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LEA SALONGA

Saturday, May 13, 2023 @ 8:00pm



Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
100 South Street, Morristown, NJ 07960

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Award-winning actress and singer Lea Salonga is renowned for her powerful voice and perfect pitch. Best known for her Tony Award winning role in Miss Saigon, she was also the first Asian to play Eponine in Les Misérables on Broadway and returned as Fantine in the 2006 revival. Lea was the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin, and Fa Mulan for Mulan and Mulan II, earning the honor of “Disney Legend.”

Multiple award-winning actress and singer Lea Salonga is renown across the world for her powerful voice and perfect pitch. She is best known for her Tony Award winning role in Miss Saigon. In addition to the Tony, she has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards, in the field of musical theatre. She was also the first Asian to play Eponine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway and returned to the beloved show as Fantine in the 2006 revival. Many fans of all ages recognize Lea as the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Fa Mulan for Mulan and Mulan II. For her portrayal of the beloved princesses, the Walt Disney Company bestowed her with the honor of “Disney Legend.”

Most recently, Lea starred in the critically acclaimed Sony musical-drama YELLOW ROSE and stars in the Netflix animated series CENTAURWORLD. She is currently filming the first season of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (a reboot of the popular series) for HBO Max. In August, Lea released her single “Dream Again” and in November Lea Salonga: Live with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from Sydney Opera House aired as part of Great Performances on PBS. A live album of the performance was subsequently released by Broadway Records.

Lea served as a judge on the Philippines hit version of “The Voice” including the ratings juggernaut “The Voice Kids.” Mitoy Yonting, a member of Team Lea, was named the first season winner.

Lea’s 2019 The Human Heart Tour saw sold-out audiences and record-breaking sales across North America and the United Kingdom. On Broadway, Lea most recently starred in the 2018 Broadway revival of Once on This Island as the Goddess of Love, Erzulie. The show’s return to the Broadway stage earned a Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Musical” and also garnered Lea and the cast a Grammy nomination for “Best Musical Theater Album.”

In late 2017, Lea released “Bahaghari,” an album of traditional Filipino songs. The album serves as a reflection of all the intricate and different languages found in the Philippines and aims to help preserve the island nation’s dynamic culture.

Lea also released her electrifying live album “Blurred Lines” in the spring of 2017. The album was recorded during her sold-out run at Feinstein’s / 54Below the year before. The original six-date showcase was received with overwhelming accolades from fans and critics alike. So well received in fact that Lea returned to the famed venue for a record-setting 15-show encore performance in the late spring (2017).

In the fall of 2015 Lea began her critically acclaimed run as Kei Kimura in the Broadway production of Allegiance. The musical, inspired and developed by legendary actor George Takei, tells the story of a Japanese American family forced into an internment camp during World War II. Lea garnered a Craig Noel nomination for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical for her performance in the Old Globe production and can be heard on the show’s original cast album. Following this, Lea made a guest appearance on the hit CW television show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

For much of 2014, Lea performed with legendary popera quartet Il Divo, accompanying them in Asia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and all through Eastern and Western Europe on their A Musical Affair tour, celebrating the band’s 10th anniversary. She can be seen on their latest DVD and CD bearing the same name.

Lea made her debut in the world of Cabaret in 2010, performing a sold-out, three-week engagement at the Café Carlyle in New York City. She returned in June 2011 to delight audiences in another multi-week engagement and released a live version of her 2010 concert “Lea Salonga: The Journey So Far,” her 26th career CD, in August 2011. The CD rose to the #3 spot on iTunes Jazz Charts. In 2013, she did a third engagement titled “Back to Before,” which was lauded by the New York Times.

Lea has toured all over the world, performing sold out concerts in such locations as the Sydney Opera House, 02 Arena, Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Singapore’s Esplanade , Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, Hong Kong Cultural Center ), Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok and Carnegie Hall in New York. She was also the first artist to sell out two shows at Brigham Young University’s deJong Concert Hall in Provo, Utah since The Kings Singers in 2009.

