As “Miss Saigon” is playing at Raimund Theater in Vienna, one of its casts has just a little background of the German language especially in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic staging of the musical in Cologne, Germany.
But Filipino actor, singer and dancer Christian Rey Marbella has impressed the German audience and the show’s prime movers as he again successfully clinched a role in the Austrian version.
Chuck, as Christian Rey is fondly called, admitted he has not spoken a single German word in his entire life.
“I just got home in London after closing the tour in Cologne, Germany in March 2019, when I received an email from someone whose name I cannot disclose, asking me about how good my German is,” recalled Marbella.
At the time, an Austrian edition of “Miss Saigon” was in the pipeline. “Apparently my name came up in the meeting regarding the possibility of ‘Miss Saigon Vienna’ in the autumn of 2020.
After a couple of months of giving it much thought with my agent, I received an invitation from VBW to fly to Vienna to be seen by the casting and creative team,” he gushed.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way, the production was deferred.
It was only on January 23, 2022 that the musical premiered as a maiden show in the reopening of the newly renovated 128-year old theater.
For this season, Chuck plays The Engineer anew for the tenth time in various “Miss Saigon” productions mostly in the English language worldwide.
Learning German was accidental in Marbella’s theater journey. “I’ve always wanted to learn a different language. Unfortunately, German is not on the list,” he burst into guffaws. “I am still learning it right now as we speak.”
At the start of 2021, volunteered Chuck, he had to go through a short German language lesson.
Meanwhile, in the course of the Austrian edition, Chuck said that the cast has an in-house phonetics coach that help them get through German enunciation.
In learning foreign languages, Marbella said that Filipinos are willing and good students. “We have true grit! We know what we want, where we want it to go. We strive hard, do our absolute best and not stop until we get to the finish line,” he exclaimed.
The Cameron Mackintosh’s Austrian cast of the Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg musical includes Vanessa Heinz as Kim, Oedo Kuipers as Chris, Gino Emnes as John, James Park as Thuy, Abla Alaoui as Ellen and Annemarie Lauretta as Gigi from VBW director Christian Struppeck.
Pinoy members of the cast include Aynrand 'ab' Ferrer, Winchester R. Lopez, Vincent Bueno, Judicel Eslao, Nila Axxelson and Erick Somoza Arenas.
As an artist, Chuck has extensive musical theater experience in Asia, United Kingdom and the United States. Aside from his past portrayals of Thuy in “Miss Saigon,” Marbella was Luntha in “The King and I” and Apostle Peter in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
His other theater credits include “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” “Showboat” and “The Full Monty” while his original Filipino musical performance are “Calamba Joe” where he played Dr. Jose Rizal, “1896: The Musical” where he essayed Emilio Jacinto and “Ramahari 2012 Revival” as part of Ballet Philippines’ 50th year as the demon Ravana.