厂颈苍驳鈥�..蹿辞谤 Miss Saigon. There鈥檚 a tendency in this country to imagine that Lea Salonga, who plays this title role at the Broadway Theatre, is a prisoner of the most successful show in theatre history. When it opened here on April 11, it was and still is the most expensive production of all time ($10 million)鈥攁nd, happily, one with the largest advance sale ($36 million)鈥攁nd its subsequent success or failure rested squarely on the fragile shoulders of this unknown commodity. With responsibilities like that would it be any wonder that she has no will of her own, no life of her own and, certainly, no love life of her own?
Well, grow up, America, as Joan Rivers might say. Miss Saigon misses nothing, Salonga insists. In fact, she views her 鈥減light鈥� from the opposite perspective: her glass is half full, and it has even been known to overflow on occasions. 鈥淚 feel a lot of people are missing out on my life, too,鈥� she admitted the other evening in her dressing room as she prepared for the vocal and emotional ravages of the performance ahead of her. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a life people dream of having, after all.鈥�
And it鈥檚 true. At 20 she gives every impression of living the life that dreams are made of. Her portrayal of Kim, the Vietnamese prostitute who falls in love with an American soldier (Willy Falk) and conceives his child while Saigon crumbles around them, is one of the most draining and demanding roles in recent theatre memory鈥攁nd Salonga has been charging away on all cylinders with it for more than two years now, with only a few months off for great behavior.
鈥淭o be on a Broadway stage, learning about this art form from the masters, and then to be actually performing, getting a high every night in front of all these people鈥攚ell,鈥� says Lea, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 something that a lot of people should feel. You may lose something, but you also gain something. I鈥檝e gained a lot of experience working with people like Nicholas Hytner [the director] and Jonathan Pryce [who plays her Eurasian pimp] and Cameron Mackintosh [the producer].鈥�
Pryce in particular is a pleasure to work with. 鈥淭he nice thing about him is he鈥檚 always searching for new things to do in his role, blocking it in a different way so that if affects me, maybe forcing me to do it differently. He forces me to think, to explore, to create鈥攁nd I thank him for doing that.鈥�
So much for her 鈥渓ost childhood鈥濃攕he laments it not鈥攁nd her current pinnacle is where career driving will get you. More than half her life has been spent onstage鈥攁ll but the past two years in her native Manila. At seven she stage-debuted as the youngest and bounciest of the royal offspring in The King and I. Two years later, she took on the title role of Annie. Throughout her youth she feasted on all the major child roles provided by Philippine rep鈥攆rom the no-neck monsters of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to the Trapp Family sunbeams of The Sound of Music.
At ten Salonga charged into a recording career, collecting a gold record for her first album, Small Voice, and this got her a local television show to host, Love, Lea, which was followed by Philippine films. For three years running she was the Philippines鈥� 鈥渂est child performer.鈥�
But all this garland garnering and media switching did not really prepare Salonga for the adult demands of Miss Saigon. Her incredible singing was never in doubt, but she turned out to be a better actress than she imagined, emerging first out of the 1,000 who auditioned for the London and Broadway productions.
Once she landed this plum assignment, she swallowed hard and plunged into the part with determined abandon. Her only real exposure to the tawdry life she leads onstage was in extreme long-shot: Manila鈥檚 red-light district is situated near the shipyard-engineering corporation that her father runs. She drew on that and faked the rest from the spicy TV she鈥檇 seen鈥攑retty convincingly, according to Simon Bowman, who played her first marine lover in the London production. 鈥淚n a magazine he said he had to have his lips replaced every week after I was done with him, but that鈥檚 not true. He exaggerates. All the Chrises I鈥檝e worked with have been good kissers. Including the understudies in London, I鈥檝e worked with about four or five.鈥�
There鈥檚 a sweet innocence about a 20-year-old Broadway star who can count her kisses on one hand, and Salonga鈥攈aving 鈥済iven at the office,鈥� as it were鈥攎aintains this innocence offstage, with the help of her friend and her omnipresent chaperone-mother, Ligaya (Joy) Salonga. 鈥淪he鈥檚 not just my mother; she鈥檚 a friend,鈥� the actress fine tuned. 鈥淎nd she, basically, keeps me on earth. She reminds me, 鈥楬ey, you鈥檙e still human. You still have your chores to do. You gotta get up and do what you have to do to take care of yourself.鈥欌�
Tantalizingly, the stage door of the Broadway Theatre is located right across the street from the back entrance of The Ritz, but the glitzy attraction of that exotic nightspot doesn鈥檛 even register on Salonga鈥檚 chart. Give her a good game of Scrabble or a challenging crossword puzzle any day. 鈥淚n the sense that I don鈥檛 go out too often, that鈥檚 by choice, basically. Discos give me a headache. I went to two clubs with a friend on his birthday recently, and he asked me, 鈥榃hat do you think?鈥� I said, 鈥榃ell, they鈥檙e nice, but they鈥檙e not my thing really. I鈥檓 sorry.鈥� I like staying home, reading.鈥�
This self-confessed homebody doesn鈥檛 really date when she can find the time鈥斺渁nd, if I do date, I鈥檓 chaperoned, it鈥檚 a cultural thing. I know it鈥檚 hard for people here to realize there鈥檚 this actress on Broadway who still dates with a chaperone, but in the Philippines this wouldn鈥檛 be strange at all.鈥�
Come next Feb. 22, Salonga will turn 21. 鈥淭hen,鈥� she beamed brightly at the prospect, 鈥淚 can do whatever I want鈥濃攂ut, knowing herself, she doubts if it will change much for her: 鈥淚 probably won鈥檛 even have the time to date, even if I鈥檓 allowed to.鈥�
By that time she鈥檒l have only one more month to go on her Broadway contract and she鈥檚 anxious to move on to other mediums鈥攎aybe do a pop concert or try some straight acting in movies. The world is her oyster at this point in time and it鈥檚 very, very inviting. In March, unless the inimitable Mr. Mackintosh comes up with an offer she can鈥檛 refuse, it鈥檒l be Salonga and farewell.
