NY Times raves about Lea Salonga at the Carlyle
By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
FRAMED New York
Times review at the Carlyle. PHOTO FROM Fletcher HC
Fellow singer Ogie Alcasid once joked in
one of Lea Salonga’s local concerts that the Tony award winner had come a long
way—“From Broadway Centrum to Broadway!”
In the 1980s, Salonga was among many
starry-eyed teenagers who vied for attention in German Moreno’s afternoon youth
show, “That’s Entertainment,” aired from the Broadway Centrum studio in Quezon
City.
That she managed to rise above “That’s
Entertainment” (not to mention another 1980s cult schlock fest, “Ninja Kids”)
was a testament to her almost incredible gift, matched with an iron will, as
illustrated in the mega-production “Miss Saigon” on the West End and Broadway.
‘Formidable’
These are the same personal qualities highlighted in a recent New York Times review.
These are the same personal qualities highlighted in a recent New York Times review.
In the prestigious paper’s May 25 issue,
Stephen Holden wrote a rave review about Salonga’s performance in a three-week
concert series at the Café Carlyle that ends tomorrow.
Holden described Salonga as “a performer
whose formidable talent is matched by her unstoppable drive and keen
intelligence.”
The Filipina’s third outing at the
Carlyle, dubbed “Back to Before,” is a tribute to her idols Barbra Streisand and
Ella Fitzgerald. Holden reported, “As Broadway divas go, [Salonga] is a cut
above most.”
Holden said Salonga’s rendition of
standards (for instance, “The Song Is You,” “Manhattan,” “How Long Has This Been
Going On”) “[was] delivered with an almost machinelike perfection.”
Unapologetic
The critic said Salonga’s “unusually
strong and focused interpretation” of “Greatest Love of All” (Whitney Houston’s
early hit) was apt because its “message of unapologetic self-reliance resonated
with (Salonga’s) show business biography.”
Holden, however, noted that, in treading
gentler terrain like the lullaby “I Won’t Mind” or Stephen Sondheim’s oeuvre,
Salonga “demonstrated her comfort in a more intimate, psychologically subtle
mode.”
The piece was titled, “Serenely
indomitable, whatever the challenge.”
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