Everything about Lea Salonga totally explained
Lea Salonga-Chien (born
Maria Ligaya Carmen Imutan Salonga on
February 22,
1971 in the Philippines) is a multi-awarded
Filipino singer and
actress who is best known for originating the role of Kim in the
musical Miss Saigon. In the field of
musical theater, she's recognized for having won the
Olivier,
Tony,
Drama Desk,
Outer Critics, and
Theatre World Awards, the first to win various international awards for a single role. She was also the first
Asian to play
Eponine in the musical
Les Misérables on
Broadway.
Salonga is the singing voice of
Princess Jasmine from
Aladdin in 1992 and
Fa Mulan for
Mulan and
Mulan II in 1998 and in 2004, respectively).
Early career
Lea Salonga started as a child star in the Philippines, making her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven through the musical
The King and I by Repertory Philippines. She became the lead star of
Annie and joined other productions such as
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,
Fiddler On The Roof,
The Rose Tattoo,
The Sound of Music,
The Goodbye Girl,
Paper Moon, and
The Fantasticks.
She began her recording career at the age of ten with her first album,
Small Voice, which received a gold certification. A song on the album, the duet “Happiness,” marked her first recording collaboration with her younger brother
Gerard Salonga who would, years later, work with her either as musical director or creative director in her concerts and recordings. Her second album, "
Lea," was released in 1988.
In addition to performing in musical theater and recordings, Salonga hosted her own musical television show,
Love, Lea, and was a member of the cast of
German Moreno's teen variety show
That's Entertainment. She likewise acted in films, which included the family-oriented
Tropang Bulilit,
Like Father, Like Son,
Ninja Kids,
Captain Barbell and
Pik Pak Boom. She also opened for international acts such as
Menudo and
Stevie Wonder in their concerts in Manila in 1985 and in 1988, respectively.
As a young performer, Lea Salonga received a Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (
FAMAS) award nomination (the Philippine equivalent of an Oscar nomination) for Best Child Actress and three wins from the
Aliw (literally, "entertainment")
Awards as Best Child Performer.
International career
Salonga's big breakthrough came when she was selected to play Kim in the megahit musical
Miss Saigon in
1989. Unable to find a strong enough Asian actress/singer in the
United Kingdom, the producers scoured many countries looking for the lead role of this major British production. For her audition, the 17-year-old Salonga chose to sing
Boublil and
Schönberg's "
On My Own" from
Les Misérables and was later asked to sing "Sun and Moon" to test her voice quality's compatibility with the songs in the musical. The members of the panel were impressed with Salonga's rendition of the songs, noting that from Salonga’s very first note, they already knew they'd a potential Kim. Salonga competed with childhood friend and fellow Repertory Philippines performer
Monique Wilson as they were tested with songs from the musical, which included "Too Much for One Heart," a number replaced by the duet "Please" right before the musical opened. Salonga was offered the lead role, with Wilson as the alternate (who was also assigned the role of bar girl Mimi).
For her performance as Kim, Salonga won the
Olivier for
Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical for the 1989/1990 season. From its original
London home,
Miss Saigon moved to Broadway in April 1991. Salonga subsequently garnered the
Tony,
Drama Desk,
Outer Critics Circle and the
Theatre World Awards for the same role. Between 1993 and 1996, she was asked periodically to play Kim on Broadway to boost ticket sales. In 1999, she was invited back to London to close the musical, and in 2001, at the age of 29 and after doing the Manila run of the musical, Salonga returned to Broadway to close the Broadway production.
Between opening
Miss Saigon in
1989 and closing it on
Broadway 12 years later in
2001, Salonga became involved in other musical productions and projects:
In
1990, she performed in a major homecoming concert in
Manila entitled
A Miss Called Lea. She also received a
Presidential Award of Merit from Philippine president
Corazon Aquino.
In
1993, upon completion of her initial stint as Kim on Broadway, Salonga played the role of street waif
Eponine in the Broadway production of
Les Misérables, and later flew to
Los Angeles to perform the song "A Whole New World" of
Disney's Aladdin (Salonga is the singing voice of Princess Jasmine) with
Brad Kane at the 65th Annual
Academy Awards, where the song won an Oscar. That same year, she released her self-titled international debut album with
Atlantic Records, which had modest sales in the USA but went platinum in the Philippines and sold 3 million copies worldwide.
In
1994, Salonga played in various musical theater productions in the
Philippines and
Singapore. She starred as Sandy in
Grease, as Sonia Walks in
They're Playing Our Song, and as The Witch in
Into The Woods.
In
1995, Salonga, back in the U.S., played the role of Geri Riordan, an 18-year-old adopted
Vietnamese American child in the movie
Redwood Curtain, which starred
John Lithgow and
Jeff Daniels. She then flew back to the Philippines to star with Filipino matinee idol
Aga Muhlach in the critically-acclaimed film
Sana Maulit Muli, which gave her her second Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (
FAMAS) award nomination, this time for Best Actress.
