Theater Review – November 13, 2025

LEA SALONGA BRINGS A DELECTABLE BROADWAY-INSPIRED CONCERT TO SCOTTSDALE

“Lea Salonga Stage, Screen & Everything in Between”
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia G. Piper Theater
Scottsdale AZ

By Chris Curcio
Theater Critic

Like musical theater stars who stop at the Scottsdale Center, Lea Salonga of “Miss Saigon,” “Les Miserables,” the Stephen Sondheim tribute, “Old Friends,” plus several popular films, sang a collection of two dozen Broadway and Hollywood classics in wonderful renditions with vivid arrangements but the show proved so much more.

Most Broadway entertainers sing similar standards with piano accompaniment and that’s it.  But when you enter the theater for Salonga’s concert, there are places for six musicians plus two back-up singers so you know the songs will be richer and more complex.

When Salonga arrives looking almost like she did back in 1991 when she premiered in her first Broadway musical, “Miss Saigon,” she looks stunning in a tasteful dark pantsuit.  She opens with “Pure Imagination” and “A Million Dreams” from her films. Her voice sounds great with the exquisite range and haunting beauty intact.

She tackles beautifully several songs from shows she hasn’t yet performed like “Sweeney Todd’s” “By the Sea” and “Stayin’ Alive” from “Grease.”  She presents a Rodgers and Hammerstein medley that includes “South Pacific,” “Cinderella,” and “Carousel” classics.  When will she play “South Pacific’s” Nellie Forbush?  After more movie tunes, she performs two “Miss Saigon” duets wonderfully with Andrew Kotzen.  She closes the first act with a forceful “Being Alive” from “Company.”

After intermission, she returns in a stunning floor length purple frock with diamonds. She launches into Leonard Berstein’s “Something’s Coming” from “West Side Story.”  Like the first half, the songs are delivered with exceptional brilliance but she never destroys each song’s original melody with splashy contemporary arrangements.  Bravo!

More Sondheim with “Sweeney Todd’s” “By the Sea” before a medley of Disney Princesses including “Aladdin’s” Jasmine. Throughout the show, Salonga had a pleasant dialogue with the audience.

A song from her Philippines homeland, “Kailangan Kita,” came with reflective emotionalism then “On My Own.” from “Les Miserables” before the concert closer, a gripping “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from “Gypsy.”

Two wonderful encores included a love song medley and a touching “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” where she gave Judy Garland’s torch song her own distinctive interpretation.

Positive mention of Larry Yurman’s jazzy band plus the two back-up singers, Kotzen and Sarah Galbraith.

The Scottsdale Center will have to go a long way with future Broadway performers to create the delectable concert presented by Broadway star Lea Salonga.  The performance was only scheduled for one night and it was appropriately sold-out.

Grade: A