In 2010, she participated in the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Misérables to sold out crowds at the UK’s O2 arena having appeared as Eponine in the show’s 10th Anniversary concert. She also dazzled as the hauntingly tragic Grizabella in a limited run of CATS in her hometown of Manila. Lea also teamed up with legendary Grammy winner, Patti Austin, to perform the concert series, ‘Heart and Soul,’ at venues throughout the United States.

Honored with an appointment as a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Goodwill Ambassador in October of 2010, Lea vowed to act as an advocate for the Youth and United Nations Global Alliance initiative led by the FAO. The same year, she also joined forces with Avon as a celebrity judge for Avon Voices, alongside such artists as Fergie, Natasha Beddingfield and Diane Warren, in the first ever global, online singing talent search for women and songwriting competition for men and women.

In her 40-year career, Lea has performed for six Philippine presidents (from Ferdinand Marcos to Benigno S. Aquino III), three American Presidents (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush), and for Diana, Princess of Wales and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She began her career as a child star in the Philippines, making her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven in the musical The King and I. She went on to star in productions of Annie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof, The Rose Tattoo, The Sound of Music, The Goodbye Girl, Paper Moon, The Fantasticks and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song, on Broadway, opposite Jose Llana.

An avid techie and gamer, Lea divides her time between Manila, Philippines with her family and the United States.




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FEATURED EVENTS


Travis Mills

Monday, November 09, 2026 @ 6:00pm
Grunin Center - Main Stage
Toms River, NJ

Retired United States Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills of the 82nd Airborne is a recalibrated warrior, motivational speaker, actor, author, and advocate for veterans and amputees. Travis’s New York Times bestselling memoir, Tough as They Come, is currently available for sale in bookstores everywhere. Despite losing portions of both arms and legs from an IED while on active duty in Afghanistan, Travis continues to overcome life’s challenges, breaking physical barriers and defying odds.

 

BEAT: Belew/Vai/Levin/Bozzio performing the music of King Crimson

Monday, November 09, 2026 @ 8:00pm
NJPAC - Prudential Hall
Newark, NJ

Following more than 100 acclaimed performances across North and South America, Europe, and Japan, BEAT returns this fall for the last North American tour. Former King Crimson members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin are joined by guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and legendary drummer Terry Bozzio to perform the music of the three landmark 1980s King Crimson albums—Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair.

 

Rocky in Concert: Celebrating the 50 Anniversary of Rocky

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
Morristown, NJ

Experience the underdog story that defined a generation. Now bigger, bolder, and brought to life with a live symphony orchestra. Watch the original Rocky film on the big screen while the iconic Bill Conti score is performed live, delivering every triumph, every heartbreak, and every adrenaline-fueled moment with knockout power. 

 

JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO MOVIES ON MAINSTREET

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Lizzie Rose Music Room
Tuckerton, NJ

Critics were baffled. Audiences stayed away. Now many consider it one of Tom Hanks' and Meg Ryan' most charming and philosophical comedies. Funny, romantic, and surprisingly profound.

 

Free Event: U.S. Army Field Band

Wednesday, November 11, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
Morristown, NJ

The Concert Band & Soldiers’ Chorus are the oldest and largest of The U.S. Army Field Band’s performing components. Founded in 1946 and 1957 respectively, these two ensembles combine to present joint concerts on their national tours. They have performed in all 50 states and 30 foreign countries for audiences totaling hundreds of millions.

 

The Jazz Ambassadors of the US Army Field Band – America250 Celebration

Wednesday, November 11, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) - Main Stage
Rahway, NJ

The Jazz Ambassadors is the official touring big band of the United States Army. Formed in 1969, this 19-member ensemble has received great acclaim at home and abroad performing America’s greatest original art form, jazz.