In
1996, Salonga was in
Les Miserables once again, in various ways. She played
Eponine in the London production of the musical, then continued on to do the role in the musical's U.S. national tour in
Hawaii. She capped her
Les Miserables comeback with an invitation from Sir
Cameron Mackintosh to play the same role in the musical's legendary 10th anniversary presentation called
Les Miserables in Concert at London's
Royal Albert Hall. Salonga performed as part of a "dream cast" composed of
Colm Wilkinson,
Michael Ball,
Judy Kuhn, and
Philip Quast.
From
1997 to
2000, Salonga kept herself busy with recordings and concerts in the Philippines and another engagement in London, in addition to her periodic returns to
Miss Saigon in
London and on
Broadway. In 1997, she released "
I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing" (recordings from her childhood days) to gold sales in the Philippines. That recording was followed by "
Lea...In Love" in 1998 and "
By Heart" in 2000, with both albums reaching multiple platinum status in the Philippines. In addition to the release of these albums, she participated in the major tribute concert to Sir
Cameron Mackintosh in London called "Hey Mr. Producer: The Musical World of Cameron MacKintosh," where she did numbers from different musicals mounted by the famous producer. She also performed in four concerts:
The Homecoming Concert,
The Millennium Concert,
The Best of Manila, and
Songs from the Screen - the last two being benefit shows. Salonga closed the millennium with a grand
Miss Saigon "homecoming" via the Manila production of the musical staged at the
Cultural Center of the Philippines at the end of
2000.
After
Miss Saigon's closing on Broadway in
2001, Salonga recreated the role of
Lien Hughes originally played by
Ming-Na Wen in the
soap opera As The World Turns. (After completing her contract that year, she was asked to return to the role in
2003.) She also guested on Russell Watson's
The Voice concert, narrated for the television special
My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States, and appeared on the Christmas episode of the TV medical drama
E.R., playing the role of a patient with
lymphoma.
In
2002, Salonga returned to Broadway to play the role of a Chinese immigrant in a reinterpretation of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Flower Drum Song opposite
Jose Llana. This was after the reinvented musical had a very successful run at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2001 with Salonga playing the lead role and with the show garnering multiple wins and nominations, including Lead Actress in a Musical for Salonga, from the Theatre Los Angeles
Ovation Awards. The show, given a brand new
libretto and considered one of the 10 best plays on Broadway in 2002 by
Time Magazine, garnered
Tony Award nominations for
Best Book,
Best Costume Designer, and
Best Choreographer, and earned nominations from the
Outer Critics Circle, the
Drama League, the
Astaire Awards, and Broadway.com's
Audience Awards and Broadwayworld.com's
Fans' Choice Awards as well. The Salonga-led Broadway revival cast album was also a top contender at the 2003
Grammy Awards for
Best Musical Show Album. While Ms. Salonga's performance was received positively by theater critics such as Matthew Murray, Heather Cross, Patrick Purdon, and John Simon, among others, she wasn't nominated at the
Tony Awards for her brief stint on Broadway that season, although she did get nominations for
Distinguished Performance from the
Drama League, for
Favorite Lead Actress in a Broadway Musical from Broadway.com's
Audience Awards, and for
Best Lead Actress in a Musical from Broadwayworld.com's
Fans' Choice Awards. Between the
2001 Los Angeles and
2002 Broadway productions of
Flower Drum Song, she performed in a non-musical theatrical production for the first time, playing the role of Catherine in the stage play
Proof in
Manila. This was followed by a major concert,
The Broadway Concert, at the
Philippine International Convention Center. She also sang with Harry Connick, Peter Gallagher, and Michelle Lee in a tribute number for Richard Rodgers at the 56th
Tony Awards.
In
2003, Salonga was back in
Manila to do her first "all-Filipino" concert called
Songs from Home, which later won for her another
Aliw Award as
Entertainer of the Year (she had won it the year prior). Upon her return to the U.S., she performed in several shows at the
Mohegan Sun in Montville,
Connecticut. This was followed by a Christmas concert in the
Philippines called
Home for Christmas at the end of the year, which captured the critics' notice at the 18th
Aliw Awards, and performances at the Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center in Marlton,
New Jersey the following year, in
2004. Later that year, she was back on the stage as Lizzie in the
Manila production of the musical
Baby, which earned her yet another nomination from the
Aliw Awards.
In
2005, Salonga played her first US concert tour in
San Francisco,
Los Angeles,
Atlantic City, and
Chicago. Concert dates in
Washington, D.C. and
Norfolk, Virginia followed. Later that year, Salonga performed with a 26-piece ensemble to a sold-out crowd at the Isaac Stern Hall in
Carnegie Hall for the benefit of Diverse City Theater Company. Between her concerts, the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (
FAMAS) bestowed her with the Golden Artist Award at the 53rd
FAMAS Awards in honor of her international achievements. She performed during the grand opening of Hong Kong's Disneyland and recorded two songs on tenor
Daniel Rodriguez's
In the Presence CD. That same year, too, Salonga did voice work for Disney's English dub of
Hayao Miyazaki's
My Neighbor Totoro as Mrs. Kusakabe (Salonga's other Disney film credits include the singing voice of
Princess Jasmine for
Aladdin in 1992 and
Fa Mulan for
Mulan and
Mulan II in 1998 and in 2004, respectively).
