The Broadway actress takes on a Cinderella who&rsquo;s less about ballgowns and more about bold decisions in her first ever Philippine theater debut.

PHOTOGRAPHY Kevin Redder
CREATIVE DIRECTION Maura Rodriguez
STYLING Frances Laman
A theater kid grows up with cast albums on loop, falling in love with stories told through song &mdash; and dreaming of curtain calls and opening nights. For Arielle Jacobs, that dream began in a children&rsquo;s song-and-dance troupe in San Francisco and eventually led her to some of Broadway&rsquo;s biggest stages.
Now, that journey brings her somewhere new,&nbsp; and in many ways, back to where she came from. Speaking with L&rsquo;Officiel Philippines, the Broadway star opens up about playing Cinderella, performing in the Philippines for the first time, and how this long-awaited homecoming feels just as magical as the stories she grew up singing. In this staging of Into the Woods, she plays a Cinderella who&rsquo;s not just chasing a fairytale ending, but asking bigger questions about choice, change, and what it really means to get what you want. And for Jacobs, that journey hits close to home.

Jacobs&rsquo; love for music is a tale as old as time &mdash; one that began within the walls of a church, singing in the choir alongside her mom and brother. &ldquo;I first fell in love with singing because I was in the church choir with my mom and my brother, and I wanted to become a singer,&rdquo; she shares.
Inspired by vocal icons like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, she asked her mom for voice lessons, leading her to a San Francisco teacher running a children&rsquo;s song-and-dance troupe. &ldquo;She taught me how to sing pop songs, but also theater songs,&rdquo; Jacobs recalls. &ldquo;And I actually loved the theater songs better, because I could tell stories and go on the journey of a character from beginning to end.&rdquo;
That love for storytelling quickly became something she wanted to live out. Her first show was &lsquo;A Christmas Carol,&rsquo; where she played one of the urchins. &ldquo;I had so much fun, because when you&rsquo;re in a show, you really unite with the cast, and it feels like such a family,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s so thrilling to be on stage and be able to tell a story.&rdquo;&nbsp;

"I&rsquo;ve always loved Into the Woods. It&rsquo;s my favorite show growing up. And when I was younger, I listened to that cast album all the time."

But it wasn&rsquo;t just the spotlight that drew her in. As early as her first production, Jacobs was struck by how many people it takes to bring a show to life. &ldquo;There are so many people who come together to put on a show,&rdquo; she says &mdash; from the tech crew and costume team to the audience. That spirit of collaboration is what continues to move her most about theater &mdash; a value that&rsquo;s stayed with her from those early ensemble days to leading roles on Broadway.
Alongside that belonging she found in theater, Jacobs has spent years shaping her voice as a singer and storyteller. With credits that include In the Heights, Aladdin, and Wicked, she&rsquo;s no stranger to iconic material. But looking back, her time as Jasmine stands out the most. &ldquo;Everyone I met who saw the show had their own connection to the character,&rdquo; she says of playing Jasmine.
Whether it&rsquo;s a Disney classic or a Sondheim fairytale, Jacobs is drawn to intimate, expansive, personal, and universal stories, making &lsquo;Into the Woods' a thrilling next chapter where Jacobs steps into the glass slippers of Cinderella. She first crossed paths with &lsquo;Into the Woods&rsquo; director Clint Ramos in Broadway&rsquo;s &lsquo;Here Lies Love,&rsquo; a milestone production featuring an all-Filipino cast, where she shared the stage with Lea Salonga. Years later, Ramos reached out again with an offer: Would she be interested in performing in Into the Woods in Manila? &ldquo;I was so excited about it,&rdquo; Jacobs says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always loved Into the Woods. It&rsquo;s my favorite show growing up. And when I was younger, I listened to that cast album all the time.&rdquo;

Top and Skirt, APARA

The offer meant a lot. Not only would she get to play Cinderella in her favorite musical, she&rsquo;d also be performing in the Philippines for the first time, a country that&rsquo;s a massive part of her identity but one she hadn&rsquo;t explored until now. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never yet been able to come to the Philippines, even though my family came from here,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s my first time being able to explore the Philippines and also being here to perform in my favorite show ever. And with Lea Salonga on stage. It was like a dream come true.&rdquo;
With a full Filipino cast and audience, the story of Into the Woods took on new dimensions. &ldquo;Stephen Sondheim wrote such a universal story that everyone can relate to,&rdquo; she says. From what we think we want, to what we&rsquo;re willing to give up for it, to the realization that maybe it wasn&rsquo;t what we needed after all, there&rsquo;s a lot to sit with in the show. Jacobs points out how those questions hit differently when told by people who share your background, and performed in a space where everyone brings in their own lived experience.
It&rsquo;s a feeling she brings with her wherever she performs, whether she&rsquo;s in New York, Taiwan, or now, Manila. &ldquo;Getting to represent the Filipino community around the world is such a blessing to me,&rdquo; she says. That kind of connection is instant and powerful. &ldquo;They feel so excited to see themselves and their fellow Filipinas on stage,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;And I feel excited to be up there representing the Philippines.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Jacobs doesn&rsquo;t see any of this as some grand statement or symbolic gesture. It&rsquo;s more personal than that. It&rsquo;s about being part of a community where culture, music, and shared stories unite people. &ldquo;Filipinos love arts and love music and theater,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;So to me, it just feels like I&rsquo;m the luckiest person in the world.&rdquo;
And in a way, stepping into Into the Woods, a show that wrestles with the idea of paths taken and retaken, feels fitting. For Jacobs, each role is a return to something: to childhood dreams, to the stories that shaped her, to the people who keep showing up. It&rsquo;s a full-circle moment that doesn&rsquo;t feel like an ending, but a continuation of the story she&rsquo;s been telling all along.
Catch Arielle Jacobs as Cinderella in the limited run of Into the Woods, playing from August 7 to 31 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati.
MAKEUP Don De Jesus
HAIR Bonita Tean̈o
INTERN James Carl Calizo

‘Into the Woods’ Star Arielle Jacobs on Finding Her Voice, Onstage and Beyond

L'OFFICIEL HOMMES PHILIPPINES JUNE 2025 - Cole Micek ₱600

‘Into the Woods’ Star Arielle Jacobs on Finding Her Voice, Onstage and Beyond

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