 

Joe Russo's Almost Dead

Thursday, November 12, 2026 @ 7:30pm
State Theatre New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ

Joe Russo's Almost Dead is Marco Benevento, Dave Dreiwitz, Tom Hamilton, Scott Metzger and Joe Russo. We're a Grateful Dead cover band.

 

McCarter at the Museum: An Evening with Jason Robert Brown

Thursday, November 12, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Princeton Art Museum
Princeton, NJ

Join us for McCarter at the Museum - renowned performing artists in one-night only events at the Princeton University Art Museum. 


Jason Robert Brown is a four-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon In Vegas and The Connector, has performed as a soloist or with his band in venues around the world, including sold-out shows at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. His albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes and How We React and How We Recover on Ghostlight, and Coming From Inside the House and Live In Concert with Stephen Sondheim on Concord.


With Special Guest Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe. Tony Award-nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is currently starring as Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, following her recent Broadway run as Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. She previously originated the title role in Joy, the new musical inspired by inventor Joy Mangano, and earned a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her celebrated performance as Anne Hathaway in & Juliet. Other Broadway credits include starring as Jenna in Waitress, Cordelia in the acclaimed revival of Falsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade, as well as her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus and has appeared as a guest artist with more than 65 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her screen credits include First One In, Estella Scrooge, CBS’s Instinct, and the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. Wolfe is also the co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, the acclaimed musical theatre training program she launched in 2018 to train and mentor the next generation of theatre artists.


A limited number of early access tickets for McCarter Director’s Circle members and members of the Museum’s Partner Circle are available, on sale Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM. General public on sale begins Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.


Please be aware there is no public drop-off or parking at the Museum. For visitors with mobility needs, please contact the Museum at least three business days in advance of your visit to request special access to the Museum via Elm Drive. Call 609-258-3788 and select option 1 to speak to a visitor services staff member, or email Louise Barrett at [email protected].

 

Miles @ 100 with Jon Faddis & Friends

Thursday, November 12, 2026 @ 7:30pm
NJPAC - Victoria Theater
Newark, NJ

Celebrate 100 years of Miles Davis! The GRAMMY®-nominated trumpeter and bandleader Jon Faddis carries on the legacy in this anniversary tribute. He’ll spotlight Davis’s game-changing 1957 album Birth of the Cool and his 1959 modal masterpiece Kind of Blue. The all-star ensemble includes both new and familiar faces to NJPAC jazz audiences: Erena Terakubo (alto sax), Gary Smulyan (bari sax), Steve Turre (trombone), John Clark (French horn), Bob Stewart (tuba), Mike LeDonne (keys), Todd Coolman (bass) and John Riley (drums).

 

John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band

Friday, November 13, 2026 @ 8:00pm
Carteret Performing Arts & Events Center
Carteret, NJ

The legendary Rhode Island multi-platinum rock’n’roll group JOHN CAFFERTY & THE BEAVER BROWN BAND began their career in 1973 and achieved mainstream success in the 1980s with the “Eddie & The Cruisers – Motion Picture Soundtrack”. The hit single “ON THE DARK SIDE” held the “#1” position on the Billboard Rock charts and the MTV video charts for five consecutive weeks.



 

 

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Spotlight Players presents "The Addams Family"

(MATAWAN, NJ) -- Spotlight Players presents The Addams Family across two weekends from November 6-15, 2026 at the First Presbyterian Church of Matawan. There's one weekend left to see everyone's favorite wonderfully unconventional family on stage.



Hunterdon Hills Playhouse presents Christmas at the Playhouse 2026

(HAMPTON, NJ) -- Hunterdon Hills Playhouse presents Christmas at the Playhouse 2026 from November 10 to December 20, 2026. Celebrate the season with this spectacular holiday production filled with the music, memories, and traditions audiences have cherished through the years.


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Ferrell Studios presents "Carrie, the Musical"

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Fool Moon Theatre Company presents "Love, Loss, And What I Wore" at The Eagle Theatre on November 12th