Interview: Theatre Legend Lea Salonga on ALLEGIANCE, Her Stage Legacy and Bringing a Brand New Show to Town Hall
By: Tyler Peterson Mar. 02, 2015
Beloved Tony and Olivier winning actress Lea Salonga will soon be returning to New York.
Though she's not back to bask under Broadway's brightest lights just yet, Salonga will bring a brand new solo show, 'Kaleidoscope,' to the The Town Hall next month. Slated for a one-night-only billing, Salonga will take the historic venue's stage on March 14, where those lucky enough to be in attendance will hear her renditions of classic and current hits, plus retooled arrangements Salonga's stunned with throughout her 35-year career.
"I am just tired. Just always in a state of tired, I think," Salonga said, laughing, during an interview with BroadwayWorld over Skype last week.
And considering all she has on her plate at any given moment, it's understandable.
Not letting a bit of weariness stop her, Salonga, currently in Manila serving as a judge on THE VOICE OF THE PHILIPPINES, provides BWW an update on her never-before-seen Town Hall show, the possibility of a Broadway return opposite George Takei in ALLEGIANCE, and much more.
Through a 'Kaleidoscope'
Though fans may still see her as some sort of ingenue due to her iconic, star-making turns in MISS SAIGON and LES MISERABLES, Salonga is no stranger to the cabaret or solo show scene, both in New York City and abroad. From a slew of performances at Cafe Carlyle, to world tours, she and her creative cohorts, best friend/director Victor Lirio and musical director Larry Yurman, have truly fine-tuned the process.
"My director, Victor Lirio, actually starts everything," Salonga said of getting the proverbial ball rolling on putting an original evening together. "We've been best friends for a very long time, so he totally gets me as a human being. When it comes time to picking songs, he and Larry, our musical director, will start with what they would like to hear me try, and it kind of goes from there. When I'm really busy, they do a lot of the pre-production stuff, and start sending material over - and you know, we just all get so excited."
Yet announced, 'Kaleidoscope,' a mix of glamour and comfortability (she'll be in heels, but she's "cool with you showing up in galoshes - nobody ever knows what the weather will be like in New York!",) will feature a wide-range of pop, EDM with an orchestral twist, Michael Jackson, and a dash of showtunes thrown in, including some Jason Robert Brown, and a number from CABARET. And yes, there will be a bit of MISS SAIGON.
"But very, very little," she said, laughing. "We definitely have a balance of pop music and Broadway showtunes, and because it's New York City, whatever we launch, I'm hoping the crowd will ride with us! I'm basically going to be married to a music stand because there's just so much new stuff - I hope the audience won't care!"
Considering she's Lea Salonga, we're guessing not.
The prep for 'Kaleidoscope' is frenetic and ongoing, a rehearsal process broken up by the fact that she's halfway around the world and in the middle of discovering, coaching, and molding stars on THE VOICE. Rehearsal will really kick off when she heads to New York in mid-March, where she can "super-focus" on the new material and "learn the show in earnest."
And though there's still a bit of work to be done, fine tuning here and there, practicing the full setlist with the pianist, Salonga and company are working overtime to ensure audiences will see another side of her, the side they don't necessarily see in MISS SAIGON's 'Kim' or LES MISERABLES' 'Eponine.'
"Your opening and your closing are very, very gay," Lirio constantly tells her, she said, "so consider it all to just be a fun time."
And it will be, she assured.
"We can't take ourselves too seriously, especially since most of my time has been doing tragedy," Salonga said, laughing. "So I think I'm kind of making up for it."
A Steadfast ALLEGIANCE with Takei
ALLEGIANCE, a new musical, according to press notes, "about a family's love, loss and heroism during the period of the Japanese -American internment in World War II," featuring a book by Marc Acito with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo, starred Salonga, George Takei, and Telly Leung when it premiered at The Old Globe in San Diego in 2012. The production will officially head to Broadway in the fall, it was announced earlier this year. But will Salonga be making a return to the Great White Way opposite Takei? Well, nobody really knows yet - not even her.
