Lea Salonga
Here’s a video of Lea Salonga auditioning for the role Kim in Miss Saigon.
The guys on this vid were utterly desperate searching for an Asian who can play the role of Kim for the play Miss Saigon. As soon as Lea finished her trial of the song Sun and Moon, their faces cleared up. I remember watching a documentary that claims that talent search team were about to give up ’til they heard Lea and Monique Wilson. The producers decided to search for talents among Asian countries and I think Philippines was the last country they decided to search to, one of the French producers remembered having watched a Lino Brocka film about the Marcos regime and he recalled a scene in which, a group of activists were singing and told himself that these people can sing! Thus deciding to go in the Phils to search for talents who can play the roles for the play. They found Lea.
Still, here are Lea Salonga and Monique Wilson on final auditions and selection process. The second song Lea and also Monique did is a song called “too much for one heart”, a song originally included in Miss Saigon but was thrown out the last minute and replaced with “Please.”
Lea was offered the lead role, with Wilson as the alternate (who was also assigned the role of bar girl Mimi).
Here’s Lea’s performance in Miss Saigon, a song called “Sun and Moon.” Touching!
And here’s the last part, Lea’s interview with Terry Wogan (1989).
Lea sings “on my own” in Les Miserables
And now I’m all alone again
Nowhere to turn, no one to go to
Without a home, without a friend
Without a face to say hello to
And now the night is near
Now I can make believe he’s here
Sometimes I walk alone at night
When everybody else is sleeping
I think of him and then I’m happy
With the company I’m keeping
The city goes to bed
And I can live inside my head
On my own
Pretending he’s beside me
All alone
I walk with him till morning
Without him
I feel his arms around me
And when I lose my way I close my eyes
And he has found me
In the rain
The pavement shines like silver
All the lights
Are misty in the river
In the darkness
The trees are full of starlight
And all I see is him and me
Forever and forever
And I know it’s only in my mind
That I’m talking to myself and not to him
And although I know that he is blind
Still I say there’s a way for us
I love him
But when the night is over
He is gone
The river’s just a river
Without him
The world around me changes
The trees are bare and everywhere
The streets are full of strangers
I love him
But everyday I’m learning
All my life I’ve only bee pretending
Without me his world will go on turning
A world that’s full of happiness that I
Have never known
I love him, I love him, I love him
But only on my own
——————————————-
For more info, log onto Lea’s official website: http://www.leasalonga.com/
