The Athenaeum Center Theatre was packed last Wednesday night with a near-capacity crowd eager to welcome Broadway legend Lea Salonga to Chicago in her show Stage, Screen and Everything in Between.
Salonga, who first drew international recognition as the lead in Miss Saigon in 1989, is no longer the 18-year-old who rocketed to overnight fame, but her clear soprano has lost none of its sweetness as she has moved to become a fully mature vocalist and stage performer.
Now on tour with a program that covers a broad selection of material, paying tribute to songs from both stage and screen that hold special meaning for her, including her Broadway hits and the Disney princesses Jasmine and Mulan, whose vocals she performed.
At 53, Salonga’s vocal tone exhibits a maturity that reflects her evolving career. She has portrayed a wide range of roles, from ingénue parts to complex characters, and her performances as both Éponine and Fantine in Les Misérables on Broadway—roles she was the first Asian actress to play—demonstrate her versatility as a performer.
That versatility was on full display on Wednesday as she mixed some surprising choices into her repertoire: “Staying Alive” from Saturday Night Fever and the “Don’t You Forget about Me” from The Breakfast Club were two of the more unexpected choices. But mostly, it was Broadway classics performed to perfection: Rodgers and Hammerstein, Newley and Bricusse, Schönberg and Boublil, and Sondheim. Especially Sondheim.
Fresh off a Broadway tribute to the late composer, Old Friends, Salonga recreated some of that review’s highlights: Gypsy’s show-stopping “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” Company’s “Being Alive” and, a particular treat, Sweeney Todd’s “By the Sea,” a number in which her interpretation brought a new level of flirtatiousness to Mrs. Lovett. For all the surprises the evening brought, the expected old favorites still carried the most power. The audience murmured in anticipation the moment Miss Saigon’s “Last Night of the World” began and gave thunderous ovations to both Disney anthems. But it was Les Mis’ “On My Own” that drew the biggest reaction as Salonga recreated one of the most powerful theatrical moments of the last half-century on the intimate Athenaeum stage.
With a voice as vibrant as ever and a stage presence that radiates both warmth and command, Lea Salonga delivered an evening that transcended nostalgia and affirmed her status as a true musical theater icon.
