"The King and I" in Manila, Something Wonderful

Narra, posing with the elephant and the King.

My mother loved musical theater and made sure my sister and I grew up exposed to her favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein classics such as The Sound of Music, Carousel, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Flower Drum Song, and of course, The King and I.  These are shows we've seen over and over at various points in our lives.  In the 1980's, these titles were borrowed from the Betamax rental shop a few streets  away, and watched in succession.  Later, they were borrowed in VHS - then on Laser Disc in the early 90's - then on VCD at Videocity in the late 90's until it became cheaper to just buy our own DVD's, or even better - to just download them on our computers.  It is as though we domesticated new technology and confirmed their official residency in our homes through a ritual-like viewing of time-honored classics. Now, in our effort to take a piece of home with us, wherever we go, we find these family favorites in our mobile devices: Ipods, Ipads, and Iphones. It is amazing how these shows, produced in the 1940s-50s, continue to remain relevant through fast-changing times.  A few weekends back, my family had the chance to experience some Rodgers and Hammerstein magic, yet again, in another format: live, on stage, at Resorts World Manila's Newport Performing Arts Theater.  It was Narra's turn to get to know The King and I.

With Narra and Guijo...and an elephant.

I was excited for my daughter.  My sister and I eagerly anticipated her turning 3 so she could be old enough to meet the age requirement to gain entry to the theater.  Last year, the Sound of Music was playing at Resorts World, and we lamented the fact that we couldn't bring Narra with us.  This year, I could take her at last - but I couldn't bring my 1-year old Guijo with me! My poor baby boy, he could already sense when he's being left out! Good thing my supportive parents offered to watch him.  My ever resourceful folks made a career out of maximizing their Resorts World membership cards, and they strategically accumulated enough credits to redeem a complimentary stay at Remington Hotel across the street so that they can enjoy playing with Guijo at their hotel room, while we watched our show.  So I felt as though both kids had a special night out. Narra had a girls' theater night with me and her aunts and grand aunts, while Guijo had an exclusive date with his grandparents.  

Boy's Night Out at Remington Hotel: Lolo Walter watches Guijo.

When we watch something familiar, something we've seen repeatedly since childhood, we get a chance to take stock of how we've changed.  Our perspectives shift over time, and we notice things we didn't pay attention to before, or understand old scenes in new ways.  Take the musical, the Sound of Music, for instance.  As a kid, I could relate to My Favorite Things, and the Do-Re-Mi song, and I Have Confidence.  While my mother, if I remember correctly, could most relate with the song I Must Have Done Something Good.  Last year, when we watched the Sound of Music live, I found myself tearing up at the song Climb Every Mountain.  I had a particularly difficult year, full of trials, and the lyrics hit home. "When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window"... how many times have I heard that line uttered by Maria before?  I've lived a charmed life of open doors for most of my life, until last year, when for the first time, a door that mattered to me dearly, closed without warning.  Many lovely people quickly came forward offering me precious windows of opportunity soon after.  So that scene, when a distraught Maria sought her Mother Superior's counsel, struck a chord, like it never had  before.

Narra and her aunts. With the Serranilla sisters, and our family's        
"patron of the arts", my sis Marion, who bought all our tickets! Thanks sis!

So with the King and I, I was curious to see how I would see this musical now.  If this was a few years ago and I was still writing my dissertation, and taking my graduate courses on Southeast Asian history, art, and politics.... oh dear, I would have scrutinized the show from a post-colonial angle of vision and would have probably cringed in my seat throughout the show.  But that night, I saw the musical not as an academic, but as a teacher.  I could relate with Mrs. Anna's anxiety at having to teach children who spoke a different language.  Some 11 years ago, while on break from  our graduate studies in Spain, my sister and I taught English at a summer soccer camp in Valencia. Yes, it was a soccer (or should I say futbol) camp that had the special attraction of offering English lessons sandwiched between football drills. My sister got to handle the teen-agers, I was assigned to the energetic little kids ages 5 to 8.  Woohoo!!  They would all shout "Nikki! Nikki!", and crowd around me, when I arrived. And while I knew how to teach, and knew how to speak English and Spanish - oh dear, their energy overwhelmed me - going to work daily required a lot of courage.  So when Mrs. Anna was singing the line "I whistle a happy tune, so noone would suspect I'm afraid"... and she faced the King's many children, I just had to chuckle.

It was also the first time I saw The King and I as a wife.  And from this angle, of being a married woman, one song in particular, stood out - and I swear, it seemed like I heard it for the first time, even if I've watched The King and I countless times before.  It was a song sung by the King's head wife, Lady Thiang, as she asked Anna to help the King.  Entitled "Something Wonderful", the verses went:

This is a man you'll forgive and forgive,

And help protect, as long as you live...

He will not always say

What you would have him say,

But now and the he'll do

Something

Wonderful

You'll always go along,

Defend him where he's wrong

And tell him, when he's strong

He is

Wonderful

He'll always need your love

A man who needs your love

Can be

Wonderful

I couldn't help but think of my wonderful husband Oliver, who was not by my side because of another business trip.  His crazy-busy workload and packed travel calendar isn't something I take against him.  He needs my support and understanding, and that's wonderful!  I do what I can to make sure he doesn't have to suffer the consequences of absence, for I only know too well, the depth of sacrifice and the pains of separation the overseas Filipino worker feels.  Not that Oliver is an overseas worker, though it can feel that way at times, when he's gone half of the time even if he's supposed to be Philippine-based.  So I protect him by seriously investing my time in some painstaking storytelling.  Whenever he travels, my children will hear stories of where he went, and what he did. They will see pictures on the internet of the hotel where he stayed, and see on a map the path his flight took.  We anticipate his arrival with a countdown. Narra keeps asking why he needs to be away, and I tell the truth - the long version: about the nature of his work; the effort it entails; why he does it; and the rewards we get to enjoy; ... how much he misses us while he's gone; how tired he must be upon his return (and why we should smother him with hugs and kisses).  When we watched The King and I, it was my birthday weekend, and Oliver was so sorry he missed my special day.  But it was so easy to forgive him... especially since...

...Now and then, he'd do something wonderful. 

Like when he'd ask me to travel with him.  Last year, when I was 7 months pregnant with Guijo, he invited me to join him in Bangkok.  I had a week to rest my aching back and throbbing feet, and slept as he worked away.  After work hours, we'd go on lovely dinner dates.  It was something wonderful. The year before, he took me to Bali.  At least once a year, he takes time off, extends his business trip a few days, so we can spend time together. So where are we going this year?

Oliver and I, in Bangkok, while I was 7 months pregnant with Guijo.

The night we returned home from watching The King and I,  an email was waiting for me at home. It was from Oliver, who was coincidentally in Thailand at the time.  The email contained my birthday gift written in a sentence: "Come with me to Barcelona". Woohoo! Viva España! It's a chance to return to a country I briefly called home ten years ago - a foreign place - the first country overseas I lived in on my own... Spain to me, is what Thailand probably was to Mrs. Anna.  A strange place where you become the strange person.  That's how my brain works: a musical premised on the adventures of a European lady who traveled in Asia, makes me think of my experiences as an Asian in Europe.

And Lady Thiang's song, expressing love for her king, makes me think of my own husband, and those things he does, that are just wonderful.