Award-winning Lea Salonga brings special talents to Temecula

When Lea Salonga was seven, she loved singing in front of her family. Then, word was out that a production was looking for kids who could sing. Her parents took her down, and that was the beginning of a massively successful stage career.

“I never intended to have a big career like this,” said Salonga, who will perform Friday evening at The Pechanga Showroom. “My parents never pushed me to be a superstar. They wanted me to have a normal life in addition to the career. I was fortunate.”

Best known for her Tony Award-winning role as Kim in “Miss Saigon,” Salonga has graced Broadway numerous times, performed before presidents and other heads of states, performed sold-out shows across the world and is the singing voice of Princess Jasmine and Fa Mulan in Disney’s “Aladdin” and “Mulan” and “Mulan II.”

“My parents pushed education, but I think God had other plans,” she said. “I think they’d still like me to finish but now they want me to do it for my own purpose. I might do it, but I have a lot on my plate right now.”

It seems like she has always been busy, starting with “The King and I” and “Annie” in the Philippines. Then came “Miss Saigon.”

“Cameron Mackintosh, who produced ‘Miss Saigon,’ basically grabbed me from the Philippines,” she said. “He and the casting director and others were auditioning thousands of people and some flew in from Hong Kong. A lot of people wanted it and I was fortunate to get it.”

At the time, during an Equity battle to get her into his production, Mackintosh commented that none of the actresses he had auditioned “had the professional potential that Salonga had.”

“I was very involved in the theater in my home country, and I didn’t really feel all that nervous,” she said. “The people involved in the production were wonderful.”

From there, it was a whirlwind of success, including work with Disney, providing the singing voices of Princess Jasmine and Fa Mulan.

“There are people of course who are aware of my role,” she said. “My daughter knows, but she isn’t in awe of it.”

Asked if there was any nervousness, again, the answer was “no.”

“I knew if I messed something up we could redo it in the studio,” she said.

She also performed as Eponine in “Les Miserables,” as an immigrant in “Flower Drum Song,” and as Grizabella in the Manilla production of “Cats.”

At this stage of her career, she feels completely comfortable in her abilities.

“When I turned 30, everything clicked,” she said. “I reached a point of getting over the hurdle when you just let go. I tend to over think a lot, but now I feeling comfortable going by gut and intuition. It may sound strange, but it’s not necessarily the most natural, going with one’s gut on stage.”

Of course, her career has been filled with accolades and credits to not just her performances but also her culture.

“It does get old, although it’s nice to be reminded of it from time to time,” she said. “But then again, you don’t have to tell me. I was there!”

One of the roles she’s quite proud of is when she returned to “Les Miserables” as Fantine.

“They cast a little Filipino girl in a non-Asian role” she said. “It was a very diverse cast, and I felt very happy to be a part of it and playing a non-traditional role.”

Still, she has a role in mind that she hopes to see herself in someday.

“I’ve kind of always seen ‘Evita’ as a brass ring of sorts,” she said. “Maybe it’s in my future. I still see myself originating shows on Broadway. I’ve been involved with a project called ‘Allegiance.’ It’s still in development, going into its workshop phase in New York. Then it will go into a regional. We’ll see from there.”

She is quite aware that the world of the stage can be fickle.

“I had been part of ‘Flower Drum Song’ and we did its out of town run in Los Angeles and then we had it in New York,” she said. “I don’t know what happened, but it more successful on the West Coast. There are a lot of theories and people will point fingers why was it a success on one coast and not the other. It’s hard to pinpoint.”

As for more than the stage, maybe, but then again, she has a true home performing live.

“I love the stage,” she said. “It’s where I’m most comfortable. It feels most natural. I listen to recordings and it’s just hard to replicate the experience of actually singing live on stage.”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t see the value of the studio.

“Being in studio is fun and there are so many things software can do,” she said. “If I do an emotionally right performance, knowing it can be fixed gives me some relief as long as it’s not manipulated to play around with the performance.”

As for the Pechanga show, expect a mix.

“There’s a little bit of everything,” she said. “I’m very fortunate in my career that I have been able to do so much.”