“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.” –Arthur Schopenhauer

A Filipino-American doctor from Texas once told a group of sportswriters, including this writer, “It will take another 100 years before the Philippines produces another Manny Pacquio.”
In musical theater, however, let me say, 100 years is not enough for Iloilo City to produce another Jhett Tolentino.
Thank God for giving Iloilo City and the Philippines, Jhett Tolentino.
He is one-of-a-kind. Unassuming and soft-spoken, Tolentino is one of the most intelligent Fil-Ams making waves in the American entertainment industry.
If Michael Jordan is considered a genius of basketball, Tolentino is a genius of musical theater.

Issues
While Iloilo City is being battered by negative issues, being labeled “the most shabulized city” and the hometown of slain drug lord Melvin ‘Boyet’ Odicta, Sr., the New York City-based Tolentino restored the Ilonggo pride, last month, after winning the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for “The Color Purple.”
His victory was a titanic accomplishment for any producer born and raised in the Philippines; no other Filipino producer has achieved such an honor.

Tony Awards
Tolentino became only the second Filipino to win a Tony Award, after Lea Salonga, capturing three trophies, one in 2013 for “Vanya and Sonia and Marsha and Spike” and two in 2014 for “A Raisin in the Sun” and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”
Because of his extraordinary achievement on the global stage, he has become bigger than life as his name is now synonymous with the term “world class.”/WDJ