In love with Lea Salonga

I’ve always thought of myself as someone who loves musicals. But what I mean by that may not be what you think I mean. Loving musicals, for me, hasn’t usually meant lining up outside a theater on Broadway or the West End to see the latest show, and then treasuring my program and my original cast recording afterwards. It’s been more likely to mean ordering one of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire’s old movies from Amazon, and then watching it again and again and again. The composers I like are Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin. I never thought I had much time for Andrew Lloyd Webber, or Boublil and Schönberg.

Which is why, when a friend got hold of the tenth anniversary concert video of Les Misérables a few years ago, I didn’t think I wanted to watch it. In fact, I think I scoffed, and went upstairs to do something else. It was only when my friend was about halfway through watching the tape, that I happened to wander in and catch my first glimpse of Lea Salonga.

Had I but known it, that wasn’t actually my first chance to have seen Salonga in performance. A child star in her native Philippines, her international career began in 1989, when at the age of 18 she was picked by Cameron Mackintosh to star as Kim in the original West End production of Miss Saigon. An Olivier award for Best Actress in a Musical soon followed — as would a Tony when she continued the same role on Broadway in 1991.

Here’s a clip from a U.K. interview she did back in 1989, with television presenter Terry Wogan:

I don’t know what is more adorable here: her dimples, her very proper English accent (I’m more used to hearing her speak American), her self-possession, or the authoritative way that she tells the interviewer, “I never really wanted to have a boyfriend. And I still don’t want one.” (Sadly for us, she has since changed her mind on that, marrying a man named Robert Chien in 2004).

In 1993, Salonga was cast as street urchin Éponine in the Broadway production of Les Misérables. The first Asian actress to play the part, she started something of a trend, as the role has since been played by Asian performers including Natalie Jackson Mendoza in Sydney and Joanna Ampil in London.

Salonga would go on to reprise the role in a "dream cast" anniversary concert that was filmed live in 1995 — and this was the performance I walked in on, just in time to hear her singing the hit song "On My Own."

Although I never saw Miss Saigon, I know there was some controversy at the time as to whether the story pandered to Asian stereotypes, including the stereotype of Asian women as passive and submissive. Watching the force and intelligence with which Lea plays Éponine, though, I can’t help thinking that those qualities must have shone through in any role that she’s performed.

She provided the singing voice for Princess Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin (performing the song "A Whole New World" with Brad Kane at the 65th Annual Academy Awards, where it won Best Song), and for Mulan in the Disney film of the same name in 1998.

In 2002, she appeared as Mei Li in a reworking of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song on Broadway. Most recently, Salonga has been back on Broadway in a new production of Les Misérables — this time performing the part of Fantine.

Between beauty, talent, and international success, it might almost be tempting to think Ms. Salonga too perfect — if it weren’t for this cheesetastic pop video I came across from the early '90s, a duet with her Aladdin costar Brad Kane:

Otherwise, though, she’s pretty much perfect.