So I just listened to Lea Salonga's Broadway Concert CD

What's with her horrendous intros? I can't decide if they were condescending or just plain pretentious. I'm digitizing the CD right now so I can edit out the talking and burn a CD of her songs only.

Updated On: 7/30/05 at 03:31 PM

I have a DVD of one of her Manila concerts. I'd never seen anyone talk THAT down to their audience before. Totally off-putting and condescending. Ugh.

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I am too. What kind of down talk would someone do at their concert?

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Could you go a little more in debth? I'm not really following you.

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I have a recording of her singing something, I think it's a Miss Saigon Medley, and the way she introduces it... it's like she's doing the audience some huge favor to sing for them.

awww..what a shame..I've been trying to get the dvd on ebay, or amazon used..but I'm waiting to get a good deal...

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can her concert cd be bought in stores??

I haven't seen the CD in store, but Amazon carries it.


Lea Salonga: The Broadway Concert

Updated On: 7/31/05 at 03:29 PM

First, I'm a Filipino and have seen some of Lea's concerts a few times here in Manila...I have seen her perform at the West End and here in stage productions. I've also listened to or watched her DVDs or CDs.

I do find her intros a little wordy, but I think that's because she does it extemporaneously. Or maybe because she has a bad script. Perhaps if she had a better script for her concert patter, intros and post-song comments can flow more smoothly. I do not think she means to condescend - she speaks in a certain way, even when she was still a much younger entertainer here. It may sound a little affected to some, but we forgive her for that ...But she has not really changed -- from the little girl who won our hearts with her rendition of TOMORROW from Annie and the young woman who did us proud when she won the hearts of international theatre audiences in Miss Saigon ...She has matured and if you listen to her in an interview, you will be amazed at how level-headed ( while sounding very intelligent and smart) she continues to be.

She is a joy to listen to - and we always welcome chances to hear her devote a concert for her fans here.

Btw, there are some active repertory companies here which produce some stage musicals ( if it were not too expensive to mount them now, including payment of copyrights, we would be seeing a lot more) here so there is some familiarity with some stage musical hits from Broadway or the West End in the local scene. Please don't forget that Cameron Mackintosh sourced most of his Miss Saigon productions in many parts of the world from local talent here...

Earlier this year, Lea was in a local production of BABY, where she co-starred with David Shannon, a West End star who created the male lead role in The Beautiful Game at the West End and has handled replacement leads for a number of West End hits.

Jo

Updated On: 8/1/05 at 09:32 AM