Lea Salonga on longevity, joy, and the freedom of becoming

Decades into an extraordinary career that has spanned continents and generations, Lea Salonga remains driven by the same force that first brought her to the stage: an unshakable love for storytelling.

In an interview with Rico Hizon for ANC, the Tony Award–winning performer reflected on what continues to excite her as an artist—and why the magic of live performance has never faded. For Lea, the answer is both simple and deeply personal. “I really love what I do. I love storytelling, of course I love singing, and I like disappearing in roles,” she shared.

As the years passed, Lea said her relationship with performance evolved. Youth often comes with ingenue roles—exciting but limited. Maturity, however, opened doors to characters with greater depth and complexity. “As I’ve gotten older, you move away from being the ingénue. It’s fun, but not always the most interesting thing,” she said. “Now that I’m older, the roles have gotten more fun to play, which means it’s more fun to just really disappear and immerse yourself in whatever it is you are playing.”

That joy in immersion—of vanishing into a role—has been central to Lea’s artistic life since her international breakthrough in 1989, when she originated the role of Kim in Miss Saigon on London’s West End. The performance earned her the Laurence Olivier Award, and two years later, a Tony Award on Broadway—milestones that cemented her place in theater history while she was still remarkably young.

Looking back, Lea offers her younger self not instructions, but reassurance. “Fasten your seatbelt because it’s gonna be quite a ride,” she said with a smile. “Don’t dwell on anything. Don’t take it so seriously—it’s fun. This is fun. And you will continue to keep having fun as long as you just keep the joy.”

She spoke tenderly about the anxieties of youth—the endless “what ifs” that can cloud the present moment. “You will only go through it once,” she said. “Enjoy every bit of it.”

In another conversation, this time with fellow acclaimed actress Dolly de Leon on the State of the Arts YouTube channel, Lea reflected on how she managed early fame without losing her grounding. She credited the adults around her for keeping praise in check. “It helps when the authority figures in your life never did the ‘ang galing-galing mo,’” she said. “I’ve seen that happen to some of my contemporaries from childhood, and that can mess you up because the real world is not that.”

Because she wasn’t placed on a pedestal, Lea said, adulthood arrived without illusion. “My entry into the real world felt more normal because I knew no one was going to indulge this 18-year-old,” she explained. “If I needed a stern talking to, I would get one—even when I was already over there.”

Today, Lea continues to return to the stage not as a legend resting on accolades, but as an artist still hungry for transformation. She is set to appear in the Manila run of Les Misérables: The World Tour Spectacular, portraying Madame Thénardier—a role far removed from the tragic heroines she once embodied. Over the years, she has portrayed Éponine and Fantine on Broadway and in landmark anniversary concerts in London, tracing her own artistic evolution alongside the musical’s history.

For Lea Salonga, longevity isn’t about staying relevant—it’s about staying joyful. And as long as there is a story to tell and a song to sing, she remains exactly where she wants to be: on stage, disappearing into the moment, and loving every second of it.