Lea Salonga made her stage debut at age 7 in a production of The King and I and made her first album, Small Voice, at age 10. The record went gold in her home country of the Philippines and led to television appearances, film acting and multiple awards, all before she landed the role that would catapult her to international stardom — Kim in Miss Saigon. She was 18.
It is little wonder that Salonga looked relaxed and perfectly at home onstage at Shannon Hall in the Wisconsin Union on April 30 for a cabaret evening of standout performances that “blurred the lines” between pop, jazz, musical theater and Disney classics.
As Salonga remarked between songs, she has built up an impressive resume over her career and has many fans from distinct areas of her creative life. Based on audience reaction, it’s safe to say that many concert-goers were there to see her Disney princess personas — Jasmine in Aladdin and the title role in Mulan. Others were Broadway fans, who reveled in her renditions of songs from Les Miserables, Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, Company, The Last Five Years and Wicked.
Another large part of the audience were fellow Filipinos, who cheered loudly when Salonga talked about growing up in Southeast Asia. (She also made comments in her native language several times, to the delight of those who understood her.) And to celebrate her upcoming album, Blurred Lines (available May 5), and her upcoming two-week cabaret engagement at Feinstein’s/54 Below in New York City (May 9-22), Salonga performed a wide variety of other pieces that beautifully illustrated her vocal range, her versatility as an artist and her ability to excel in many different genres.
Delightful surprises on her set list included an achingly lovely mash-up of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and “A Quiet Thing” by Kander and Ebb; the utterly charming “The Story of My Life” by One Direction; and a tuneful version of Tracy Chapman’s ’80s hit “Fast Car.” In the case of a diva from one world covering a diva from another, Salonga also sang an emotional, full-throated version of Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All.” It turns out she had used that ballad at her audition for Miss Saigon when the producers unexpectedly asked her to sing another piece, in addition to a Les Miz ballad she had practiced for days.
Her hair closely cropped, Salonga appeared in the first half of the show in a classic black pantsuit with a black sequined bodice underneath. For the second half, she donned an elegant red gown gathered at the waist and studded with rhinestones. She joked about her advanced age (46) several times and wistfully remarked that she “missed the skinny days,” but wouldn’t go back to her 20s. She also insisted that she would not succumb to the “bangs or Botox” Hollywood maxim to hide her age, which also drew a large round of applause.
In one of the most moving sections of the evening, Salonga performed a mash-up of “I Dreamed a Dream” and “On My Own” from the two roles she’s played in Les Miserables. The first Asian actress to perform the parts of Fantine and Eponine on Broadway, she told the audience she landed the roles after lobbying producers for more than two years. Her joke that she has an affinity for “dead-girl parts” did not prevent Salonga from welling up as she delivered the two heartbreaking ballads with passion and extraordinary clarity.
As a Tony award-winning performer who quietly broke racial barriers on Broadway long before Hamilton’s multi-ethnic cast set color-blind casting as a new standard, Salonga effortlessly upended the power dynamics of two songs in her set. Instead of singing one of Kim’s pieces from Miss Saigon, she sang “Why God, Why?” the lament of the white American soldier, Chris, who falls in love with a Vietnamese bar girl whom he hopes to save. The show, recently remounted on Broadway, has been criticized for furthering stereotypes and exoticizing Asian women as either helpless or whores, or both. Seeing Salonga play the “hero” in this story was amazing, both narratively and musically.
And approaching the title song for her new album, “Blurred Lines,” Salonga winked at the crowd and urged us not to take it too seriously. Purring “you’re a good boy,” she infused the Robin Thicke chart topper with plenty of sensuality, flipping the misogynistic song into a playful romp where she clearly held all the power.
Backed by musicians on piano, bass, drums, guitar and even ukulele, Salonga proved that her vocals can soar across genres and that her own story is as compelling as that of Princess Jasmine, exploring “A Whole New World.”
