Lea Salonga Broadway.com Q&A- Page 2

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/13/07 at 11:33pm

^Do you have to... after every sentence?

READ MAH MIND.

[caitlinette]

Posted: 3/13/07 at 11:57pm

The interview mentions controversy surrounding "Miss Saigon" -- can anyone tell me about that? The interview is a bit vague.

[Crapgame13]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 12:21am

there were two, the one Lea specific to my knowledge is Lea wasn't sure if she was going to come over for Broadway or not because she wasn't an American citizen, and Equity wanted someone already a member to play Kim

there were others dealing with race and Jonathan Pryce

[musicaltheater1]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 1:01am

Crapgame13 - close but not because of citizenship. It was the Equity membership (that Lea didn't have back then) and that Cameron refused to open the production if Lea was not allowed to perform when advance ticket sales of over 1 million dollars has already been made. You don't have to be a citizen to perform on Broadway (i.e. Jonathan Pryce, Ruthie Henshall, etc.). And you were right about the race issue. A lot of people complained on how the production portrayed Asians.

Updated On: 3/14/07 at 01:01 AM

[Crapgame13]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 2:08am

my grammar was bad, of course you don't have to be a citizen. I should proofread

I meant that Equity wanted a member of the Union (and I believe they specified an asian-american) to play Kim