LOS ANGELES?Less than a year after her historic concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lea Salonga is returning to LA to do a couple of shows.

First stop for the Tony and Lawrence Olivier Award-winning singer is a guest performance at the annual Visionary Awards dinner of the East West Players (EWP), a leading Asian-American theater company, on April 27 at the Hilton Universal City near the Universal Studios.

?I?m looking forward to reconnecting with friends in the Asian-American theater scene that I haven?t seen in a long time,? Lea told us via e-mail. ?A couple of my friends have already let me know that they?ll be attending. It?s always exciting to see old friends!?

Lea herself received a Visionary Award in 2002. ?Oh my, 2002 seems like such a lifetime ago!? she wrote when we asked what she remembers most about receiving the honors. ?My memories are more about 2002 as the year when ?Flower Drum Song? opened on Broadway, and when Rob and I got engaged. Everything else is kind of a blur.?

Trailblazer

Tim Dang, EWP artistic director, said of Lea?s participation in the event: ?We are extremely honored. Since she received the EWP Visionary Award, she will be making her first appearance at the gala, which is perfect timing. Many Asian Pacific performers are coming into their own, raising the visibility of the entire community and becoming positive role models for Asians and non-Asians alike. Lea Salonga is probably the epitome of artistry and a role model to many?she is a trailblazer.?

This year, EWP, which is celebrating its 43rd anniversary, will honor actor John Cho, who gets his biggest break as Hikaru Sulu in J.J. Abrams? much-awaited big screen adaptation of ?Star Trek?; Quest Crew, the recent winner of Randy Jackson?s ?America?s Best Dance Crew,? which includes several Filipino-Americans as members; Oscar winning filmmaker Jessica Yu; and the California Community Foundation.

Quest Crew will also perform along with The Three Filipino Tenors?Antoine Reynaldo Diel, Randy Guiaya and Lito Villareal. ?The Three Filipino Tenors are like household names at East West Players,? Tim explained. ?They have been in many shows at EWP as individual actors and are recognizable names when you see their names in our production programs. When they perform together, it is magical and they always bring people to their feet.?

Quest Crew

Of Quest Crew, which includes Fil-Ams Dominic ?D-Trix? Sandoval, Ryan Conferido, Brian Hirano and Aris Paracuelles (the other members are Hok, Feng, Steve Terada, Andy Luo and Lydia Paek), Tim said: ?You don?t automatically think of Asians doing hip hop. Quest is definitely breaking stereotypes about the Asian male. Yes, Asian guys can dance well. Some Quest members used to be part of a group called sickstep, which performed at our Next Big Bang Theater conference in 2006. Quest also performed at our theater as part of a Disney diversity seminar in December 2008.?

The program also features appearances by ?Dancing with the Stars? judge Carrie Ann Inaba and actress Amy Hill and additional performances by Ethan Le Phong and TAIKOPROJECT. Emcees are Fil-Am Tamlyn Tomita (?The Joy Luck Club,? ?Karate Kid II?) and Francois Chau of the hit TV series ?Lost.?

Lea?s ex

EWP?s season closer, an evening of one-act musicals, ?The Last Five Years? and ?Marry Me A Little,? shows that the theater world is such a small, small world. Cast in ?The Last Five?? is Lea?s ex-boyfriend, Michael K. Lee, who is now married to Kim Varhola. We hear that they have a kid. Kim was in the revival of ?Flower Drum Song,? which starred Lea. And so was Jennifer Paz, who appears with Michael in ?The Last??

?It will be great to see Paz again!? said Lea, who first gained international acclaim for her portrayal of Kim in ?Miss Saigon.? ?I haven?t seen her since she got engaged (to Ty Kelly).? Jennifer has played Kim, too, in various productions. Last May, she won an Ovation award from the LA Stage Alliance for playing Kim in an LA area production of ?Miss Saigon.?

