Disney princess Lea Salonga brings French twist to Cabaret Festival
Six shows have been released early for the 2020 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, including one which features a Disney Legend performing hit songs from French musicals.
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She is best known as the singing voice of two Disney princesses but Philippines superstar Lea Salonga will bring her personal passion for France’s most successful musical theatre duo to next year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Salonga will join the international cast of Do You Hear The People Sing?, a tribute to Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, the composer and lyricist of hit shows including Les Miserables and Miss Saigon.
“The first two shows I ever did on Broadway were theirs,” said Salonga.
“They most assuredly changed the trajectory of my life and my career, and I’ll always be grateful.”
Salonga previously performed at the Cabaret Festival in 2011 and was also named a Disney Legend that year for singing the animated roles of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and Fa Mulan in Mulan.
Joining her on stage at the Festival Theatre on June 12 and 13 will be English tenor Alfie Boe, fellow Filipino and West End actress Joanna Ampil, and Australian musical theatre performers David Harris (Priscilla), Amanda Harrison (Wicked) and Suzie Mathers (Mamma Mia!).
The show will also feature songs from Schonberg and Boublil’s works which are less well-known outside France, including Martin Guerre, The Pirate Queen and their very first musical together, La Revolution Francaise.
“I think audiences will get a really big kick out of them … the music really is quite stunning,” Salonga said.
Schonberg will also attend the festival and join its artistic director Julia Zemiro for an In Conversation session.
Do You Hear The People Sing? will be part of a four-day celebration called A French Soiree in the middle of the Cabaret Festival, which runs from June 5-20.
The show has previously toured North America and Asia but this new version of Do You Hear The People Sing? has been created especially for Australia and will also play Sydney’s State Theatre on June 16-17 and Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on June 19-20.
Also on sale today are tickets for four other Cabaret Festival events: RocKwiz Salutes New York, French chanteuse Caroline Nin’s new show Barbara, la dame en noir, Minnesota jazz-blues band Davina and the Vagabonds, and the opening 20th Anniversary Variety Gala, hosted by Zemiro and David Campbell.
TICKETS: ADELAIDECABARETFESTIVAL.COM.AU