DOHA — Tony Award winner Lea Salonga will showcase the Filipino talent outside of the sporting arena but before the sporting world as she will be the main performer at the Closing Ceremony of the 15th Asian Games Friday at the Khalifa Stadium here. According to the thick Closing Ceremony manual, Salonga will "rise above the stadium field on a telescoping mast on the Central Stage where she would appear to be floating on a cloud of smoke as she sings the Triumph of the One, a stirring ballad written as a tribute to the athletes of the Games."

Noted artistic director David Atkins, the brain behind the spectacular Opening Ceremony that upstaged all the other sporting openers in terms of scope and scale, said they have been impressed by Salonga’s talent and considered her as the best Asian for the role.

“She’s fantastic, she’s quite a performer,” said Atkins of Salonga, who gained international acclaim for her award-winning performance as Kim in the London and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon.

In addition to winning the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award in London, Salonga also garnered the coveted Tony Award as well as the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards when the show opened on Broadway.

Salonga was also the first Asian actor to play the widely popular role of Eponine in Les Miserables on Broadway. She reprised the same role in London, Hawaii (with the US National Tour) and the “Dream Cast” 10th anniversary concert production at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

“We think that Lea Salonga is the best Asian for the role,” said Atkins.

Salonga will actually be among the five artists performing on the main stage during the ceremony’s 50-minute fantasy show.

Unlike the opening rites, however, the closing ceremony will be more of a celebration for the athletes than a formal cultural show.

“The opening is a lot more formal, more technically challenging. The closing is more of a tribute to the athletes. We wanted to find a story with 1001 Arabian Knights as a theme, a sort of fantasy, a story that is a celebration of Asian influences,” said Atkins.

In the handover ceremony, the OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) flag and other official items will be passed on to the 2010 host nation, China, which will hold the 16th staging of the Games in the city of Guangzhou, the capital of South China’s Guangdong Province.

The people of Guangzhou will present a cultural presentation as an introduction to their city, country and culture.

A spectacular fireworks finale will bring the Closing Ceremony to an end.

Choreographed to a music track, the live pyrotechnics will be matched by imagery on the LED cyclorama. As the last sparkling flare fades in the sky, the 15th Asian Games, billed as the best Asiad ever, will be over, its memories to shine in years to come.

By Dante Navarro
Source: Philippine Star