Director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and the cast of Repertory Philippines' 'I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.' Handout

MANILA -- Singer-actress and theater director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo has a loaded schedule right at the start of 2024.

She immediately began rehearsals for the Parokya ni Edgar musical, “Buruguduystunstugudunstuy,” which opened at the Newport Performing Arts Theater last April.

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Then, she subsequently started rehearsals for Repertory Philippines musical comedy, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”

She also rehearsed and performed in the concert tribute, “Gen C,” for National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab, who marked his 70th birthday early May.

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“I don’t know how I managed, to be honest,” Lauchengco-Yulo told ABS-CBN News. “It’s great because it keeps the artistic juices flowing. So when people ask me , ‘Are you free?,’ I answered them right away, ‘No.’

“I rehearse from 1 to 8 p.m. every day for Rep. I started first week of May, the moment after ‘Buruguduystunstugudunstuy’ opened.

“So my weekdays are with Rep and my weekends are with Newport. When Rep opens, I will be half at RCBC and half in Newport, because they will be running simultaneously this June for two weekends.”

Sometimes, Lauchengco-Yulo tells herself, “What am I doing to myself? I think it’s really time management, knowing how to manage time, coming in prepared. So what I do is, I come in with a clear vision, which I explain to my creatives, ‘This is what I want. This is how I see the show in my head. You have got to help me pull it off’.”

Her last directorial job onstage was “Jekyll and Hyde” with Rep in 2012. Her last acting job was Rep’s “Agnes of God” (2017), where she played the lawyer, Martha Livingston.

Lauchengco-Yulo is very hands on with everything that she does. Even with the set design of New York-based Joey Mendoza -- who did the set design of her “Little Women” and “Jekyll and Hyde” -- she makes it a point to work with him.

She knew about “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” at the start of the year, when Rep unveiled its 2024 season offering. The musical presents a series of hilarious yet achingly familiar vignettes on connection and intimacy, commitment and loneliness.

“I knew by the time ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ started, ‘Buruguduystunstugudunstuy’ musical had already opened,” Lauchengco-Yulo explained. “So, I was able to accept the Rep project.

“From the very start, they already plot out the scene. The challenge of ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ is that there’s no real narrative, just situations. Each song is a situation that does not connect to the next.

“So there are four actors playing 40 roles. It’s that kind. It’s a musical revue. There’s no real story, but the basic premise is about people trying to connect.”

“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” was staged by Rep in 2006. Michael Williams directed. It’s second longest-running off-Broadway musical following “The Fantasticks.”

“I can understand why ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ is one of the longest-running off-Broadway musicals because it is easy to relate with, you don’t think too much, you can easily relate.

“Each song is a different situation of dating. There’s marriage, there are older couples, there’s the boy-boy relationship. There are many things about the show that have been modernized from the older version.” 

“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” features a fantastic and accomplished cast of four -- Gian Magdangal, Gabby Padilla, Krystal Kane and Marvin Ong.

Lauchengco-Yulo is very pleased with the choice of her cast members for “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” 

“My challenge is to really get them in shape, because every time they go out and they come back, all of them are different persons. The 15-second changes are challenging. They have to change, come back onstage and they’re another person.

“Those are their characters. For example, Gab [Padilla], in one scene, she’s dating someone, next scene, she’s a mother. They keep changing. That’s the challenge for the cast. That they have to come in and become different people.

“Hindi ka pwedeng magpatawa for the sake of making the audience laugh. So my challenge to my cast is to find the truth of why your character is behaving the way they are behaving. No matter how absurd it is.”

Lauchengco-Yulo is confident her cast can brilliantly pull off their roles in the musical-comedy.

“I am confident and I will help them get there,” Lauchengco-Yulo said. “I also have a great, creative team. My challenge to Stephen [Viñas] is 15 seconds. I have tweet certain things about the show, to how I see it in my head. I love stylized staging.

“My challenge is I’m toying around with the idea of using the same furniture throughout with different configurations. The cast themselves will do the same changes.”

With book and lyrics by award-winning Joe DiPietro, music by renowned composer Jimmy Brooks, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” goes onstage June 14 to July 6 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza.

The next half of the year will see Lauhangco-Yulo in a few events that she needs to direct. She’s working at the helm of the solo concert of Shiela Valderrama-Martinez for “Triple Threat” in October at the CCP Black Box Theater.

“This early, we are also in the midst of planning the Newport World Resorts season for next year,” Lauchengco-Yulo said.

“There’s talk of a repeat of ‘Gen C,’ so they are trying to find out the availability of the artists.