Before her shining shimmering splendid days as Disney Princesses Jasmine and Mulan, Lea Salonga was first and foremost, a Broadway star.
Recently, a video of her auditions for the 1988 Broadway Production has been making rounds on Facebook, as uploaded by Bob Campo Belocura, Jr.
The young Lea was only seventeen years old when she snagged the lead role, Kim. The musical by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubil tells the story of a romance between an Asian woman and American soldier during the Vietnam War in the 1970’s.
Even as young as seventeen, Lea has shown prowess and expertise in singing. For her audition, she sang songs from the production including ‘Sun and Moon’, ‘The Movie in my Mind’ and ‘I’d Give My Life For You’. The video also indicates that the role of Kim was offered to her “after three days of intensive work sessions”.
Lea won several awards for playing Kim, including the first Asian to win a Tony award.
Watch the entire video below!
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