"I really can't say much! Negotiations are currently beginning for everybody," she said, her passion for ALLEGIANCE apparent. "But it's really hard to say anything because negotiations can start great and then all of a sudden fall apart. So I can't say much until they say something that definitely states yea or nay. I can say though that I'm passionate about the show, and that it's been such a great ride for part of it, that I'm excited for George making his debut. We're all excited for him. Whatever happens for the rest of the cast, at this point, I'm just happy for George to get on the stage."
Primarily because she knows how important ALLEGIANCE is to Takei, who was forced to live an internment camp in the 1940s following the bombing at Pearl Harbor.
"It's a legacy project for him," she said. "It's an experience that is so incredibly personal to him, having himself been an internment camp from when he was five years old, with his family and seeing his mother crying and being on the wrong end of a bayonet - that's going to leave stuff in your psyche that just never really goes away. And so all of these memories that he has compiled and all of these experiences that he had been through with his family as a Japanese American and being an American citizen and being basically put behind bars for looking like the enemy."
The relevancy of ALLEGIANCE is just as poignant in 2015 as it would have been in 1945, a show with a message, destined to be on Broadway, she said.
"For that kind of prejudice to be present back then, and for that same kind of prejudice to actually still kind of be around today, it makes this show incredibly resonant. It's a lesson that needs to be taught, and so this show, I'm hoping, has a lot of bite and that people do have a very visceral reaction, and that when people leave the theater it makes them think. The shows on Broadway can't always be the happy, great dancing, great singing, good looking people, flash, panache. It can't always be like that. There has to be room and a space for shows with a message, for shows that have something to say, for lessons to teach. Without those shows, it's just entertainment."
An 'A-Ha' Homily
Before there was Broadway, a Tony, or that signature spinning red chair on THE VOICE with her name on it, Salonga was residing in London, bringing Schoenberg and Boublil's 'SAIGON' to life, ultimately resulting in her Olivier win, propelling her to being household name in theatre-loving households, and to where she finds herself today.
Her 'a-ha' moment, when a person's life can go this way or that, came in the middle of that now legendary run. For Salonga, she was halfway expecting it to ease left when it veered right.
"It didn't happen as a child, which is very strange," she says of her realization that she belonged on stage. "Although I always did enjoy performing, that big light bulb moment actually happened in church. I was at Sunday Mass on a day off with my mom when I was still living in London (not sure if she had the Olivier yet), but I remember sitting down in a pew and the priest coming up to the front and his sermon, which only consisted of a couple of sentences."
She remembers his homily, the way he spoke, recalling it in a hearty voice: "'Every one of us has been gifted by God,' I remember him saying." She pauses, laughing. "And I thought: 'You have got to be effing kidding me."
"My whole life has been a series of answered prayers," Salonga continues. "Where I will get some of the subtle, sometimes most direct messages from somewhere in the universe, that tell me this is what I'm meant to be doing. You're absolutely on the right path - and don't stop. But when I find myself in LES MIZ, I just keep thinking 'this is crazy. I never thought this would happen, and it's happening to me' When the universe is telling me this is where I'm meant to be, I don't want to let it down!"
She's yet to, most would agree. And Salonga continues to push, to prove that she is who she is because of not only her indelible, undeniable talent - but because she doesn't quit. She doesn't half-heartedly accept an opportunity, stop halfway in her range when she could reach for a full belt. Salonga works consistently - now, as a judge on THE VOICE for up-and-comers in the Philippines, and a creative musical theatre legend, honing 'Kaleidoscope' for sure-to-be awe-struck audiences in Manhattan.
"I don't want to give anyone the right to ever say 'You were absolutely awful in that,'" she insisted, recounting her time as Eponine, on bringing a spark to such a beloved character, and proving that she could. "When I was cast, I knew that I had to sing that one song so well, so nobody would ever be able to say that I was a stunt, that I didn't deserve it. I wanted to earn that spot."
With a Tony, Olivier and mass following, it's fairly safe to say she has.
Tony, Olivier Award-winning star and recording artist Lea Salonga continues to captivate audiences worldwide, and on March 14, 2015 (8PM), she'll return to New York City with her new show 'Kaleidoscope' at the historic Town Hall.
For tickets, click here.
Top Photo by Raymund Isaac
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