Interview: Telly Leung on His New Album, Reuniting with Lea Salonga in Broadway's ALLEGIANCE & More

After a handful of years away, stage favorite Telly Leung is back on Broadway.

The RENT, GLEE, and GODSPELL revival alum is currently taking the Longacre Theatre by storm in Marc Acito and Jay Kuo's new musical Allegiance, in which he co-stars opposite George Takei and Tony winner Lea Salonga.

Previews of the new musical are well underway, Leung is also preparing to release his sophomore album, 'Songs for You,' on Yellow Sound Label on Nov. 20, with his lead single, a jazzy take on Billy Joel's much-loved 'New York State of Mind,' out today.

With Leung's packed fall schedule in full swing, BroadwayWorld recently caught up with him, where he opened up about the journey of constructing and recording an album, working alongside Takei and Salonga in Allegiance, and much more.

First of all, congratulations on Allegiance. I've heard so many great things so far.
Thank you! It's been going great. We're kind of in the thick of previews - the trickiest time. We're making so many changes, but it's exciting. And thrilling. And the audience is teaching us so much.

Can you tell me a little bit about your new album, 'Songs for You?'
It's my second album, and I've collaborated again with my trio of amazing musicians: Gary Adler (cowriter of ALTAR BOYZ,) Michael Croiter (founder of Yellow Sound Label,) and Mary Ann McSweeney. The three of us love getting together and sharing things together, and taking familiar songs and doing a 180 with them. We always try to reinvent them in a way, so the listener almost feels like they're hearing them for the first time.

[The album] titled 'Songs for You,' because each song is dedicated specifically to someone very special in my personal or professional life...So we made sure each song had a special story or person connected to it, in order to capture a true level of personalization on the album.

I love what you're doing with the tracks, and that the album features a nice mix of Broadway, Pop and Jazz. It's clear with the first single, "New York State of Mind.'
Yeah! I grew up as a Brooklyn kid. My parents still live in Brooklyn. And that one's kind of dedicated to all of those people in my life growing up. It doesn't get more New York than Brooklyn (laughs.)

So Mary Ann [McSweeney] and I, who both love Jazz, kind of approached as wondering what Miles Davis would do with Billy Joel's song if he were still alive today, and how he might arrange it.

['New York State of Mind'] has kind of become an anthem for me. I'm so proud to be a New Yorker, even more so now that I'm a Broadway performer, and that great theatre is created here.

So when you first went about laying out the album, where did you personally start with accumulating a list of possible tracks?
A lot of the songs I've been singing in concerts and clubs all over the country, but I also wanted to include a song from Allegiance's out-of-town tryout. We're still in previews, so the song may or may not be in the show in the opening night on Broadway (laughs,) but I really wanted to record my own version.

It's a song that deals with feeling like there is no hope, and that you've reached the end - but life always gives you another chance, and you just have to recognize it.

When you go into the recording studio, do you innately feel like, as an actor, you approach songs differently than others might?
Yes, yes. When we initially go to arrange a song, it ends up being a musical conversation of wondering 'Why are we singing this? Who are we singing it for? Who are these songs for?'

Because I'm such a theatre-person, music is acting. Singing a song is delivering a monologue, and trying to make them smile or cry or believe that there's hope. It's all story-telling.

So, you're back on Broadway in Allegiance, a show you've been apart of for a number of years. How does it feel to finally be here?
Actors do meeting and workshops all of the time. You never know where it's going to go. You wonder if there will be a second reading, or a workshop, or an out-of-town tryout - or maybe none of them. So many things can happen to stop the trajectory of a show getting to Broadway, whether those reasons are financial or artistic, or a star leaves...The path to Broadway is so treacherous and difficult and hard, so for this little show that could to make it this far, is an achievement in itself. I believe in this story so much, this story inspired by George [Takei]'s own life, that even if it runs a day, it still ran on Broadway. And that was always the goal. Just getting here is a miracle. For any show.