In
2006, at the 15th
Asian Games in
Doha,
Qatar, Salonga concluded the closing ceremony with the song "Triumph of The One" before an audience of 50,000 people at the Khalifa Stadium.
In 2007, Salonga released her first studio album in seven years called "Inspired," which has been certified platinum, and finished another stint in the musical
Les Misérables on Broadway, this time as
Fantine. She is slated to appear in a number of musical events scheduled in different countries until 2008.
Salonga received the
Order of Lakandula Award from Philippine president
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in recognition of her excellence in her craft and for using her talents to benefit Philippine society. It was also announced that she'd return to Broadway in the musical
Les Misérables, replacing
Daphne Rubin-Vega as
Fantine on
March 6. Her tenure started, however, on
March 2, four days earlier than planned. Her casting on the show has been credited with boosting the musical's ticket sales on Broadway. On
September 27, 2007, President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was in New York, watched Salonga in her new
role in the musical, whose cast that night included
Filipino Americans Adam Jacobs as
Marius and
Ali Ewoldt as
Cosette. Her contract with the musical ended on October 21, 2007 and she was succeeded by Broadway's original Cosette
Judy Kuhn. For her performances in this revival, Salonga received rave reviews and made it again to the short list of Broadway.com's
Audience Award favorites -- this time for
Best Replacement for her new role as Fantine. During her stint on Broadway this season, she appeared on
Broadway on Broadway 2007 and
Stars in the Alley 2007, spoke at the Broadway Artists Alliance Summer Intensives, guested on the Broadway musical
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and participated in Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS'
12th Annual Nothing Like A Dame event to benefit the women's health initiative of The Actors Fund. Right after doing Les Miserables, she performed in two events: at the US Military Academy Band's concert in West Point where she sang four songs and an encore and in her own concert at the Tarrytown Music Hall in New York.
As of November 2007, a number of performances were scheduled for the rest of the year and for 2008, including a Christmas presentation in Manila, concerts in other parts of the Philippines and in California, Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Guam and Broadway Asia Entertainment's international tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein's
Cinderella, where she plays the lead.
In her 30-year career thus far, Salonga has performed for five Philippine presidents (from
Ferdinand Marcos to
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), three American Presidents (
George H. W. Bush,
Bill Clinton, and
George W. Bush), and for
Princess Diana and Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2007, Salonga released her first studio album in seven years called "Inspired," which has been certified platinum, and finished another stint in the musical
Les Misérables on Broadway, this time as
Fantine. She is slated to appear in a number of musical events scheduled in different countries until 2008.
Personal life
Lea Salonga is the eldest child of Feliciano Genuino Salonga and Ligaya Alcantara Imutan and spent the first six years of her childhood in
Angeles City before moving to
Manila. She is a sister of composer
Gerard Salonga and granddaughter of former Senate President
Jovito Salonga.
She studied at the Operation Brotherhood Montessori School in Greenhills, Metro Manila, where she was a Bergamo 1 Student and an active participant in school productions. She also attended the University of the Philippines College of Music's extension program aimed at training musically talented children in music and stage movement. She was a college freshman at the Ateneo de Manila University when she auditioned for
Miss Saigon and attended Fordham University when she was in New York.
On
January 10,
2004, Salonga married Robert Charles Chien, a
Chinese-
Japanese
managing director of an entertainment
software company in
Los Angeles,
California, whom she met while doing
Flower Drum Song. They have a daughter, Nicole Beverly, born on
May 16,
2006 and named after Salonga's late
mother-in-law, Beverly Chien.
Discography
Filmography
(2007) - singing voice of Princess Jasmine
Mulan 2 (2005) - singing voice of Fa Mulan
Tonari no Totoro / My Neighbor Totoro (2004) - voice of Mrs. Kusakabe in the Disney English language version
Mickey's PhilharMagic (2003) (voice) (uncredited)
Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge (2001) - singing voice of Princess Jasmine
Mulan (1998) - singing voice of Mulan
Sana Maulit Muli / Hopefully, Once More (1995)
Bakit Labis Kitang Mahal / Why Do I Love You So Much (1992)
Aladdin (1992) - singing voice of Princess Jasmine
Dear Diary (1989)
Pik Pak Boom (1989)
Ninja Kids (1986)
Captain Barbel / Mars Ravelo's Captain Barbel (1986)
Like Father, Like Son (1985)
Tropang Bulilit (1981)
Reading Rainbow (????) - Read/Told the story, "Silent Lotus"Further Information
Get more info on 'Lea Salonga'.
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