- Lea Salonga stars within the new Broadway present Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Mates, opening April 8 on the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
- Salonga tells ipromiseyoumedia the musical revue is a “lovely” tribute to the late composer and “a lot enjoyable”
- When performing one in all Sondheim’s ballads, “Loving You,” Salonga thinks of her 18-year-old son, Nic Chien
Lea Salonga’s latest Broadway present, Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Mates, is a loving homage to the late composer showcasing songs from a lot of his musicals. However for the Tony Award-winning actress, there are different causes it holds a particular place in her coronary heart.
“It’s an attractive present and a lot enjoyable and all people actually likes one another and loves engaged on it,” Salonga, 54, tells ipromiseyoumedia on this week’s situation of her seventh Broadway credit score. Previous Mates costars Sondheim’s longtime collaborator Bernadette Peters and an ensemble of triple threats performing numerous songs from the theater legend’s oeuvre.
And for one of many numbers Salonga delivers, “Loving You” from Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1994 musical Ardour, the Manila-born actress dons a purple blazer in honor of her son Nic Chien’s favourite shade.
“Once I put it on I immediately consider Nic,” she says of her solely little one, 18, who was assigned feminine at beginning and identifies as transmasculine. The enduring ballad’s lyrics — “Loving you shouldn’t be a alternative, it’s who I’m” — make it straightforward for Salonga to do what that music requires.
“This is among the songs the place we take out of the unique context and re-contextualize it to imply one thing very completely different,” Salonga explains. A directive from inventive guide Julia McKenzie, she recollects, was, “‘consider the person who you like essentially the most on this world.’ She did not dictate who. That was for me to determine.”
When the actress then carried out the music in a rehearsal, the affect was emotional. McKenzie “walked as much as me and stated, ‘You have been pondering of your child, weren’t you?’ I stated, ‘Yeah.’ So each night time I sing it, that is precisely who’s in my thoughts.”
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The Matthew Bourne-directed Previous Mates, devised by producer Cameron Waterproof coat, first ran in London’s West Finish again in September 2023 and performed in Los Angeles this February. It opens Tuesday, April 8 on the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in New York Metropolis.
Behind-the-scenes rehearsal photographs shared with ipromiseyoumedia confirmed Salonga and Peters, 77, staging numbers alongside fellow Broadway veterans Beth Leavel (The Promenade), Gavin Lee (Mary Poppins), Jacob Dickey (Aladdin), Kevin Earley (Totally Fashionable Millie), Jasmine Forsberg (Right here Lies Love), Kate Jennings Grant (Noises Off), Bonnie Langford (Gypsy), Maria Wirries (Expensive Evan Hansen), Daniel Yearwood (Sweeney Todd) and extra.
As Salonga shared not too long ago on her Instagram, she’s one in all a number of performers of Filipino descent presently headlining a Broadway present, together with Sundown Blvd. star Nicole Scherzinger, Perhaps Completely happy Ending star Darren Criss, Cabaret on the Package Kat Membership star Eva Noblezada and extra.
Representing her tradition onstage, Salonga tells ipromiseyoumedia, can really feel “like a glacial tempo generally.” However, she provides, “issues transfer in the way in which that they are simply meant to.”
Tickets for Stephen Sondheim’s Previous Mates are on sale now.
