Pre-Show Ponders: Interview with Telly Leung

Telly Leung is Broadway & television performer, recording artist, producer, director, theater arts teacher & coach. His Broadway & national touring performing credits include Aladdin in Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway, In Transit, Allegiance (with George Takei & Lea Salonga), Godspell, Rent (final Broadway company), Wicked (Boq, original Chicago company), Pacific Overtures, and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song. His film and television credits include Glee and HBO Max’s Warrior. Leung will be at Theatre Raleigh on January 26, 2024 for a one-night-only performance of stories and songs from his career, followed by a masterclass the following morning on January 27, 2024.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background.

Telly Leung: I am a Chinese American actor. I was born and raised in New York City – in fact, my family still lives in Brooklyn. Most people know me because I've done a lot of Broadway shows – I've been in seven Broadway shows – and some people might know me from television because I did Glee. I was a Warbler in Glee for a little while, and most recently, I did an arc on season three of HBO Max's Warrior as Marcel. But mostly people know me because of the work that I've done in theater. My first Broadway show was a musical called Flower Drum Song, my second show was a Stephen Sondheim revival called Pacific Overtures, which was at Studio 54, and then I was in the final company of Rent on Broadway, which has been filmed live, and people can go on iTunes or YouTube and watch that. I did the 2012 revival of Godspell, and after that, I did a brand new musical called Allegiance – which was my first time being a leading man on Broadway – a musical that was inspired by the life of George Takei about the Japanese American internment. It was me and George Takei and Lea Salonga together on stage, working on a show that we developed for six years total. We took it out of town to San Diego, we premiered it on Broadway, and it's also a show that I got to do in London last winter. It was my first time performing in London, which was very exciting.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

George was in the original Star Trek on television, and that's how most people know him. But what people don't know is that he and his family were part of the 120,000 people who were forced to leave their homes after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They were Japanese Americans, but Americans, and they were put into internment camps. So when we talk about World War II, we definitely know about the Holocaust and the terrible things that happened to the Jews in concentration camps in Europe. The story that doesn't get told often is that right here, in America, on home soil, we imprisoned our own citizens, purely because they were Japanese and purely because of fear, and prejudice and racism and war hysteria. It has been George's passion project and life work – and not only his passion project, but also his mission – to tell that story, and we got to work on that show together. The three of us got to develop that show from scratch and actually bring it to Broadway, and then this year, bring it to London to the off West End. 

I did a Broadway a capella musical called In Transit, which was a lot of fun, and then after that, I spent two years playing Aladdin in Disney's Aladdin on Broadway. When the pandemic hit, all of my concert jobs and symphony jobs were canceled, and one of those things that came about to fill in one of those cancellations was a phone call from the head of the University of Michigan at the time, his name is Vince Cardinal, and he says “Hey, what are you doing in the spring?” And I said “Nothing, it's COVID and everything's canceled.” He says, “Well come and direct Godspell at the University of Michigan.” I said, “Vince, I've never directed anything before.” And he's like “Yes, but you have taught university students,” which I have. I’ve also been an adjunct professor at NYU – I would do Aladdin at night and teach students during the day, so I have experience teaching at universities. He says “You know Godspell really well. Listen, we're going to do a very strange version of Godspell, which means all the students are going to be masked when they sing, there's no live band, there's no audience. We're doing it in the theater and it's a four camera shoot, so you're really doing Godspell the musical, the movie. And if one person gets COVID, we're all back to Zoom University screens.” And he was like “So what I'm telling you is you can't mess this up!”

So for my first directing job, I felt like a) I couldn't mess it up. And b) I was sort of away from the critical eye of New York critics or LA critics or Chicago critics or anything like that. It wasn't about the show, it was about the students getting some sort of performance experience in the middle of a pandemic where theaters were shut down all over the country. It was about the process. And for me, it was about learning how to really direct and direct under very challenging circumstances. The show ended up being a lot better than I think anybody expected it to be, and what I discovered was that I really enjoy directing. I enjoy the conversations I have with designers and other collaborators that I normally would not get as an actor. I was really thrilled that last year, my friend Lauren Kennedy asked me to come and direct a show at Theatre Raleigh, and that was my introduction to Theatre Raleigh, actually as a director first and not a performer, which is very interesting for somebody who spent the last 20 years performing on Broadway.

It was really fun to go “Hey, Raleigh, I'm here and I'm behind the scenes.” I got to direct a play that I really love and adore, David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face, which actually is going to get a big Broadway revival, this coming roundabout season on Broadway. They just announced it and it’s going to be starring Daniel Dae Kim. So I think if anything, Lauren Kennedy and Theatre Raleigh was ahead of the curve there, bringing this play back to life for the Raleigh community. So that's me in a nutshell. 

Can you talk more about your time on Broadway?

