Allegiance hasn’t even opened yet, but back when
I first heard about it, I was all over it.
Lea Salonga back on Broadway, in a show featuring Michael K. Lee and
Telly Leung, with bonus George Takei? No
contest – it constituted the third must-see show for my recent trip, and it
also has the distinction for being the first preview performance I’ve seen.
Like
120,000 other Japanese Americans, the Kimura family’s lives are turned
upside-down on December 7, 1941. With
the U.S. thrown into war with Japan, immigrants and American citizens alike are
suddenly regarded as potential traitors, and despite the Kimuras’ efforts to
prove their legitimacy as loyal Americans, they’re interned at a “relocation
center” in Wyoming. Adult siblings Sammy
and Kei have always relied on each other, but in the camp, they find their
paths diverging: Sammy is convinced that
joining the army will help his family earn their way back into the American
fold, while Kei is increasingly disillusioned with the government that treats
her and her people like criminals due to extreme xenophobia and othering.
Confession
first – of the three shows I saw in New York, this was my least favorite. However, since Fun Home was this year’s big Tony winner and Hamilton all but has next year’s in the bag, edging out either
would be a tall order. Additionally,
while all three have drool-worthy casts, Fun
Home and Hamilton also have
creators to die for (Caroline, or Change’s
Jeanine Tesori and the inimitable Lin-Manuel Miranda, respectively.) I’m not familiar with Jay Kuo, who wrote the score
for Allegiance, but it appears to be his
first Broadway writing credit; his others are for producing. Furthermore, I went into the show “cold,”
since the cast recording isn’t available yet.
So, the deck isn’t as stacked in its favor, plus, with the show still in
previews, it may change some before opening night. That said, the score feels kind of generic to
me. The songs are mostly pretty and a
bit bland, and many of the lyrics strike me as utilitarian, getting the point
across without much spark or poetry. Only
a few songs really stood out to me (and much of this is down to the across-the-board
excellent performances – the exception is the darkly-satirical “Paradise,”
which would be great even without Michael K. Lee’s dynamite execution.)
However,
it’s no write-off. There are some
compelling characters, particularly Kei, who finds herself in atrociously
adverse conditions. I also like the tricky,
messy conflicts within the camp, differing opinions on how to fix an appalling
situation that has no fix; doubling down on loyalty to the U.S. after the
injustice of internment can be seen as an insult to one’s culture, but open
protest furthers mainstream views of Japanese Americans as traitorous or
unpatriotic. It’s an impossible dilemma –
one in which even the Japanese American Citizen League, the organization
supposed to be protecting the community, is complicit – and I like that the
show allows it to be difficult. And the
cast – I mean, goodness gracious. Two-time Disney princess (the singing
voice of Jasmine and Mulan, respect)
Lea Salonga is sublime as Kei, Pacific Overtures
alumni Telly Leung and Michael K. Lee both deliver as two sides of the same
coin, the desperately patriotic Sammy and the fiercely defiant Frankie. And George Takei, playing the Kimura
grandfather as well as an older Sammy, brings humor and warmth in equal
measure.
Warnings
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