Interview: Lea Salonga on ALLEGIANCE- 'This Is Really Happening!'

Allegiance, a new musical inspired by a true-life story, starring Lea Salonga and George Takei, is coming to Broadway, also starring Telly Leung. Previews begin on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 with opening night set for Sunday, November 8, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street). The company is busy getting ready to bring the show to Broadway, and Salonga recently chatted with BroadwayWorld about the process.

Salonga told BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge:

I'm coming back to Broadway! Oh my goodness! We just had a photo shoot in costume with Matthew Murphy taking all kind of great photographs of us kind of recreating moments from the show and I looked at myself in the costume in the full length mirror and I looked at Telly [Leung] all excited and said, "This is really happening!" It's real and Telly gets to play his first lead role on a Broadway stage and I get to come back and lead a company and George [Takei] is making his Broadway debut at the age of 78, which is wild if you think about it. He has this long, storied career but it's only now that he gets to make his Broadway debut, so I think everybody is just going to go absolutely nuts at the first preview, because that's when he will make his official Broadway debut. Then opening night will come and he will be an old veteran and it will be alright. It's really exciting. There are a whole bunch of people making their Broadway debuts with the show, including director Stafford Arima and Jay Kuo, who wrote the music and lyrics, so it's a whole Broadway debut kind of company and I am excited for each and everyone of them.

The thing I love the most about this piece is that every single character is always trying to do the right thing. It's not like there is really an anti-hero in the traditional sense. Here the villain is not really any human being it is circumstances that threaten to pull every single one of these hero's apart. Our tag line is 'One Family, Indivisible', paraphrasing something from the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America and in "Allegiance," it asks the questions: "Who do you actually pledge allegiance to? Is it to your country?, Is it to your family? or is it to yourself?" So all of these questions that get asked are answered in the show, and when you watch the show you realize there's really no right and no wrong, much like life. It's not really black and white.

The thing is everybody's right. That's the most painful part. There is no one position that is the definitive correct one and the cool thing about it is how this entire community does everything with so much grace and perseverance and dignity. That's like the best part. One of the best things about this show is how everybody carries themselves with, "I will move forward; I will weather this; I will come out on the other side and some of George Takei's stories are just heart breaking."

And to be coming back to Broadway this season... can we just start with Hamilton and Lin-Manuel?! You are a freak, Miranda! He is just a wonderful human being. So there's Hamilton and there's Amazing Grace, there's On Your Feet, there's Shuffle Along, and 'The Color Purple is being revived. I mean, wow! It's an incredibly colorful season. It's like the united colors of Broadway! It's the 2015- 2016 season. It's great to be a part of this environment and nice to not be the only show in a season where it's a particular kind of music or a particular kind of anything. This season has so much diverse kinds of music, so many diverse kinds of casting. It's incredibly colorful and incredibly diverse so it's very exciting.

As previously announced, Allegiance has a book by Marc Acito with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo. Helming the production is Olivier Award nominee Stafford Arima (London's Ragtime, Off-Broadway's Bare, Carrie, Altar Boyz).

The cast is as follows: George Takei as Sam Kimura/Ojii San; Lea Salonga as Kei Kimura; Telly Leung as Sammy Kimura; Christopheren Nomura as Tatsuo Kimura; Michael K. Lee as Frankie Suzuki; Katie Rose Clarke as Hannah Campbell and Greg Watanabe as Mike Masaoka. The ensemble will feature Aaron J. Albano, Belinda Allyn, Marcus Choi, Janelle Dote, Dan Horn, Owen Johnston, Darren Lee, Manna Nichols, Autumn Ogawa, Rumi Oyama, Momoko Sugai, Cary Tedder, Elena Wang , Scott Watanabe and Scott Wise.

Allegiance is inspired by Takei's true-life story. Traversing the lush California heartland, the windswept prairies of Wyoming and the battlefields of war-torn Europe, Allegiance tells the multi-generational tale of deep family loyalty, romance, humor, optimism and unparalleled heroism in the face of fear and prejudice against Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Photo Credit: Lia Chang