But everyone in that theatre is grateful for every minute that we get to tell this particular story. Especially because there have been so many people over the past five years who have said, "Please, the subject of your musical is of Japanese American internment. That will never work."

But people have said that so many times before about a barber that makes people into meat pies, or a musical about a French revolution made from a book that's 1,500 pages long. But at the end of the day, I think it's all about a great story, and that's what we have: a wonderful, untold story about American history.

It's so refreshing to see a musical that tackles something that's not ever really talked about in any medium.
Absolutely. So much in [ALLEGIANCE] is just what it's about to be an American - which is still part of the political situation today. We're still asking who are the foreigners, and who are the true Americans?

You know, people just come here to make a better life for themselves. My parents came here to make a better life for themselves. The 120,000 Japanese people who were wrongfully relocated during the internment may have all been from somewhere else, but they were Americans. The show may take place in the 40s, but it's so relevant for our current conversation.

When I spoke with Lea Salonga this year, she echoed a lot of what you just said about Allegiance. She seemed to strongly believe that a piece of theatre really have something to say, and that new shows are working to push the medium forward. How do you feel about that?
I think people go to the theatre not to be taught something...but in a way, the theatre is one giant classroom. The actors, director, and designers are just teachers. But like [in a master class] people come in one way, and they leave changed, or knowing something else about the world, maybe seeing it a different way. That can be said both about a classroom and a theatre.

In many ways, that was the origin of theatre with the Greeks. So I do feel like theatre has that responsibility to gather people together, and make them feel differently. But that can exist in the form of a musical like Allegiance or a musical like HAMILTON - it can also exist in the form a musical like MAMMA MIA! That show came in right after September 11 - when we needed to laugh and feel joy, and be reminded of the happiness music can bring.

Sure. Being a part of such a show, how can you ask for anything more than to affect someone in some
kind of meaningful way?
Yeah. And you know, sometimes it's anger. Sometimes that's also getting people furious about something. I remember leaving THE NORMAL HEART, which broke me emotionally, but also feeling such anger. Sometimes that is needed for an audience - it can drive them to action.

Speaking of Salonga, you made your Broadway debut alongside her in the 2002 revival of FLOWER DRUM SONG. Now, 13 years later, here you are, back on the stage with her. What's that been like?
Lea was already 'Lea Salonga' when I met her: an above the title, Tony Award-winning star. Because she had been around before, she took all of us, who were making our debuts, and acted as a big sister in a lot of ways. She's held that kind of role for almost my entire life - I've always viewed her as a big sister. So in Allegiance, it's weirdly fitting that she's actually playing my big sister (laughs.)

Our kind of relationship and rapport, you can't buy. In the show, when you see us on stage and in costume, you aren't just watching characters - you're watching Lea and Telly, for sure. I love her with all of my heart.

And shortly after 'DRUM SONG,' came RENT, which you were a part of for a number years. What was it like to be so heavily involved with such a monumental show that really affected the lives of so many people, the same way Allegiance intends to?
You know, RENT was my generation's show, and it opened in '96 when I was 16 years old. It was highly impressionable to me, the same way WICKED is to this generation. RENT was my show growing up. I still can't believe I was able to have some of my high school dreams fulfilled, being part of the final company, having seen the original.

RENT gives back to an actor that is so powerful. The show is nothing more than tables, lights, chairs, and actors. And there was something so powerful telling the story like that, just as emotional human beings, in the Nederlander, which is such an intimate space. Having that kind of connection - no helicopters or chandeliers (laughs,) which is wonderful, too - where it's just us, was amazing. I love that show, and I feel a very deep connection to it. In many ways, it's why I'm here, doing what I do.

Telly Leung's upcoming album, 'Songs for You' will be released on Friday, November 20, with the lead single 'New York State of Mind' available today Friday, October 23. Click here to grab it on Amazon!