Things come in seasons for Sam Concepcion

MANILA, Philippines — After wrapping up the musical, “One More Chance,” where he played the iconic role of Popoy, the love of Basha, singer-actor-dancer Sam Concepcion was immediately called on to audition for “Once On This Island,” to be staged by 9Works Theatrical.

“I didn’t even know I would be called on until the first day of rehearsals (July 8) for ‘Once On This Island,’” shared Sam. “They hired me on the day of the first rehearsals.”

His inclusion in the musical has been floating around towards the end of the run of “One More Chance” and because of theater actor Floyd Tena.

“It was the idea of Floyd to make me do Daniel (Beauxhomme,) in ‘Once On This Island,’” shared Sam. “He said, ‘You know, the role of Daniel fits you. Let me call up some people.’”

Sam has been familiar with “Once On This Island” in the past, although he didn’t know it by heart, like a lot of other shows.

“I’ve been doing ‘One More Chance’ for three months every day (Wednesdays to Sundays) and that was heavy drama,” said Sam. “That ran from April to June this year with a total of 80 shows. After that, I thought maybe I should do something like classical theater like ‘Once On This Island.’”

“One More Chance is pop, Filipino OPM (Original Pilipino Music). It’s nice to go back to doing classical theater,” added Sam.

Sam admitted to being a “theater baby” way before he went to ABS-CBN and joined the Big Division of the first season of “Little Big Star” in 2006, when he bagged the trophy.

At five, he made his first public performance in a worship cantata that landed him a role in the stage play, “Sino Ka Ba, Jose Rizal?,” back in 1997.

Sam has no particular expectations doing “Once On This Island” right after his pop musical. “But going into music rehearsals of ‘Once On This Island’ and I saw the cast, heard everybody and I thought they sounded amazing.”

“I was convinced this ‘Once On This Island’ was great. I’m glad that I am around. Out theater vets who are here — Manong (Raul Montesa), Ate Sheila (Valderrama), Kuya Loy (Martinez) – to the newer ones who are our leads – Angela, Thea – I feel we are such a good mix of old and new, plus somewhere in between,” shared he.

It wasn’t hard for Sam