Lea Salonga

One of my favorite aspects of musical theatregoing is the chance to witness several actors take on the same role. The most recent revival of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret was a perfect example. If no one quite compared to Natasha Richardson's Tony-winning portrayal of Sally Bowles, there was something to enjoy in each Bowles I witnessed, including the Sallys of Susan Egan, Molly Ringwald and Jane Leeves. And, while I thought Mary Louise Wilson made a fine Fraulein Schneider, eventual successor Polly Bergen was the most touching and vocally exciting that I saw in the role of the aging boarding house owner.

That said, when Miss Saigon opened in New York, I caught Lea Salonga's title-role performance twice during the show's first year at the Broadway Theatre but never had the desire to catch subsequent Kims. I remember feeling that Salonga's portrayal of the innocent woman who gives her heart to an American G.I. was so perfect that it was nearly impossible anyone could bring more to the part. Salonga possessed such a perfect mix of wide-eyed innocence and steely determination that one never questioned that this young woman would go to any length for her child's welfare. She also dazzled with her beautiful, pure and often soaring tones, creating one of the great musical theatre performances of the nineties.

In addition to Miss Saigon, Salonga has appeared on Broadway in Les Misérables (she was a wonderful Eponine later in the show's run) and, most recently, in the revival of Flower Drum Song, where she delivered a sensational version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic "Love, Look Away." Now, Salonga is back in New York, set to make her solo concert debut at Carnegie Hall Nov. 7 at 7 PM in a benefit evening for Diverse City Theater Company, a company run by playwrights, directors and actors, whose mission is to encourage diversity in all aspects of the theatre.

Diverse City's Lirio adds, "We believe that the theatre is a profound venue to examine social and cultural issues. Now more than ever, we need to know our neighbors and understand how we are all connected. We want to discover and celebrate what it means to be an American artist in a country that has become larger than the geographical space it occupies; the shared humanity underneath the social and cultural collisions in our daily lives; the stories underneath the issues, stories that are compelling, fun and wise. We strongly advocate non-traditional casting of actors. Our company is young, but our heart is large and our mission ambitious." About Salonga, he gushes, "Lea is one of my best friends — I was her best man at her wedding. She serves on the advisory board of DCT and is a huge supporter of our mission statement. Her artistic achievements are proof that diversity in the theatre works, having successfully and effectively played non-Asian roles in her career."

Salonga's personal musical influences run the gamut from the Carpenters to Frank Sinatra. "Growing up," Salonga reveals, "I listened to a lot of the Osmonds, a lot of the Carpenters, ABBA, Olivia Newton-John. As I got older, I got into Ella Fitzgerald. Now that I'm much older, I'm finding myself getting into Frank Sinatra. I still listen to Ella, [Barbra] Streisand. Those are the singers that when I listen to them I think, 'My God, what impeccable technique. The emotion is just incredible.' I love a lot of the way the older singers used to sing, just really simple, direct and to the point. Michael Buble has that same quality, and I love his voice also. . . . Riffing is appropriate when it's appropriate, but I want to know that the hard work that was put into the song is actually appreciated. I want to hear what that lyric is, I want to hear what that melody line is, where it's going. Sometimes it gets lost when there's too much riffing going on."

Salonga's upcoming Carnegie evening will no doubt offer the technique and emotion that the singer enjoys in others, and the evening will be helmed by Richard Jay-Alexander, the theatre director whose impressive resume also boasts concert stagings for Bernadette Peters, Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler. "The first time we worked together," Salonga recalls, "was on Les Miz when I went in many years ago. I remember him being very enthusiastic, very passionate, very hands-on, very emotional and very committed to what he does. And that has not waned in any way in the years that I've known him. . . . He's just very direct, very candid about what he wants from you — how you should do this, how you should do that. He pretty much has that same enthusiasm. He's like a kid in a candy store, and it's so much fun to see that there are people in this business for whom this has not gotten old. For as long as he's been in this business, it's so refreshing to watch him and to interact with him. He's got so much fire, and it's just incredibly enjoyable to work with him because of that."

Director Jay-Alexander is equally effusive when speaking about Salonga. "The reason I was dying to work with Lea on this particular concert," he says, "is there are very few women who can stand on a stage for an evening and deliver the kind of vocal expertise and versatility that Lea can. She has a perfect voice with no break — meaning that she can glide right from the chest to the head voice, and that's a lot of fun for someone like me to play with. . . . Her voice is so pliable. It's a very exciting tool to work with, and anybody — whether they're a musical director or director or teacher — they're only as good as the muse, and Lea Salonga is a beguiling muse." Jay-Alexander also notes Salonga's sense of humor, explaining, "Rehearsals have been really exciting because people don't particularly know Lea to be funny or the versatility that she has. She just makes me laugh, [and] she has some great stories to tell."

Some of those stories will revolve around Salonga's special guest stars for the Carnegie evening, all hand-picked by the star herself. Liz Callaway, Andrea McArdle and Paolo Montalban — on his night off from the Paper Mill production of Cinderella — will duet with Salonga, and each will perform a solo number as well. Callaway, it should be noted, worked with Salonga in the original Broadway cast of Miss Saigon, and like McArdle, Annie was the musical that made Salonga a star in the Philippines, where actor Montalban was also born.

Although Salonga's brother Gerard often musical directs her concerts, the Carnegie event will feature musical direction by The Color Purple's Kevin Stites, who Salonga worked with previously in an evening of Alain Boublil/Claude-Michel Schönberg tunes in the Philippines. "I just remember [Stites] being really, really fun and charming and talented — very charismatic when he conducted," Salonga says. "You knew just by looking at him what he wanted to get from you. There are some conductors who are completely charmless. You might as well just be a robot in the pit," she laughs, noting, "but there are some that with one look — not so much the size of the gesture but how intense it is when it comes from the conductor — you know exactly what it is he wants from you, which is kind of nice."

Though he won't be standing at the podium, brother Gerard has written several of the arrangements for the 28-piece orchestra, and concertgoers can expect to hear tunes from Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Chess, Jesus Christ Superstar, Funny Girl, A Chorus Line and Annie, songs from Salonga's Disney outings, a few jazz standards, a Filipino work and, perhaps, a tune from Flower Drum Song, her most recent Broadway outing, which she notes, featured "an all-Asian company, which doesn't happen very often. It was a really special show. It was a revisiting of really old material, and the songs were just beautiful. It was just a really good time. I'm sorry it didn't last as long as we all wanted it to, but we're really grateful to the audiences that did come to see it."

Salonga, who splits her time between the U.S. and the Philippines, also spoke about her nearly two-year marriage to Robert Chien (Chien arrived in New York this week, set to cheer his wife on this Monday night) and how that affects what jobs she will take. "It makes me very discriminating," the actress says. "It has to be really special for me to want to travel and be away for months at a time. It has to be something worth it to me, not necessarily financially, but artistically. . . . The two of us discuss everything. The one thing though that [I'll] always accept is a Broadway show. He always says that the opportunity to do Broadway is just incredible, and if something comes my way again, I'd be an idiot to pass it up because it's just special. He's kind of seeing more and more what New York means to me and how special the city is to me and how special this community is. He understands that if I'm asked to do a Broadway show, it would be very difficult to say no." Continued...