Lea Salonga, Mulan and auditions

The other day when I was looking for the song from "I not stupid too" I somehow stumbled across Lea Salonga's audition clip for "Miss Saigon". I had no idea who she was but looked her up on Wikipedia. (listening to the clip again gives me goose bumps). She is now almost 37 but in the clip she was only a young teenger, so beautiful, so innocent, so talented. I became fascinated and looked up more of her stuff on YouTube. She is Filipino and was cast as the lead in many broadway productions like Miss Saigon and Les Miserables. Also, she does the singing voice of many Disney films including Mulan. I absolutely love this song "Reflection". The moment I heard it I just loved the lyrics which describe the way I feel a lot of the time, and also the tune.



Reflection (From Disney's Mulan)

Look at me
I will never pass for a perfect bride
Or a perfect daughter
Can it be I'm not meant to play this part?
Now I see that if I were to truly to be myself
I would break my family's heart

CHORUS
Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me?
Why is my reflection someone I don't know?
Somehow I cannot hide who I am
Though I've tried
When will my reflection show who I am inside?
When will my reflection show who I am inside?

How I pray,
That a time will come I can free myself,
and meet their expectations
On that day,
I'll discover some way to free myself, and to make my family proud

They want a docile lamb, noone knows who I am
Must there be a secret me I'm forced to hide?
Must I pretend that I'm someone else, for all time
When will my reflection show who I am inside?
When will my reflection show who I am inside?

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Interview with Lea when she was 18. She seems so intelligent, friendly, bubbly and sweet in this interview. Her and Simon Bowman's beautiful, sweet performance after the interview.

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Watching her audition clip brought back many memories for me. I used to go to acting auditions and it was so much fun. Nerve wracking like nothing else on earth but such an amazing experience. The most amazing time was when I got asked by my agent to go to Fox Studios in Sydney, not the part that the public can go into but the top secret security staff only area. I was on such a high. I didn't have a car and only had 2 hours to get from wherever I was back home, get changed and get to the eastern suburbs. Plus it was like a 30 degree day in the middle of summer so I was rushing and sweating like anything. It was so cool to see some behind-the-scenes places that most people will never get to see, and the now defunct Backlot theme park. I didn't get the part of course but the amazing experience was enough for me. It seems like a lifetime ago now!

Reading about Miss Saigon, Les Miserables and all the other broadway productions Lea has been in has made me really miss seeing musicals. For as long as I can remember I have seen a different musical in Sydney almost every year. I particularly like the ones with kids or teenagers in them. My all time favourite is The Phantom of the Opera and I'm dying to see Miss Saigon, Rent and Wicked. We saw an abridged version of Wicked at Universal Studios Japan and I read up on it last night and it seems to have rave reviews. It shows you what really went on in Oz. ARGH! Get me to NYC or London, pronto! ;)