Interview With Lea Salonga

Lea Salonga: A delightful person, a natural entertainer, with no pretense, gracious and unassuming, Lea Salonga appears interested in life as it happens around her.  She engages passersby with genuine interest in who they are and what they are about.  One gets the sense that the whole world is her stage and we’re all on it with her.  And I had the privilege and honor to visit with this Internationally acclaimed Filipino singer!

Lea was very excited to report that her latest album “The Journey So Far,” recorded live at the Cafe Carlyle in New York, has topped the jazz category of the US iTunes and currently boasts a five star rating!  Plus Lea Salonga just recently received a Disney Legends Award for her work in Mulan and Aladdin.

This versatile and extremely talented singer, famous for her rolls as a prostitute on Broadway and princess for Disney, reports that her audience is usually is gay couples who know the lyrics to everything, older folks who have seen every leading lady since Ethyl Merman, younger people in their twenties on a date, groups of girlfriends.  At her shows Lea always performs “A Whole New World” and she always picks someone from the audience to get up and sing with her.  (Practice. Be ready!) 

Music is not her only passion.  Entertained by people as she entertains, she takes on their battles and concerns as her own.  Dubbed “The Pride of the Philippines,” Lea is a very socially and politically active woman, campaigning for human rights everywhere and taking on such formidable opponents such as the Catholic Church.  It was recently reported by a Reader’s Digest Poll that Lea Salonga is the second most trusted person in the Philippines.  Lea laughingly said that her husband advised her never to go into politics if she wants to maintain that trust.  Meanwhile she maintains a blog, voicing her concerns about gay rights, reproductive rights to limit family size, adolescence responsibility and more.  (http://www.leasalonga.com/leas-official-blog).

In one moment, Lea expressed concern that she didn’t know if her efforts were doing any good, but in the next moment she exclaimed that “June 24 was the best day ever!   The gay marriage bill passed in New York!”  She spoke of the work still yet to be done and finished adamantly “You have to let people be who they are.” 

When asked if she ever suffered repercussions for her outspoken nature, Lea responded with a very emphatic “Oh, yes!”  But it’s not slowing her down.

Bay Area Cabaret presents an intimate evening with the Tony Award Winning Broadway Star Lea Salonga.  Don’t miss Lea's first solo appearance in the Bay Area since she sold out the Masonic Theater in 2005.  Friday is already SOLD OUT.  Tickets are still available for Saturday, September 17, at 5 p.m. at www.bayareacabaret.org or by phone at City Box Office (415) 392-4400. The Fairmont San Francisco’s Venetian Room, 950 Mason Street.

 -Suzanne Birrell