{"id":245358,"date":"2012-09-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/the-old-globe-premieres-allegiance-a-new-american-musical\/"},"modified":"2012-09-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T07:00:00","slug":"the-old-globe-premieres-allegiance-a-new-american-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/the-old-globe-premieres-allegiance-a-new-american-musical\/","title":{"rendered":"The Old Globe premieres \u2018Allegiance \u2013 A New American Musical\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer Jay Kuo and actor Telly Leung discuss how serious subject matter can inspire and uplift<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Antonio Rey | Editor SDUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
(l to r) Lea Salonga, Telly Leung, George Takei and Paul Nakauchi star in \u2018Allegiance - A New American Musical\u2019 at The Old Globe. (Photo by Henry DiRocco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Old Globe Theatre dives into a major undertaking with their latest: \u201cAllegiance \u2013 A New American Musical,\u201d the epic story of family, love and patriotism set during the Japanese-American internment of World War II. For singer and actor Telly Leung, it is also a story of civil rights and equality, ideals he said everyone should know well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all felt second class in a country that says we are all equal,\u201d Leung said. \u201cAs an Asian person I feel that way. As an Asian person in this industry I feel that way. As a member of the LGBT community I feel that way. We\u2019ve all felt that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leung is currently in San Diego with the rest of the \u201cAllegiance\u201d cast and crew, and said he has been working on the project for over two years. The show began previews at the Old Globe Friday, Sept. 7, with opening night on Wednesday, Sept. 19. It will run through Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

Being a world-premiere musical, Leung said that while he has extensive work on Broadway and national touring shows, he has never done anything like this: creating a character and show from scratch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe writers, like Jay [Kuo], have started to write around my strengths, which has actually been such a unique and rewarding experience,\u201d Leung said.<\/p>\n

Kuo wrote the music and lyrics for \u201cAllegiance,\u201d and said creating a show with specific actors in mind was both refreshing and helpful. \u201cAllegiance\u201d is Kuo\u2019s fourth musical.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Telly, he\u2019s got this incredible high tenor. I know what vowels work really well for him,\u201d Kuo said, adding that he took everything \u2013 from vocal range to longevity \u2013into consideration in working with Leung.<\/p>\n

Calling the process \u201cexciting\u201d and \u201corganic,\u201d Kuo said a lot of changes are made during the last few weeks leading up to opening night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to sing it around a table or to look at it on the page. It\u2019s another thing entirely to have the actors that you\u2019ve cast performing it and staging it, with choreography,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Starring with Leung is George Takei and Lea Salonga, and Leung is quick to point out most everyone in the cast has worked together in the past. He calls the show a \u201chome coming,\u201d and said that while the acting community is very small, the Asian-acting community is even smaller.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole project has been a wonderful reunion for me, with other Asian actors that I\u2019ve worked with before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Leung and Salonga first worked together in 2002, on one of Leung\u2019s first forays on Broadway. \u201cThere\u2019s no need to develop chemistry because ever since we met during \u2018Flower Drum Song,\u2019 I\u2019ve always viewed her as a big sister, as a member of my Broadway family, as a mentor [and] as somebody that inspires me,\u201d Leung said.<\/p>\n

Salonga, who won a Tony Award for her work in \u201cMiss Saigon,\u201d is also well known for being the first Asian actor to play Eponine in \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables\u201d on Broadway and was the singing voice of Mulan in Disney\u2019s animated feature of the same name.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid, watching Lea accept her Tony on television was so inspiring,\u201d Leung said. \u201cI was one of many Asian people of my generation that, because she won a Tony, [was] inspired to become a performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born and raised in New York City, Leung said that to prepare for his role as Sammy Kimura in \u201cAllegiance,\u201d he did a lot of research on the history of the camps. The process lead him to realize much of the sentiment of that time \u2013 racism, hatred and fear \u2013 had been replayed during a time he remembers well: immediately following 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to find something as close to [the internment] as possible to attach to, [and] we all remember 9\/11 and the feeling of fear,\u201d he said. \u201cFear comes from \u2026 what\u2019s different. If we focus on what\u2019s similar, that the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leung, who has a regular appearance on \u201cGlee\u201d as Wes, one of the Dalton Academy Warblers, said both \u201cAllegiance\u201d and the Fox TV show are good examples of art shedding light on people who do not usually get the spotlight. Leung also linked his professional work to fighting for equality, including LGBT rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why we are proud to be American in the first place,\u201d Leung said. \u201cWe do strive for those ideals and we believe that, at some point, if we strive hard enough, they can exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are several special events in conjunction with the Old Globe production, including an art installation called \u201cThe Tag Project\u201d and a museum exhibition drawing attention to different perspectives from the internment period. For complete information and to purchase tickets for the run, visit theoldglobe.org or call 619-234-5623.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer Jay Kuo and actor Telly Leung discuss how serious subject matter can inspire and uplift By Anthony King | SDUN Editor The Old Globe Theatre dives into a major undertaking with their latest: \u201cAllegiance \u2013 A New American Musical,\u201d the epic story of family, love and patriotism set during the Japanese-American internment of World […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"The Old Globe premieres \u2018Allegiance \u2013 A New American Musical\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}