Lea Salonga and George Takei in Allegiance at the Longacre Theatre, New York. Picture: Matthew Murphy
The list of casualties among this season’s new Broadway musicals continues to grow, as Allegiance announced a 14 February closing.
The show stars George Takei, a popular veteran of the Star Trek franchise, and was inspired by his own childhood experience as it depicts the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. Sharing the marquee with Takei are Lea Salonga and Telly Leung. The show, which had a 2012 run in California before its official Broadway opening on 8 November, has music and lyrics by Jay Kuo, and a book by Kuo, Marc Acito and Lorenzo Thione. At its closing, it will have played 37 previews and 113 regular performances.
While the current political and international debate over the status of immigrants gave the show topicality, it failed to register strongly at the box office. As a relatively quick closer in this current season, Allegiance joins Amazing Grace, the first musical to open in 2015/16, which said its farewell on 25 October, and Dames at Sea, which opened 22 October and sailed off on 3 January.
With the announcement of Allegiance’s closing, it was stated that a national tour and international productions were being planned. Perhaps foreshadowing the closing notice, Salonga had earlier announced that she would be in the cast of Fun Home, when this Tony Award musical is staged in her native Philippines later this year.
Ron Cohen
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Allegiance – Longacre Theatre, New York – Review
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