Another Kim

The Lea Salonga/?Miss Saigon? connection does not end there. ?Marry Me A Little? features Jennifer Hubilla, who played Kim in a touring production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg?s epic musical in the UK. ?We seem to be working with a lot of Kims lately,? Tim noted. ?When we look for artistry and celebrity, particularly in vocal musical performances, there is an elite group of actresses who have been given an extraordinary opportunity ? they have all played Kim. If this credit is on their resumé, you know that they have ? the ability to wow you.?

Tim pointed out another coincidence: ?We also have two Michaels performing in each show,? referring to Michael K. Lee and Michael Dalager. ?So each show has a Jennifer and a Michael. Michael Dalager is half-Filipino from San Diego. Both Jennifers have played the powerhouse role of Kim, with Hubilla playing the role in London and Paz playing in productions across the United States. Both are amazing talents?and for these one-act musicals with only two persons in each, you have to have talent, artistry and charisma because the audience is watching you for over an hour.?

Both shows have Fil-Am Marc Macalintal as musical director. Another Fil-Am, Jon Lawrence Rivera, directs ?The Last??

Tim acknowledged the contribution of Fil-Ams in EWP productions. ?The Filipino musical talent has become an exceptional community of artists and we are glad to be part of raising the visibility of very talented performers,? he said. ?Marry Me?? and ?The Last Five?,? goes onstage from May 7 to June 7 at EWP?s theater in LA?s Little Tokyo. More information about the show and the Visionary Awards dinner is available at www.eastwestplayers.org.

Speaking of Little Tokyo, that?s Lea?s next LA stop ? the Aratani Japan America Theatre, to be exact, on May 30. She will be a special guest of the 65-piece Asia America Symphony Orchestra under music director and conductor David Benoit ? yes, the one more popularly known as a contemporary jazz exponent.

David?s 8th

David studied orchestration and conducting, and this is his 8th season with this orchestra. According to Lea, ?This opportunity presented itself sometime last year. I think David Benoit heard my version of a couple of songs he wrote (?When the Winter?s Gone? and ?Land of the Loving,? both on my ?Inspired? album). He liked them, and then inquiries and discussions began to have me perform with the Asia America Symphony Orchestra. Woo-hoo!?

We asked how this will be different from her milestone concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall last July. Lea answered: ?The orchestra will be much bigger ? so the sound will be very different, maybe similar to my concerts in Hong Kong and Seoul.?

She added, ?There is no theme. Since I?ll only be singing for an hour?the symphony will be performing the first half; I?ll be doing the second half?I just want to showcase the best of what I?ve got.? More information is at www.asiaamericasymphony.org.

Our fellow Inquirer columnist rattled off her other coming US concerts: May 1, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; May 4, Snoqualmie Casino, Washington; and May 24, Silver Legacy Casino, Reno. She added, ?I have more concerts in the US in the fall ? and Nicole will be a flower girl for the first time then.?

Proud wife, mom

On her life with Rob and Nicole (who turns 3 in May) in the Philippines, Lea gushed, ?It?s so wonderful living here with the husband and the little girl. We?re blessed to have a lot of quality help out here, too, which makes our lives a lot easier. It?s something that we don?t ever take for granted.?

The proud mom, who has been sharing amusing anecdotes about precocious Nicole, gamely shared the latest, upon our request: ?One afternoon, after I got ready for a photo shoot/interview, Nicole said, ?You look good!? Another time, I was putting makeup on for a gathering, and she kept saying, ?Try that, try that.? So, after each face part?eyes, cheeks, brows ?I?d pretend to put make-up on her. Her yaya then kissed her cheek, and she protested: ?No, yaya! Make-up!? ?

Are Rob and Lea planning a playmate for Nicole? ?We?d love that but the time isn?t right, right now,? Lea responded. ?Work kind of gets in the way.

As to what she misses doing and what she will do while in the United States, Lea gave a one-word answer?no further explanation needed: ?Driving!?

E-mail the columnist at srvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.