Artist:Jose Llana f/Lea Salonga
Song:You Are Beautiful
Album:Flower Drum Song: The New Broadway Cast Recording
Filipino born actor Jose Llana has had success mostly on Broadway especially in revivals of Flower Drum Song and The King and I. He also starred as Philippines president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the off-Broadway musical Here Lies Love. He was born May 5, 1976 in Manila, Philippines but he grew up in Springfield, VA which is a suburb of Washington, DC. While studying classical voice at Manhattan School of Music, he auditioned for a 1996 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I and he made his Broadway debut as Lun Tha starring with Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy. He was in that show from Mar. 1996-June 1997. Llana's next big show was as Wang Ta in the 2002 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song starring with Lea Salonga. That ran from Oct. 2002-Mar. 2003 and there is an original cast album available as a budget CD. Then he played Chip Tolentino in the 2005 musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. That show ran for two years. Llana has had success as a recording artist in his native Philippines. He also appeared in the 2005 film Hitch and the HBO TV series Sex and the City. But mostly he has stayed in New York. Llana played Ferdinand Marcos in David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim's off-Broadway musical Here Lies Love in 2014. He returned to Broadway starring in a 2015 revival of The King and I. Most recently he appeared in a 2023 production of Here Lies Love. I'm sure we'll see him again very soon. Here's Jose Llana with Alvin Ing and Telly Leung performing You Are Beautiful at the 2018 Red Bucket Follies for Broadway Care/Equity Fights AIDS in New York City.
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