TL: It's so interesting because, especially since we're talking about Theatre Raleigh, my first Broadway show was a show that was a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical but it was being revised. The libretto of it was being revised by David Henry Hwang. David Henry Hwang, a Tony Award winning playwright who wrote M. Butterfly, was going to look at the book of Flower Drum Song again, because back in the Rodgers and Hammerstein days, there were some pretty racist things that were said in the book that were no longer acceptable in 2002 when the show happened. But David really loved the show and loved the spirit of the show and loved these characters and what it had to say about immigration, assimilation, and what America looks like – Chinatown's are very much a part of the fabric of what America looks like. So he really wanted to look at the book again. He did a brand new libretto –  same Rodgers and Hammerstein songs but brand new libretto – and we did that revival on Broadway in 2002. It was pretty full circle, that being my first Broadway show and meeting David, to then have the opportunity to direct a play by David Henry Hwang at Theatre Raleigh.

Was there any moment in your upbringing or your career that made you realize this is what you want to pursue? Or was it more of a gradual decision?  

TL: Broadway, of course, is for every theater kid, like, a dream, right? What theater kid doesn't practice their Tony acceptance speech in their bathroom mirror? But I got hooked on theater, and I think it took me many years to realize why I was hooked on theater. I just turned 44 this year, and in my 20s, when I was studying theater at Carnegie Mellon University and I was getting my degree and I graduated, I went right into a Broadway show. I went right into the revival of Flower Drum Song that I just spoke about. All I wanted to do was perform in my 20s, and I spent the first 10 years of my career, my 20s, really finding every chance – I did everything, not just Broadway shows. I did regional theater, I went on tour, I would sing at benefits, I would sing at gay bars at midnight, I just loved performing. I loved the applause and the crowd. I love being on stage. 

And in my 30s, after being part of the theater community for 10 years, I realized, “Oh, yes, I love performing. But what I also love are the people, the amazing theater artists that I've gotten to meet. Not just my fellow performers, but amazing directors and stage managers and designers, music directors, musicians, all of those people that I've met in the first 10 years of my career.” I said “Gosh, now this next 10 years of my career, my 30s, I get to sometimes do another show with those people or collaborate with those people again, and I just love being part of this community.” It became a little deeper and richer for me. I went from going “I really love performing” to “Gosh, I really love performing with this community of people.” Now in my 40s, now that I'm directing as well, I go “Gosh, I really love making things with people that I've met the last 20 years.” Now I feel like it's time for me to make some theater, not just be in theater, not just performative, but also to make it, which is why the opportunities to direct have been so great. I'm very thankful to Lauren Kennedy for giving me a shot at her brand new theater.

It's interesting – I realized in the course of that 20 years, I was like “Gosh, the thing that I really love is the hang.” I think I got that from high school, like when you start loving to do theater and you start rehearsing your high school musical after school, you know? It is the one place where there is a job for everyone. You don't have to be athletic to be on a team. There is a place where you can be athletic and probably dance in the musical. But if you had no talent –  singing, dancing, acting talent at all – you could pick up a paintbrush and paint that flat. You could work in the box office, you could be an usher, you could be a stage manager. To me, it was this perfect representation of what I wanted the world to be – this microcosm of what I envision in that nothing exists until you bring all of these people together to make something that didn't exist before and that there is a job and a place for everyone. By far the most inclusive place in the world is the theater. That's a long way of saying it took me like it took me 20 years to realize, “Oh, why I do theater is because of that feeling I got in high school when there was a place for everybody in the theater.” I was like “Okay, got it.” It took me 20 years to realize that. Really, I’m stuck in high school.

Throughout this 20 year career, is there any particular moment that stands out above the rest as something you’ll never forget? 

TL: My cabaret and my concerts like the one I’m doing at Theatre Raleigh on the 26th are filled with of course songs that I love, but they're also tied together with a lot of stories from my last 20 years on Broadway. I am very excited to share some of the stories with everybody, and every time I get to do my show, the set list changes a little bit because I have new stories to tell. 

Chen Tang and Telly Leung (Warrior, HBO Max)

But in terms of particular stories, right after I directed the show last year at Theatre Raleigh,  right after I directed Yellow Face, I filmed that HBO show called Warrior. We filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, for four months. One of the most beautiful sites in South Africa in Cape Town is Table Mountain. In fact, it's a natural wonder of the world. Literally from anywhere in Cape Town, you could look and you would see the magnificence of Table Mountain. So in my show, I'm going to talk a little bit about my time in Cape Town. Not only was it a life changing place to visit as far as the natural beauty of it – the southern tip of Africa where two oceans meet, the beautiful mountains and the beaches – but it's also a place that I think taught me a lot because I spent four months living there. 

As a child, I remember seeing the footage of Nelson Mandela being freed, of Nelson Mandela becoming the president of South Africa, of the end of apartheid. The end of apartheid only happened in the 90s, and if you really think about that, it's not that long ago that apartheid ended. Living there for four months and seeing those places, going to Robben Island to see where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned all of those years, just being in Cape Town and meeting the people and understanding that culture and the remnants of that, it really gave me a perspective on the world that I think changed my life forever. One of the songs I'm going to sing in the show is “Climb Every Mountain” because of Table Mountain and because it's a song that I feel is about overcoming adversity and overcoming those things that are hard. And certainly when you go to a place like South Africa that's been through so much, a place like Cape Town that’s been through so much politically in our recent history, you feel that strength and feel resilience in a place like that.

