mockery of the much-revered Welsh carol penned by their late clients. “It’s a total quackery,” they added.

The family is reportedly lining up their ducks right now to face this multimillion lawsuit.

Readers can listen to the controversial recording here .