Stage Rush TV: Episode 84
Talking points:
- Ron Raines gives the rundown on each of his Follies costars
- The best performances of the Suites By Sondheim benefit concert
- Broadway grosses
What do you think, Rushers? Who is your favorite character in Follies? Do you see where Ron Raines is coming from with his assessments of his castmates? Were you at the Suites By Sondheim concert? Who do you think gave the best performance? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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On the scene: Lea Salonga, Adam Jacobs and Ali Ewoldt perform at Suites By Sondheim concert
Ali Ewoldt and Adam Jacobs. Photo: Carlos Damocles
PhilDev’s Suites By Sondheim benefit concert at Lincoln Center was like reaching into a cereal box of Stephen Sondheim’s Lucky Charms and scooping out a handful of marshmallows. The concert, held at Alice Tully Hall on November 7 to benefit the Philippine Development Foundation, featured songs only among the composer’s biggest hits. Performing the sweeping
numbers were 36 Broadway actors of Filipino descent, including concert headliner Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon), Adam Jacobs (The Lion King), T.V. Carpio (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), and Ali Ewoldt (Les Miserables).
Jose Llana led a lively ensemble opener with the title song to Company, followed by a cutesy “You Could Drive A Person Crazy” by Carpio, Liz Casola, and Jaygee Macapugay. Llana closed out the Company set with a solid “Being Alive.”
The West Side Story segment was among the strongest of the night, reuniting Jacobs and Ewoldt, who played Marius and Cosette in the 2006 revival of Les Miserables. They sang a shiver-inducing “One Hand, One Heart,” which exemplified their pitch-perfect chemistry. Joan Almedilla joined Ewoldt for a ferocious “A Boy Like That,” which they beautifully juxtaposed with a haunting “I Have A Love.” Read more 
Adam Jacobs: A Disney prince, twice over
If you were a young boy in the early 90s, chances are you wanted to be Aladdin and Simba. Heck, if you were a girl, you may have wanted to be them too, or at least marry them. Only one person on this earth has been both Aladdin and Simba; his name is Adam Jacobs.
Although Jacobs is the only person who can carry the honor of being the first to do this, he is an example that the rest of our childhood dreams still can come true. Naturally, Jacobs was one of these children who wanted to grow up and be the street rat turned Sultan and lion cub turned king. He admits that his 10-year-old self would never have believed that by the time he would enter his late 20s, he would have played Simba in The Lion King’s national tour, the title character in Aladdin’s first theatrical production, and then Simba once again on Broadway, where he can currently be seen eight times a week. Disney really is the stuff dreams are made of.
Jacobs grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and earned his BFA in theater at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He did some regional theater work and performed on cruise ships (where he was made to pull double-duty as a security guard, poking a metal-detecting wand through old ladies’ purses), but those gigs didn’t last long. In 2006, Jacobs made his Broadway debut as Marius in the revival of Les Miserables, which opened the door for leading-man roles.
Aside from feeling ecstatic when receiving the offer to play Simba on Broadway, Jacobs noted that his other main emotion was relief. “I had been touring in various shows for almost five years,” Jacobs said, referencing his runs in Cinderella, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, The Lion King, and Aladdin’s Seattle run. “The whole goal from the beginning was to come home to New York.” But before Jacobs could make roots in his new hometown, he would get to tackle his second Disney prince—Aladdin in the buzzed-about world premiere musical in Seattle.
For the production, which ran at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater in July, Disney need only look at its current pool of princes for the right candidate. Adams was plucked from his Simba duties in The Lion King’s national tour to mount the flying carpet. Read more