LEA SALONGA
Lea Salonga fans are soon in for a big treat: The beautiful-voiced singing actress, best known to theatre fans for her Tony-winning turn in the title role of Miss Saigon, will make her New York cabaret debut in the intimate confines of the Cafe Carlyle March 9-27. Salonga, who was last on Broadway as the ill-fated Fantine in the epic musical Les Miserables — where she delivered an emotional, heartbreaking version of "I Dreamed a Dream" — will be backed at the New York nightspot by a small band led by musical director Larry Yurman. Her upcoming show, which is entitled The Journey So Far, will find the Philippines native performing an eclectic mix of tunes, including works from the musical theatre, the Great American Songbook, movie musicals and even a few Filipino songs. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Salonga; that brief interview follows:

Question: When we last spoke, I think you were in rehearsals for Les Miz. What was that experience like, playing Fantine?
Salonga: I loved it so much! I had such a wonderful time.

Question: After singing "I Dreamed a Dream" every night, what is your reaction to the Susan Boyle phenomenon?
Salonga: I'm really happy for her.… I think everybody knows now how her audition went where she was pretty much dismissed on the basis of her looks until she opened her mouth. And so at the end of the day, I think it gave a lot of performers much-needed inspiration. Here's somebody who they were ready to pretty much throw out until she started to sing. At the end of the day, talent does win out.

Question: Do you watch any of the singing competitions like "American Idol?"
Salonga: I used to watch "American Idol" regularly, [but] because I've been working and I've been traveling [and] the Olympics are on now, nope! My priorities are the Olympics that come only once every four years. [Laughs.]

Question: Now you're getting ready for the Carlyle gig. Have you performed in small clubs before?
Salonga: I may have done, but nothing like the Carlyle, I don't think. I was looking at a photograph of the room, and I don't remember performing in a room quite like that.

Question: What are your thoughts of playing a smaller venue rather than a concert stage?
Salonga: There is an intimacy that you can't achieve in a concert stage or in a music theatre venue. You're basically invading everybody else's personal space, especially those sitting in the front row closest to you. [Laughs] It's really nice, though, because you seem to not to have to work as hard to reach the back of the room. The back of the room is no more than 20 or 30 feet away from you. So you really can just concentrate on interpretation and melody and song and not have to physically exhaust yourself trying to get to the back of the house. It's a different type of energy that's required, and it's something I'm looking forward to. It's kind of like performing onstage versus performing on film. I think this is the happy medium between the two.

Question: Who is directing your show?
Salonga: Dan Kutner is directing, and Diana Basmajian is writing the show. I think there were just a whole lot of names being thrown out. I was asking for suggestions, and people were saying, "Try this person, try this person..." I spoke to both Dan and Diana, and I thought, "I can't decide between these two." So my manager was able to make it so that I got to work with both of them.

Question: Is the show going to be autobiographical?
Salonga: We're meeting today to figure all that out, how to sequence the songs and how to put everything together. I'm meeting with my musical director today and with Diana today to figure out how to piece all of these things together, what kind of a through-line we can establish with the repertoire that we have and see what each thing has to say and how to say it.

	Lea Salonga in Les Mierables
	photo by Joan Marcus

Question: Will you be doing new songs?
Salonga: New, as in I've never done them before. Things like "My Romance" I've never done, things like "Let's Fall in Love." These are songs that I've never, ever done, in a concert or anywhere. We're doing one Marcy & Zina song, we're doing a couple of Filipino songs that I've done in concert. We're doing some songs that I've been doing in concert over and over again… some Rodgers and Hammerstein. I think we're running the gamut of classic musical theatre, contemporary, and there's cabaret and a little bit of Disney also. And, of course, there's Les Miz and Miss Saigon. I can't really shy away from doing that. It's kind of expected that I sing something from those shows, and the other thing is that I love singing stuff from those shows.

Question: I think people want to hear them.
Salonga: And, I love to sing them, too. Far be it for me to say, "No we're not doing that!" [Laughs.] Continued...