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HAPPY ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH!!!! MY FAVORITE MONTH OF THE YEAR!!!! I'm gonna spend this entire month shouting out the amazing people who work hard, shatter barriers and just plain rock in the Asian theatre community! #AsianPacificAmericanHeritageMonth
Fact #1: On June 2, 1991 @MsLeaSalonga became the first, and so far only, Asian American to win Best Performance Leading Actress in a Musical for her role as Kim in Miss Saigon
Fact #2: The amazing @AnnSandersNYC has broken many barriers throughout her career. She was the first Asian Belle in Beauty and the Beast understudying the role on Broadway and as principle in Germany & West End. She was also the first Asian woman to play the role of Anna
Leonowens in The King and I. She was the understudy for the 2015 Broadway revival at @LincolnCenter. She would be followed by Alicia Shumway, Nicole Ferguson and Miiya Alexandra.
Ann Sanders was also the first Asian (As well as first P.O.C. in general) to play the role of Cynthia Murphy in @DearEvanHansen
Fact #4: The insanely talented @AlyssaFox would be the first Asian woman to play Elphaba in an English language production. She would start out as an understudy in the San Francisco company and eventually she'd join the Munchkin Land Tour staying with the tour for about 4 years
first as standby and then as principle. After the tour she would join the Broadway company as s/b for a little over a year. Alyssa would also be the first Asian Elsa in Frozen* where she can currently** be seen as s/b for Elsa on Broadway.
Fact #5: This exists... I mean come on people it's @gorachelleann and @EvaNoblezada belting and acting their faces off and it's utter perfection.
Fact #6: @Zach_Piser would become the first Asian Evan in @DearEvanHansen when he was cast as the alternate Evan and understudy Connor & Jared in the original Canadian production. He would later join the Broadway company where he can still be seen.
Fact #7: On June 5, 1988 @wongbd would win the Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his stellar work in M. Butterfly becoming the first (and so far only) Asian to win this award (And I believe the first Asian ever to win a Tony.)
Wong's career would sky rocket after this. He would star in films and television shows such as Mr. Robot, for which he would receive an Emmy nomination, the Jurassic Park franchise, @nbcsvu, @AHSFX, Father of the Bride and voiced the role of Li Shang in Disney's Mulan.
Fact #8: Later on that night @DavidHenryHwang would win the Tony for Best Play for his incredible work on M. Butterfly. He would become the first (and so far only) only Asian to win this award.
M. Butterfly is based on the true story of Bernard Boursicot, a French diplomat, and Shi Pei Pu, a Peking opera singer with infusions of the opera Madame Buttefly. (M. Butterfly would have a brief revival starring @MistterJin) Just like Wong, Hwang's career would skyrocket,
Hwang is a two time Pulitzer Prize Finalist (for M. Butterfly and Yellow Face) and would receive two additional Tony nominations for his work on Flower Drum Song and Golden Child. Hwang's work includes 23 plays, four musicals, including Disney's Aida and Soft Power #SoftPowerBway
8 Operas and several scripts for TV and Movies, including a film adaption of his play M. Butterfly which would star Jeremy Irons and John Lone.
Fact #9: Kevin Gray became the first Asian man to play both Raoul and the Phantom in a non Asian production of @PhantomOpera (Also the first asian man to play either) role! Grey was principle Raoul on Broadway and principle Phantom on Broadway and the 2nd US Tour (Raoul Company)
Following in Kevin Gray's as Raoul would be @NadimNaaman in the West End and Greece productions and Paul Matsumoto as an understudy in Hamburg, Germany
As well as @theatremutt on Broadway and the 3rd US Tour (Music Box Company), Michael Maliakel and understudy on the 4th US Tour
There is also @alistairso current first cover Raoul on the West End and last, but not least @raminkarimloo on the West End
And as we all know @raminkarimloo also played the Phantom in the West End and in the 25th Anniversary Royal Albert Hall Production making him the 2nd Asian man to play both Raoul and the Phantom.
Fact #10: (While on the subject of Phantom) @aliewoldt becomes the first Asian woman to play the role of Christine in @PhantomBway. After having auditioned for years she (FINALLY) took over the role on June 13, 2016 where she stayed for over 2 years until November 17, 2018.
While Ali was the first Asian Christine on Broadway there have been other women to perform the role in non-asian productions. The first Asian woman being Margaret Ann Gates an alternate in Canada and Caroline Schiller also a part of the Canadian production as an understudy
And currently Caitlin Finnie can be seen in the World Tour of @PhantomOpera as the Christine alt.
Fact #11: Ali was not the only Asian to grace the boards of the Majestic. The photo below features 5 other Asian performers with Ali: @SatomiHofmann* (Carlotta & Mad. Giry u/s), Courtney Kristen Liu (Meg u/s), Ali, Jolina Javier (Corps de Ballet) and Christian Ć ebek (Piangi)
There have been at least 3 other Asian Corps de Ballet on Broadway Xiaoxiao Cao (Corps de Ballet), Erica Wong (Corps de Ballet) and original company member and Meg Giry understudy Irene Cho
There has also been Austin Sora (Corps de Ballet) on the 4th US Tour, Noh Jee-Hyun in the West End )Meg u/s) and on the World Tour (Meg principle), Diana Kaarina Wong (Meg) in Canada and Hinako Sakuraoka an (Meg u/s) in Hamburg, Germany.
Other Asian cast members are: Mami Iwai (Corps de Ballet and Meg u/s) in several cities in Germany and Yukina Hasebe (Corps de Ballet and Meg u/s) on the current 4th UK Tour.
Fact #12: (Last Phantom fact... for now) @OdaSaori would become the first PRINCIPLE Asian Carlotta in @PhantomOpera when she was cast in the original company of the 4th UK Tour. We haven't got production photos because of COVID, but I'm sure she'll fierce!!!!!!
Fact #13: @LenaRockerHall becomes the first Asian woman to win the @TheTonyAwards for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical in 2014 for her outstanding, incredible, gorgeous (SO MANY WORDS) portrayal of Yitzhak in @HedwigOnBway. She later on became the first,
and so far only, person to play both Hedwig and Yitzhak. Here is her cover of "Origin of Love" on her series "Obsessed" which I highly recommend!
Fact #14: On April 29, 2015 @DarrenCriss would join the Broadway production of @HedwigOnBway becoming the first Asian man to play Hedwig in an English language production! He would eventually lead the US Tour with @LenaRockerHall for the first two cities!
Prior to Hedwig Darren also made theatre history when he replaced Danielle Radcliffe as J. Pierrepont Finch in the 2011 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying where he also made history being the first Asian man to play this role in the English language.
Darren is however best known for his leading role on Glee as Blaine Anderson and for his Emmy Winning performance as Andrew Cunanan on the hit FX show The Assassination of Gianni Versace
Fact #15: In 1958 @eastwestplayers would be founded by Mako, Rae Creevey, Beulah Quo, Soon-Tek Oh, James Hong, Pat Li, June Kim, Guy Lee, and Yet Lock to serve as a place where Asians/Asian-Americans could play more than stereotypical asian roles. EWP is still running after 50
years and having more than 200 premiere productions, with many great actors walk through their halls in absolutely outstanding productions. These include the incredible @JonJonBriones as Georges in La Cage Aux Folles
The fabulous @JoanAlmedilla as Donna Sheridan in their critically acclaimed production of Mamma Mia! (AGH DREAM CAST COME TRUE)
A heartbreaking production of Next to Normal starring @DeedeeMagnoHall, Clifton Hall and @isabriones_ as Diana, Dan and Natalie Goodman
