THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Allegiance the Musical, created by George Takei, was triumphantly received in San Diego then onto Broadway and has been teleported here to London, to the Charing Cross Theatre. The legendary Star Trek actor, activist and best selling author (and so much more) presents a startling and lesser known black mark on American history telling the story of Japanese Americans put into concentration camps in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
Yes, you did read that correctly and despite most being born in America, 120,000 (that’s the Olympic stadium filled over twice) were imprisoned during World War II, including George’s family. This story is set to the felicity of musical theatre making it more palatable and deeply impactful.
Pre-show, it was easy to spot the Trekkies, bespectacled and some having a pint and reading a book before show time. Patrons filled the oddly laid out theatre with oppositional seating sandwich style with the stage positioned in the middle. Perhaps the musical’s cohesive, talented and emotionally connected cast could have shone brighter in a less awkward theatre but despite that, the musical sang for itself and was unforgettably compelling.
It’s an international cast and it has to be said that British actors are producing excellently convincing American accents. Telly Leung, playing young Sammy Kimura (as he did on Broadway), fully understands the nuances of the play and shines with an earnest integrity capturing the anger, uncertainty and chaos. He is well paired with Sammy’s sister Kei Kimura, played by Aynrand Ferrer who gives a genuine and sincere performance with her singing bringing goosebumps on several occasions. Frankie Suzuki, played by Patrick Munday is charismatic and one of two from the cast who was trained at London’s Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts Stage school created by the legendary, and no longer with us, Peter Coxhead who would have been very proud of his legacy.
This is an important, provocative musical that opens up thoughts and questions such as, “where does your allegiance lie?” We Americans mostly all have a relatively recent immigrant path and the musical demonstrates where irresponsible and paranoid leadership can lead. Takei chose to highlight the strength of character of the prisoners. The word ‘Gaman,’ of Zen Buddhist origin meaning “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity to carry on,” is used in refrain and sung through the show. In its essence, the story is about love trumping all and it was clever (and very American) of Takei to wrap the appalling event in brevity and light.
