No one doubted that Lea Salonga could sing.
She won a Tony Award at age 20 for her breakout role as a Vietnamese teen Kim in “Miss Saigon,” and sang her heart as Eponin and later Fang Ting in the production of Broadway production “Recimereble.” Ta. She provided crystal vocals for the warrior heroine of 1998's “Mulan” and the magical carpet ride of 1992's “Aladdin” Jasmine.
However, singers can deal with Sondheim. Did the composer tell us he's created some of the most challenging and singular works that can be seen on the American stage on Broadway? Could she live in a character like Mama Rose, a monstrous, pathologically ambitious stage mother in “Gypsy”? Or, with a Cockney accent, Mrs. Lovett of butcher/baker “Sweeney Tod” who broke the marketing challenges of a Hawking Pie filled with human flesh;
“Some of that is difficult,” Salonga admitted.
But she does more than that with “Steven Sondheim's Old Friend.” He currently performs at the Ahmanson Theatre here in Los Angeles after 16 weeks of running in London's West End. The show, which is set to begin previews on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre next month, will feature more than three songs from Sondheim's biggest musicals, including “West Side Story,” “Gypsy,” “Little Night Music,” and “. We feature songs. In the forest. Bernadette Peters also appears in the tribute review. Bernadette Peters puts his own indelible stamp on the character Mama Rose in 2003 by someone who is not familiar with Sondheim.
Peters' Salonga said, “He has one of the great voices of Broadway and she only gives birth to a home.”
For Salonga, “I've had the opportunity to sing some of the most incredible lyrics ever written. Not just my toes, but my whole body, I've become soaked in this incredible job. It was there.”
“No one was surprised at how amazing she is as a performer,” said show producer Cameron McIntosh.
“The real surprise was how interesting she was,” he continued. “There wasn't much laughter in “Miss Saigon” or “Les Miss.” Obviously, I didn't know that side of her. ”
The show shows Salonga has returned to the Center Theater Group in LA. She was last seen in David Henry Fan's 2001 Rogers and Hammerstein musical “Flower Wardrum Song.”
In many ways, the show was a leap of faith for her. The 1958 original was not particularly aging, with a musical homage to its mail-order bride and diversity titled “Chop Sweet.” And by then, Salonga may be selective in her career.
“No one achieved the combination of artistic and commercial success that Lea had on Broadway, especially during that period,” fans said. “We were really fortunate to have her.”
Salonga's career was like that: breakout performance (first Asian Eponin and Phan Ting on Broadway) and her recent roles in “Flower Walnut Song” and “Lies Love” on “Here” Such a combination of leaps of faith was. Marcos is a disco musical.
“I never thought I'd see that story on Broadway,” Salonga said.
In the process, she opened the doors as an example, for the others in the theater, both as an advocate, against racism in Hollywood and Broadway.
“She was clearly a loud voice of diversity when casting from the start,” said Matthew Bourne, who won the Tony Award for “Old Friends.” “But she was also an icon and inspiration for many of the younger members of our cast.”
On a recent morning, Salonga was in a restaurant overlooking the Ahmanson Theatre, talking about her early days as a child star in her home country of the Philippines, her breakout role on Broadway, and her reunion with “old friend” MacIntosh .
“A significant number of us did 'Remy' for him,” Salonga recalls. “So I think he wanted the show to live in people he knew, and he knew it was a good thing.”
Salonga first met MacIntosh in 1988 and after extensive talent searches, he was chosen to play Kim in the West End production of “Miss Saigon.” “I love thinking Cameron found her,” Bourne said with a laugh. “And in many ways, he did.”
However, Salonga was already a Philippine star, but Cameron appeared in “The King and Me” and appeared as the “Annie” star at 9am. Handling the pressure of singing at venues like the 2,000-seat Drury Lane Theater in London, Cameron asked what kind of crowd she played.
Three weeks ago she told him, she opened for Stevie Wonder.
“At that point, I told myself, 'Cameron, shut up,'” MacIntosh recalled.
“Miss Saigon” has performed in London for 10 years and secured the Lawrence Olivier Award for the best actress in the musical, making it one of the most popular musicals in the world. However, when the show was scheduled to come to Broadway in 1991, it ignited the Firestorm for Yellowface Casting of Welsh actor Jonathan Price in the role of an engineer.
Salonga also fired from the Actors' Stock Association.
Eventually, Salonga and Price were brought in for a Broadway run, both of whom acquired Tony in the process. Salonga became the first Asian actress to win an award. “I was in Cloud 9 that night,” she said.
“And after the undoubtedly controversial casting of Jonathan Price, all the actors who had to play that role were of Asian descent,” she continued. “It was a huge victory for Asian actors.”
One of the most vocal protesters against yellowface casting in “Miss Saigon” was a fan, who opened at the Mark Taper Forum in 2007 and wrote a play called “Yellowface,” which played on Broadway last fall. did. When fans asked Salonga to star in the 2012 revival of “Flower Wardrum Song,” it had that history in mind.
“We talked about it,” he said. “But she is a very young actress, blew that part out in both London and the US, and I have no objection to 'Saigon' and Jonathan Price's casting has had a lot of personal relationships with Price. . There wasn't much to talk about. ”
“One of the good things we talked about was how 'Miss Saigon' created a cohort of Asian ancestor performers who gained experience on Broadway and learned how to direct the Broadway stage,” he said. I added. “The vast number of actors we were to cast in 'Flower Drum Song', including Lea, had their teeth cut out there. ”
Ten years later, in 2021, Salonga teamed up with fans again for #Stopasianhate, an online movement that emerged in response to rising anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic.
“I remember seeing news about a Filipino woman attacked in front of her Manhattan apartment. The doorman didn't even try to help her,” she said. “So I thought it was important for all of us to say it when we're all attacked.”
In 2023, the production of Broadway's Here Lies Love offered Salonga the opportunity to tell a story that is close to her heart. It was the beginning of the rise of Imelda Marcos and the power revolution for the people of the Philippines. The show also marked the first time when Salonga played Filipinos on Broadway and found an all-Philippine cast.
“I played Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and French twice,” she said. “Never Filipino. Our story had never reached Broadway before.”
Later that year, MacIntosh called on Salonga to co-star in West End productions for “Old Friends.” “There were only a handful of people who thought they could play with Bernadette,” he said.
“Steve writes about the human condition,” Peters said. “So you have to get to all of that mind, but if you follow the map of what he writes, he really thinks everything so well, so it's all.”
Among Salonga's concerns is to do justice to Mrs. Lovett's Cockney accent in front of a house full of Londoners. She played the role of a serial killer accomplice and romantic partner in the Manila and Singapore's “Sweeney Todd” production in 2019, but Drury Lane was another.
“In London, I didn't give myself a breathing room,” she said. “I had to nail it every day.”
“I'm Londoner and I'm actually a real Cockney,” director Bourne said. “And her accent is really good and she's getting better and better. But that's Lee. She's going to do everything she does better and better.”
After running in Los Angeles and New York, Salonga returns to the Filipino music stage for the first time in six years. Decades ago.
“I'm now starting to do all sorts of Sondheim,” she said. “If I could do Sondheim until the day I die, I would be happy.”
“The goal is not to be 100% perfect for everything you do,” she continued. “It's not at all. It's about being a good person, being responsible, disciplined and being a good performer. That's the reputation I think I have. And I keep it that way. I want to be someone I can count on to do a good show.”
