THE COLORFUL, versatile actor Bernardo Bernardo was so quotable in my Q and A with him via e-mail that my recent column on him ran in two parts.

Despite the two-part space devoted to BB, who just finished the LA premiere engagement of the play “The Romance of Magno Rubio” (with a wonderful cast that includes Ramon de Ocampo, Paolo Montalban, Arthur Acuña and Jojo Gonzalez), we still have some quotable quotes left from our interview. So we are sharing some of the Q and A segments which did not get printed due to space constraints.

And here’s a photo of Bernardo Bernardo (standing) with Ramon de Ocampo in “The Romance of Magno Rubio” courtesy of Matt Zugale.

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IT’S not every day that we come across a show in LA that speaks to our “Filipino-ness” in such a touching, excellent manner.

“The Romance of Magno Rubio” is one such play. While it tells the story of migrant Filipino workers in California in the 1930s, “Magno Rubio” does not feel dated or old-fashioned in a boring way.

Bravo to the cast of “The Romance of Magno Rubio” (from left), shown during the after-performance party at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown LA: Ramon de Ocampo, Jojo Gonzalez, Bernardo Bernardo, Arthur Acuña, playwright Lonnie Carter (described as an honorary Filipino because of his insightful, nuanced adaptation of Bulosan’s story) and Paolo Montalban.

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“MOST Wanted,” a musical about Filipino-American Andrew Cunanan who murdered designer Gianni Versace, just ended its workshop run at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California.

Fil-Am Jessica Hagedorn (”Dogeaters”), director Michael Greif and Mark Bennett have been creating and fine-tuning the play for six years. The musical’s book is by Jessica, music is by Mark and the lyrics are by both co-creators.

We’ve been following the saga of the making of this project with a subject matter that one would think would be the last thing to inspire a musical. But with the impressive credentials of this trio (Greif, for one, was the original director of the Tony Award-winning “Rent”), they might just make the musical work. The name of the protagonist has been changed to Danny Reyes but the play still hews closely to Cunanan’s life story.

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PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s recent photo with two Fil-Am talents and Lea Salonga made us rush and watch for the nth time “Les Miserables” on our trip to New York this past weekend.

It was good to see Fil-Am talents like Adam Jacobs and Ali Ewoldt (in photo, courtesy of Carissa Villacorta) following in the footsteps of Lea.

Watching and listening to Adam and Ali by themselves on a Broadway stage at a certain point in the very popular musical thrilled us. We are glad to see that race-blind casting is taking hold in Broadway.

Editor’s note: Photo courtesy of  Carissa Villacorta

WE missed the first ever Filipino zarzuela in English, about a sabungero (cockfight enthusiast), in LA.

Here’s a photo of (from left) the youthful Roces brothers: Francisco “Pipo” Roces (85), artist Rodolfo Samonte and Dr. Alejandro Roces (83). Dr. Roces based the sabungero character, Kiko the Cockfighter, on Pipo, who lives in LA.

Fortunately, our friend Zen Lopez, the Arts and Culture Commissioner of Glendale, California, shared this with us: “Director Cecile Guidote Alvarez said that it’s a miracle that Philippine National Artist for Literature Dr. Alejandro Roces’ ‘Something to Crow About,’ a modern zarzuela, became a reality in LA.

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