ALLEGIANCE Plans a Life After Its Broadway Run

Although Allegiance will end its run early on February 14th, the creators, including GEORGE TAKEI, hope that the musical will have a life following its Broadway run.

According to the Star Tribune, Takei says, "I know it has a life." The musical is based on George Takei's childhood memories of being forced into a Wyoming interment camp. The new musical is a multigenerational tale with two love stories that are framed by a Japanese-American war veteran looking back on his family's time in a camp. Takei stars opposite Lea Salonga and Telly Leung.

The producers are apparently looking into a potential touring production as well as seeing if Allegiance could have a life being performed at schools across the country. A version has also been looked at for the West Coast.

Lorenzo Thione, one of the shows producers and co-book writer says, "This is just a jumping-off point for the story to continue to be told...Obviously we're disappointed that we can't continue to tell this story on Broadway but the reasons are so external to the show itself."

Thione went onto express how Allegiance is different from anything else on Broadway today. He says, "For the first time for a long time, we see Asian-Americans portraying an Asian-American story in roles that do not feel stereotypical Asian-American,"

Although the new musical broke boundaries this past fall, small audiences and lately only making 40% of its potential box-office sales has caused the musical to end its run after over 150 performances.

Takei and Thione said it was inevitable that their depiction of a difficult moment in U.S. history would be a hard sell, but once people came, they said it was loved.

"It's not that the material doesn't work for the people that come, it's that not enough people believe it's a story that they would connect with," said Thione.

The arrival of "Allegiance" was cheered as part of a wave of shows featuring non-white stories told by either non-white actors or ones who rarely get to shine on Broadway. This season alone, Broadway saw the arrival of Hamilton, On Your Feet!, Deaf West's Spring Awakening and Allegiance. A very diverse Broadway season in deed.

According to the Star Tribune, Allegiance can boast of attracting Asian-Americans to Broadway - the usual 7 percent average leapt to 37 percent at the Longacre Theatre. The musical also increased the number of actors of Asian descent who got a break on the stage.

Allegiance also made headline outside of the Broadway community. After Donald Trump made comments about refugees during his Presidential campaign, Takei now saves a seat for him every single performance and called him out to come and experience the show and then make his comments.

According to the Star Tribune, when it closes, some 120,000 people will have seen it on Broadway. This is the same number of Japanese-Americans incarcerated during World War II.

Takei truly believes Allegiance will live on. He ends the piece by saying, "This is an American story. We may look different from what is popularly conceived of as American, but we are Americans."