Art / Theater
Lea Salonga back on Broadway in ‘groundbreaking’ new musical
Salonga co-starred and co-produced the widely-praised musical, ‘Allegiance’ with fellow Asian artist George Takei
Lea Salonga came back to Broadway this year, in what would be her sixth stint in the ‘Great White Way’ since breaking ground in 1991 as 18-year old Tony award winner for the role she originated in the beloved historical musical, Miss Saigon.
Salonga co-starred and co-produced the widely-praised musical with fellow Asian artist George Takei (more popularly known as Mr. Sulu in Star Trek). The new musical Allegiance lives up to the word “new” as it’s “a story that’s never been told before on Broadway,” says Takei.
Over 120,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated and placed in internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor — a piece of the American history many still refuse to talk about. In an interview with entertainment magazine Backstage, Takei revealed that the story is based on his earliest memories when he himself was interned along with his entire family for being a Japanese in America during those turbulent times.
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The musical has been in development since 2009 and finally opened on November 8 at the Longacre Theater.
Salonga plays Kei Kimura, a woman torn between her brother Sammy’s (played by Telly Leung, Glee) American patriotism and the resistance in the internment camp in Wyoming where her entire family was relocated.
With an Asian-led cast dubbed by Entertainment Weekly as “phenomenal,” the musical impressed upon a staggering parallel to what’s happening with the Syrian refugees who’re being refused entry by countries like the US, because they are of the same race as the people who recently attacked Paris and Beirut.
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“These people are being unfairly judged like we were because we looked like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor,” Takei said on a Facebook post. ■ AH Online
(Editor’s Note: This article was first published in Veritatem Magazine, November 2015.)
