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Signature. Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, OL ( / ˈleɪə səˈlɒŋɡə / LAY-ə sa-LONG-ə; born February 22, 1971) is a Filipina singer and actress. Primarily known for her work in theatre, she has starred in musicals on the West End and Broadway. Her accolades include a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations ...
Before all the recognition and accolades, Lea Salonga was a 17-year-old dreamer who hesitantly took her chances by showing up at the audition of the highly anticipated London musical Miss Saigon. Lea impressed the strict, meticulous Miss Saigon production team and bagged the coveted role of Kim. From then on, she became an international star in ...
There’s a sweet innocence about a 20-year-old Broadway star who can count her kisses on one hand, and Salonga—having “given at the office,” as it were—maintains this innocence offstage ...
People also ask
How old was Lea Salonga when she starred in Miss Saigon?
Did Lea Salonga and Miss Saigon actually see each other?
Did Lea Salonga win a Tony Award?
Why is Miss Saigon so controversial?
- Overview
- Casting
- Portrayal
- References
Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, known as Lea Salonga is a Filipino singer and actress who originated the role of Kim on West End and on Broadway.
For her audition, Salonga sang On My Own from Les Misérables, another Schönberg and Boublil musical. Salonga would later describe the song as the song that changed her life. She was 17 (turned 18 before the premiere) when she was cast as Kim, and her childhood friend Monique Wilson (who incidentally sang the same audition song) was cast as her understudy and as Mimi. Salonga was a college freshman studying biology at the Ateneo de Manila University.
When the Broadway production was starting in 1990, Salonga's citizenship became an issue, as she was neither British nor American and the Actors' Equity Association (AEA) wanted to give priority to its own members, initially preventing her from reprising her role from the West End production. However, Mackintosh was unable to find a satisfactory replacement for Salonga despite the extensive auditions that he conducted in several American and Canadian cities. An arbitrator reversed the AEA ruling a month later to allow Salonga to star. While portraying Kim, Salonga also provided singing voices for Princess Jasmine In Aladdin, Fa Mulan In Mulan and Mulan II.
Salonga's portrayal of Kim was met with universal acclaim, catapulting her to international fame and becoming the first actress of Asian descent (and only Filipino) to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.
1.Jul 25, 2013 Lea Salonga --The Song That Changed My Life-- Part 1. Retrieved from YouTube
2.The Making of "Miss Saigon". Dir David Wright. 1989. TV Movie.
Apr 11, 2021 · By Marc J. Franklin. April 11, 2021. Lea Salonga in Miss Saigon Joan Marcus. Following its London debut, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Richard Maltby, Jr., and Alain Boubil's Miss Saigon opened at the ...
Oct 28, 2018 · MANILA, Philippines — Lea Salonga was only 18 years old when she was thrust on to the world stage for Miss Saigon, in London’s West End. That musical undeniably gave her international...
The controversy about Miss Saigon only began in 1990 with the prospect of it appearing on Broadway, which Wong argued was because the United States has a much larger East Asian population than does the United Kingdom. In the London production of Miss Saigon, Lea Salonga originally starred as Kim, with Jonathan Pryce as the Engineer
