Becca Godinez’s ‘In My Life’ is fresh and personal

Becca Godinez (center in aquamarine gown) singing with co-performers. CSB

Everything was fresh.  I had expected a pleasant stroll down memory lane.  But I was knocked off my feet by the surprises:  the quick change of pace; the nuanced interpretations of old song lyrics.  Lyrics that we all knew by heart were suddenly words that meant something I hadn’t thought of before.  But the word “fresh” came to me, not, initially, through the lyrics, but through the music. (More about that later.)

But where’s the star?  I answer:  Everywhere. Becca Godinez is  more like a universe. She begins and ends the show alone, but her presence is seen and felt throughout, as we assume the singers and the musicians are all there to express who she is. She does it best.

Beginning the show with “In My Life.”  She does not seem to signal how sweet and successful it was, but, whatever happened, she found the strength to survive the tragedies and even the successes, opening herself to wisdom: “There are places I’ll remember/All my life though some have changed/Some forever, not for better/Some have gone and some remain.” She is alone on the stage singing with only  keyboard accompaniment.

I don’t think her voice has changed, but if it has, it is “for better” as her entire life is all there in her voice and in the words and music of the entire program.  She is introducing herself, her story, as if we’d never heard it before, and even if you’ve followed her life story since her heyday in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it’s a fresh story tonight told by the woman who lived it and a dynamite cast and no-nonsense director, who understood it.

Ted Benito brought together a star-studied cast, appropriate to Becca Godinez’s universe. Two of the female singers, Nicole Santiago and Jennifer Paz, had, at various times, played the role of Kim in ‘Miss Saigon.’ Also a ‘Miss Saigon’ veteran, Red Concepcion, the most electrically charged of the male singers, recently played the role of the evil Engineer. All of the singers have range and strength and tenderness, when needed, in their impeccable delivery .

As Becca herself said of three of the singers, Leah Auditor, Tina Cruz and Charmie Morales,”They are not backup singers.”  Indeed. First, just for fun they sing the jingles that Becca sang on television back in the  Philippines. Then they go on to “try” close harmony. It works. They sing a medley of harmonization, starting with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and ending with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” The artistic discipline they each have to sing their part and blend with three other singers (each part different from the other’s), amidst the acoustics of the Aratani Theater, is close to the discipline of the Gyoto monks chanting in the Himalayas.  There’s that.

But there is also, the obvious, personal, loving feeling that brings the voices and music together throughout the performance.  It’s the feeling of family.

Within the universe a rising star emerges and shines her light on us.  Becca introduces her daughter: Natasha Kaiserman. She has  an astonishing likeness to Becca, and we soon learn that she inherited more than good looks. She can sing!

The theater was hushed and then in tears when Becca and Natasha sang “Ugoy Ng Duyan” as an a cappella duet.  I couldn’t know exactly why people were crying––though I could tell the song was a heart-breaker––until someone explained to me that this is a song mothers sing to their just born child. It was beautiful to witness.

Afterwards we see and hear Natasha as an original, clever and inventive young woman.  She sings a duet with Michael Seaman who is on piano.  The song is from the musical “Funny Girl.” She sings, with the confidence of an ingenue, the imperative “I’m the Greatest Star.”

Here’s the part I promised on the music:  The performance of the bass player, Bryant Simpson, draws my attention away from words and on to the music.  It’s thrilling to me that he has that power. He sounds like a jazz musician, like he is arranging the music just as he is playing it. And the arrangement is, again, unexpected. Not unnerving, but different, daring, and still melodic.

Musical Director Myke Gonzaga has played with the Sergio Mendes Band and from time to time brought South American music to us through his soulful guitar. His musical direction is, like Ted Benito’s, brilliant. Abe Lagrimas, Jr. on drums (also vibraphone and ukulele) seems to love his work and for good reason. Sandro Rebel is a “Brazilian-born pianist” with sultry samba sounds and Brazilian beats, and Michael Seaman, an Angeleno, is only 26 yet has his own 12-piece jazz big band. A fine group that has some of the audience up and dancing some of the time and all of the audience at least once, and that may have been to “Lalaking Makisig” or “Shining” or during Spanky Rigor’s VST medley.

Then there is the dancer, Mike Monserrat, who begins his performance with his back to the audience, stays that way for many measures of a Latin remix of the Jackson Five classic “I Want You Back.”  We keep our eyes on his hips and arms, mostly the hypnotizing hips. We are shocked when he turns around and we see his white beard telling us, “I’m older than you thought, but I already gotcha.”  True.  With the strength and agility of a young Gene Kelly, he dances to ragtime and jazz and other musical styles, without missing a step or losing his grace.

The occasion was a fundraiser and celebration of the 40th Anniversary of FASGI (Filipino American Service Group, Inc.), an organization in the heart of Filipinotown that offers programs and services to Fil-Am residents of Los Angeles and, during the epidemic, to people across the world. Yey Coronel, Executive Director of FASGI (Filipino American Service Group, Inc.) and Trinity Foliente, owner and founder of IHCS (Individual Health Care Services) partnered to raise the funds that brought “In My Life” into your lives.

Ted Benito is the brilliant producer and director.