Aladdin star Telly Leung, who is featured in the latest season of the streaming series Warrior, will star in the musical version of Ang Lee's Academy Award-nominated 1993 film The Wedding Banquet in Taiwan.
Gordon Greenberg, represented on Broadway this season with the new Huey Lewis musical The Heart of Rock and Roll, will direct the production, which will play the Taipei Performing Arts Center May 24–June 2.
Leung, whose Broadway credits also include Rent, In Transit, Pacific Overtures, Allegiance, Godspell, and Flower Drum Song, will star as Wai-Tung opposite Matt Shingledecker (West Side Story, Wicked, Spring Awakening) as Simon and Janice Yan.
READ: After 2 Decades in Showbiz, Telly Leung Says Rejection Still Stings, But Community Is Key
The musical features a concept and book by Welly Yang, a book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and Matt Eddy, and music by Woody Pak. Eamon Foley choreographs with vocal arrangements by AnnMarie Milazzo. Casting is by JZ Casting's Geoff Josselson.
Director Greenberg told Playbill, “I remember seeing the Ang Lee film when it first came out and being blown away by the way it talked about gay marriage—with honesty, humor, and heart. That wasn’t something we even thought about in the U.S. This adaptation brings the story into the present and is centered on creating new kinds of family, with the main characters ending up in one household, raising a child. It’s smart, sexy, and so much fun. And the score is phenomenally exciting.”
The creative team also includes set designer Hui Chen, lighting designer I-Hua Kao, projection designer Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh, costume designer Keith Lin, sound designer Hsing-Kuo Chung, music director Meng-Mei Kuo, assistant director Leo Chang, assistant choreographer Jia Jia Chang, production stage manager Calvin Wang, deputy stage manager Daphne Lin, and production manager Vivian Chan.
Written and directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Lee, the film The Wedding Banquet concerns gay Taiwanese-American Wai-Tung—whose parents are pressuring him to marry a woman—and his boyfriend Simon. At Simon's suggestion, Wai-Tung arranges a marriage of convenience with a young woman named Wei-Wei who needs a green card. Wai-Tung's parents arrive for the wedding and a mix of hysterical and touching complications ensue. The motion picture was nominated for a 1994 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Wedding Banquet musical was originally conceived and developed for the stage by Yang in 2003 and is being produced in Taiwan by HUA Musical International Inc. and Taiwan Creative Content Agency.
Click here for ticket information.
Telly Leung and Courtney Reed in Aladdin
