Showing posts with label Lea Salonga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lea Salonga. Show all posts

Friday, December 23, 2011

May "Second Chances" from Allegiance, The Musical Inspire us all this Coming Year

 

I have been playing this  video several times, and it keeps running on my head still until now that I am writing this.  Apart from  our very own Lea Salonga who is singing it, the lyrics are so beautiful that it is apt to share it to everybody who have fallen, stumbled and made mistakes in the past -- but it is not always too late  to rearrange things for all of us have second chances everyday, every moment, and every new year that comes.

Second Chances is from Allegiance the Musical - starring Lea Salonga, Tong Leung and George Takei which will be shown  at Balboa Park's Globe Theater in San Diego  next year in 2012. 

Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along:

SECOND CHANCES

An emptiness is all there is to see
The joy that you once knew, a distant memory
When the purpose of each morning
Is forgotten with each night...

And it doesn' t seem to matter
If you give up or you fight...

Look again, that is when your world's about to change
Nothing in life is so permanent that love can't rearrange...

Second chances, life is rich with second chances
Second songs with second dances, second melodies
For if you've only got one shot
If once or nothing's all you've got
Your days would just be filled with single moments, single memories

But I believe hearts can conceive
Of more than one bright happy ending
Roads may split in two, you can't go down both thin & fast
We know and yet we still forget our paths are never so unbending
Life has given you a second chance...

Second chances, the world provides with second chances
New adventures, new romances, new responsibilities
For if you're always looking back
Your eyes might miss the second track
You take no chances, seize no day
Leave no possibilities

But heart's desire, heart's of fire
A place you grow from a single ember
Yesterday turns toward tomorrow
A brand new circumstance

What's past is past but it's not the last
We're not alive to just remember
When life has said to you, not a chance but two
Life has granted you a second chance...


The musical will run in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, Sept. 6 – Oct. 20, 2012. Preview performances run Sept. 6 – Sept. 15. Opening night is Sunday, Sept. 16 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are currently available by subscription only. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. (Source: broadway.com) 

About the show: 

Allegiance is an epic story of love, war and heroism set during the Japanese American internment of World War II,  following the story of the Omura family in the weeks and years following Pearl Harbor, as they are relocated from their home in Salinas, California to the Heart Mountain internment camp in the wastelands of Wyoming. 


Their story reflects the deep conflicts of a nation and a people divided: father Tatsuo, a successful store owner, resists their unjust internment; mother Kimiko fears for their future, quietly resigned to their fate; older son James volunteers in an all-Japanese American army regiment; and younger son Sam yearns for acceptance by and inclusion in America. The Omura’s conflicts mirror the larger rift between the Japanese American Citizens League, which urged cooperation with the internment and unwavering loyalty to America, and the resisters of the internment, who steadfastly refused to serve a country that had put them in concentration camps. This universal story sheds new light upon a dark, under-explored, and wrenching chapter of American history. Through the remembrances of Old Sam and his tutor Gloria, the painful past is revisited, and at long last, redemption and understanding begin to heal decades-old wounds. 


Allegiance sheds new light upon a dark chapter of American history.  With its moving score, Allegiance connects the audience with universal themes of love, family and redemption. (Source: http://www.allegiancemusical.com/about-show)

Check Allegiance's Facebook Page.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Lea Salonga & Brilliant Darren Criss of Glee Stun Alan Menken

Darren Chris (of Glee) here is brilliant and funny as "he ruins" (or so he says) some of Alan Menken's Disney compositions then our very own Lea Salonga comes in on the last part as they serenade Alan Menken as Billboard/THR TV & Film Conferences' Maestro Award recipient last October 24, 2011.

Shorter Clip:

Complete Clip:

Video: Glee's Darren Criss Serenades a Stunned Alan Menken @ Billboard TV & Film Conference

October 25, 2011

By Billboard Staff

Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken, who wrote the scores for "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and many others, is this year's Billboard/THR TV & Film Conferences' Maestro Award recipient. During a live interview with Billboard Editorial Director Bill Werde yesterday (Oct. 24), "Glee" Darren Criss made a surprise appearance acoustic guitar in hand and proceeded to serenade Menken.

What shared history do the two have? Well, Menken once handed a hundred dollar tip to a college kid doing an acoustic medley of his songs at a coffee shop. These days that "kid" is better known as Darren Criss.

Watch the video below as Criss takes some rather radical lyrical liberties with Menken's songs joking about his "handsome royalty checks" and plethora of Oscars before performing a duet with Lea Salonga. And head here for more photos and a complete report on Criss' performance.

Source: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/tv-film/watch-glee-s-darren-criss-surprise-serenade-1005434152.story

Monday, November 7, 2011

"Suites by Sondheim" Snippets with Lea Salonga

This November 7, 2011 a roster of Filipino (pure and half breeds) Broadway actors & singers will all join together for a concert entitled "Suites by Sondheim", for the benefit of Philippine Development Foundation (Phil Dev) at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in New York starring Lea Salonga and directed by Victor Lirio.

Ofcourse, for those who won't make it (like me who is staying in the Philippines and wasn't able to fly) to see the concert in New York, here are videos of Lea Salonga singing "Sunday in The Park," and other Filipino talents during rehearsals.  Yes, these are mere videos of rehearsals, but I am still entertained (which I can play over and over again). I hope the same feeling does to you too.

Read Lea Salonga's Article in PDI, "Awesomeness in New York"


For other snippets of interviews and promotional videos that are interesting to watch, here are some I have gathered from Youtube:


Lea Salonga: "The thing about Sondheim is that it does get very cerebral. You do need a faculty with words and a love for the lyrics to not just pull it off, but to have an appreciation for it. I, as a younger person, [her first Sondheim show was playing the Witch in Into the Woods in Singapore in 1994] and Sondheim versus being a little older and having lived a little bit of life and then looking at Sondheim again, I think one requires a certain amount of living in order to appreciate Sondheim, and I think there's a lot of life in a lot of what he writes." (Source: http://philippines.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Phils-Interview-Lea-Salonga-Talks-About-Suites-by-Sondheim-20111106#ixzz1czfEkrUq)



One Big Round of Applause to Filipino Talent!

Joining Salonga at the concert are equally accomplished Filipino-American theater performers that will include Adam Jacobs (Les MiserablesLion King), Jose Llana (WonderlandFlower Drum Song), Paolo Montalban (Pacific OverturesCinderellaJoan Almedilla (Miss SaigonLes Miserables), Alan Ariano (Miss SaigonThe Encounter), Emy Baysic (Miss SaigonMamma Mia), Angel Desai (Company), Rona Figueroa (Miss SaigonLes Miserables), Lydia Gaston (The King and I, Miss Saigon), DeeDee Magno Hall (WickedMiss Saigon), Orville Mendoza (Pacific OverturesMiss Saigon), Emily Morales (South Pacific); Jennifer Paz (Miss Saigon, Les Miserables), and Diane Phelan (South PacificWest Side Story), among others. Broadway composer Robert Lopez, who's Filipino American, will be honored with the Award of Excellence for his Tony Award-winning compositions for hit Broadway musicals Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon.