Now on to another cast from The Kitchen Musical--Maddie's best friend Daniel!
Daniel is played by Christian Bautista, another singer-actor from the Philippines. Christian and Karylle have worked together numerous times before and they're good friends in real life, just like Maddie and Daniel. Unlike his more serious character in The Kitchen Musical though, Christian is a very funny guy. When asked what the biggest challenge for him was filming this series, he admitted it was the dancing. Thankfully though, he had Jason Coleman (dance consultant for "Happy Feet" and judge on the TV series "So You Think You Can Dance Australia") on board to teach the entire cast how to move and groove to the music.
Speaking about music, Christian Bautista is familiar with Malaysia and has worked with various Malaysian artists before! His had a duet with Noryn Aziz entitled "Anugerah Cinta" that was released last year, and he's even worked with Malaysian beauty Carmen Soo in his "Afraid For Love To Fade" music video and other projects.
The other interesting part about being in the series for Christian was the bootcamp the cast was put through. It was then he learnt proper chopping skills, cooking techniques, and how the chefs move in an actual restaurant kitchen. He even got to explaining how different chefs are situated in different parts of the kitchen and they have to move in sync with one another if they were going to get the dishes out in time. Interesting indeed.
Then there's the man himself, Stephen Rahman-Hughes who needs no introduction.
Having been in the theater and performing arts industry for a long time, Stephen had no problem singing, acting, and dancing in The Kitchen Musical. Cooking however proved to be a bit of a challenge for him. As Alex the Head Chef in The Kitchen Musical, Stephen had to be the one to know it all. He had to act like a real head chef, knowing the actual ins and outs to make his kitchen function. Having gone through the bootcamp, Stephen was amazed at how each of the cast fell into their roles easily, all thanks to the careful detail creator Cheek put in in picking out the right person for each role. Even he himself started shouting around in the kitchen, just like Alex would.
One of the best parts for Stephen was he felt everyone had creative ownership of The Kitchen Musical--like when he suggested certain choreography moves in certain scenes, Jason would take in the ideas and incorporate them. Overall, everyone was easy to work with and they felt like family to him.
Listening to them talk about their roles and their lives, it really showed how much dedication they had towards the production of this series. Christian Bautista even said he was ready to take time out to film a second season if there was going to be one! With so much effort put into The Kitchen Musical, it definitely reflected itself and I can't wait for you guys to see the full episode!
Read Part 1 of the interview with Karylle HERE.
