Word: salonga
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Casting is as crucial a decision for cartoons as for live-action films. Aladdin's voice cast includes curmudgeonly comic Gilbert Gottfried as Jafar's parrot and Lea Salonga, the original Miss Saigon, as the singing voice of Jasmine. But the true inspiration was to have the Genie voiced by Williams, whose comedy routines pinball from one manic impression to another. Every time Williams would lurch into a new character, even if for a second, the Genie would assume that form. In five recording sessions spanning 15 months, Williams simply revolutionized cartoon voice acting. "Until now," Katzenberg notes, "we have...
Even so, that may not be the end of it. The deal must be approved by two- thirds of the Philippine Senate. Jovito Salonga, president of the Senate, opposes any extension and predicts that ratification of the pact "will be difficult...
When Miss Saigon opened in London in 1989, it had two stars, Lea Salonga as Kim and Jonathan Pryce as the Engineer. The Broadway production has three. Pryce and Salonga are repeating (indeed, enhancing) their West End triumphs. She is incandescently in command of the stage; he still gets the sardonic laughs owed to his Dickensian lampoon of a conniver, yet has transmuted him into a full-blown tragic figure, a victim of global politics all the sadder for being so streetwise. They are joined in the spotlight by Willy Falk in the role of Kim's G.I. lover, Chris...
...themselves except their fantasies of these distant others requires skillful acting and incandescent star quality. The London production had both, and Mackintosh fought fiercely to bring its two leads -- each of whom won the Olivier Award, London's equivalent of the Tony -- to Broadway. Actors' Equity objected to Salonga because she was not a citizen (she is a Filipino), but eventually accepted her as providing "unique services." Only 17 when she won the role, at 20 she sings with nonstop power and precision and acts with steamroller emotional clarity. Theater insiders compare her to Ethel Merman. Like Merman, she makes...
Having chosen the ambiance of Vietnam in which to portray a woman seduced and abandoned (albeit more honorably than in Puccini's operatic version of the story), Mackintosh and his colleagues voice great ambivalence about how significant the setting is. Because the performers are so young -- Salonga was just four when Saigon fell, and few of the youths playing soldiers were even in their teens -- the cast was instructed through film and speakers about the mood of those times. But the creators emphasize to all who will listen that Miss Saigon is not about politics. Their edgy manner...