Lea Salonga Returns to the Cafe Carlyle With BACK TO BEFORE, Now thru 6/8

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel will welcome back Tony Award-Winner Lea Salonga to the Café Carlyle for her highly anticipated three-week engagement. Her new program, "Back to Before," is a nostalgic repertoire in which she revisits her life as a New Yorker and pays tribute to her favorite ladies-most notably Ella Fitzgerald and her idol, Barbra Streisand. "Back to Before" will be making its debut at the Café Carlyle. Ms. Salonga's engagement at the Café Carlyle will run from tonight, May 21st to June 8th.

Ms. Salonga's program, "Back to Before," will devote a section of the 75-minute set to original interpretations of songs by resilient female characters in the American musical theater canon. The program will be directed by Victor Lirio with original arrangements and music direction by Larry Yurman. Ms. Salonga will be joined by Jeff Harris on piano, John Miller on bass, and Jack Cavari on guitar.

Café Carlyle is located in The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel (35 East 76th Street @ Madison Avenue). Lea Salonga will play Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8:45pm, and Saturdays at 10:45pm from tonight, May 21st to June 8th. There is a $75 music charge ($45 bar seating) Tuesday through Thursday and a $85 music charge ($50 bar seating) for shows on Friday and Saturday. For additional information, visit www.thecarlyle.com.

Lea Salonga is a singer and actress who is best known for her Tony Award winning role in Miss Saigon. She is recognized for having won, in addition to the Tony, the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards, in the field of musical theatre. She was also the first Asian to play Eponine in the musical LES MISERABLES on Broadway and returned to the beloved show as Fantine in the 2006 revival.

In the summer of 2011, Lea appeared in the new musical, Allegiance, when it was a workshop in New York City. Developed by legendary actor George Takei, Allegiance tells the story of a Japanese-American family during World War II and the internment years. Last fall, Allegiance appeared in San Francisco at The Old Globe Theater and broke the theater's box office records. It is set to open on Broadway early in 2014.

Recently she participated in the 25th Anniversary Concert of LES MISERABLES to sold out crowds at UK's O2 arena. Universal will release the star-studded concert this spring. She also dazzled as the hauntingly tragic Grizabella in a limited run of CATS in her hometown of Manila.

Honored with an appointment as a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Goodwill Ambassador in October of 2010, Lea vowed to act as advocate for the Youth and United Nations Global Alliance initiative led by the FAO.

Also in 2010, Lea made her debut in the world of Cabaret, performing a sold out, three week engagement at the Café Carlyle in New York City. She returned in June 2011 to delight audiences in another multi-week engagement. Lea also teamed up with legendary Grammy winner, Patti Austin, to perform the concert series, 'Heart and Soul.'

She delighted fans in Kuala Lumpur with her debut appearance there, 'An Evening with Lea Salonga.' She has also held sold-out concerts in both Hong Kong and Bangkok and performed a special Valentine's Day 2011 concert with the Bangkok Symphony.

In 2005, Lea played her first US concert tour in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, and Chicago. Concert dates in Washington, D.C. and Norfolk, Virginia followed. Later that year, she performed with a 26-piece ensemble to a sold-out crowd at the Isaac Stern Hall in Carnegie Hall, benefitting the Diverse City Theater Company.

In her 30-year career, Lea has performed for five Philippine presidents (from Ferdinand Marcos to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), three American Presidents (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush), and for Diana, Princess of Wales and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

She began her career as a child star in the Philippines, making her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven in the musical The King and I. She went on to star in productions of Annie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof,The Rose Tattoo, The Sound of Music, The Goodbye Girl, Paper Moon, and The Fantasticks.

Lea began her recording career at the age of ten with her first album, "Small Voice," which received a gold certification. Her albums that followed include "Lea", released in 1988 , "Inspired" released in 2007, and numerous live concert and Broadway albums.

In addition to performing in musical theater and recordings, she hosted her own musical television show, "Love, Lea," and also opened for international acts such as Menudo and Stevie Wonder.

Lea's big breakthrough came when she was selected to play Kim in the megahit musical Miss Saigon in 1989. For her performance as Kim, she won the Olivier for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical for the 1989/1990 season. Miss Saigon moved from its original London home, to Broadway in April 1991. Lea subsequently garnered the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and the Theatre World Awards for the same role. In 1999, she was invited back to London to close the musical, and in 2001, at the age of 29 and after doing the Manila run of the musical, she returned to Broadway to close the Broadway production.

Upon completion of her initial stint as Kim on Broadway, Lea played the role of street waif Eponine in the Broadway production of LES MISERABLES.

In 2002, she returned to Broadway to play the role of a Chinese immigrant in a reinterpretation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song opposite Jose Llana. This was after the reinvented musical had a very successful run at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2001, with Lea playing the lead role and the show garnering multiple wins and nominations, including Lead Actress in a Musical for her, from the LA Stage Alliance's Ovation Awards. The Salonga-led Broadway revival cast album was also a top contender at the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best Musical Show Album.

Many fans of all ages recognize Lea as the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Fa Mulan for Mulanand Mulan II.