You originated the role of Boq in the Chicago company of Wicked. Can you talk about that?

TL: Yeah! When I did Wicked, the Chicago company was only the third company of the show. So the Broadway production had opened, the first national tour had opened, and the second stop on tour was Chicago, and the entire six week run sold out in a day. So the producers are like “We probably should just have a sit down company in Chicago,” and the production would end up running five years in Chicago, which is pretty amazing for a Midwest market like Chicago that isn't New York, that isn't London, but it's pretty phenomenal. And Wicked just celebrated 20 years on Broadway. So it's wild to think about “Oh, gosh, there was a time when there were only two companies of the show,” and we were the third company. To get to originate a role like that in a big hit show was an opportunity that I'm so grateful for.

It was also an opportunity for me to work with somebody that I really, really admire, the director of Wicked, Joe Mantello. Joe Mantello, of course, is Tony nominated actor from his incredible work in Angels in America – the original Angels in America – and has now become a director that has not only done Wicked, but also the revival of Assassins, he just did the recent production Here We Are, which is the final Sondheim musical that's Off-Broadway at the moment. And Joe Mantello is one of these incredible people that’s known as an actor, but then he developed a phenomenal career as a director, and then he'll jump back to acting. I go “Gosh, that's very inspiring to me,” because I'm saying to myself “Gosh, if Joe can do it, maybe I can do it too.” Show business has a funny way of going “You are this. You act, and you do this. You direct, and you do this.” To be able to jump back and forth, I think Joe really was the formula and the inspiration, so that's sort of the career that I would love to be able to have, to be somebody that's able to perform — I'm definitely not done performing — but I'm also really loving the opportunities to direct and create and take all the knowledge that I've acquired in the last 20 years of my career and sit on the other side of the table and be a storyteller that way. So really I just wanted to be Joe Mantello. 

Can you talk about working with Stephen Sondheim in the early days of your career?

TL: I first met Stephen Sondheim when I did the 2004 revival of Pacific Overtures on Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre at Studio 54. First of all, every student of the theater, and certainly when I went to Carnegie Mellon University to study theater at the School of Drama, we were taught a lot of Sondheim. Sondheim is Shakespeare for us. It's almost biblical how much we look at it as a text to study if you're a student of the theater. And now that I'm a teacher, I teach it certainly, but to then get to work with somebody who is that, who has been a defining force for our genre, for our art form, was a dream come true. Of course, we all worship at the Shrine of Sondheim, but to then also see him in the revival of Pacific Overtures go “I think I'm going to change that lyric” or “I have the opportunity to work on this again, I'm gonna change that key,” or to ask the actor “What what do you think? What do you think of this key?” To have that opportunity to have Sondheim go “What do you think?” in a rehearsal room made me understand that he's an artist just like me. He's a crafts person just like me and we are collaborators. And yes, of course, he is somebody who we revere and we worship and has changed the way we've thought about theater, but he's a human being. He is an artist that relies on his collaborators because, again, theater is a collaborative art form.

There’s no way we make theater without other people, and I think that's what drew me to this art in the first place. It's what drew me to theater when I was in high school. A sculptor can lock themselves in a room for many years with a big piece of rock and then come out years later having made a statue. He can do that all by himself. Theater people can't make art like that. We actually need other people. We're only as good as our collaborators, so it was really humbling and eye opening to see somebody like that — the god of musical theater — just work. Just do their work and be and connect with you on a human level, collaborator to collaborator. He worked with us and it was really sort of incredible. To be able to work with your heroes, to be able to work with those giants is incredible.

You mentioned Rent. It seems like that show played a pretty significant role in your career. Can you elaborate?

TL: When I was 16 years old, I saw the original company of Rent. I was one of those Rent Heads that slept on 41st street at the Nederlander Theatre to get my $20 ticket to go see Rent. That summer after Rent won the Tony Award, I think I saw that show like 14 or 15 times. I was obsessed, just like there's a generation of theater kids that are obsessed with Wicked, there's a generation of theater kids that are obsessed with Hamilton now. Rent was the show of my generation. So that was 1996, fast forward 10 years, and I get to join the company of Rent. It is my theater kid dream come true. I remember the stage manager teaching me the show and they gave me three weeks to learn my track in the show, which was Steve and others, and to also learn my understudy track because I understudied Angel. I think I learned my Steve track in like three days, and the stage manager said “Are you sure you haven't done the show before?” I was like “Oh no, I've been doing the show in my head for the last 10 years. I know the show. Just tell me where to stand and where the light is. I know the show. I've been dreaming about doing the show forever, you know?”

So to be in the show that made me want to do theater as a theater kid, is huge. Rent came at a time when what we had in New York on Broadway in the 80s and even the early 90s were these big British musicals, right? Les Mis, Phantom, Cats, Miss Saigon, those shows were not really American. They weren't American born stories,  even though Broadway is very much an American art form. But those were imports from the UK. And not only that, but those shows relied so much on spectacle. It was big casts, it was the turntable in Les Mis, it was the chandelier in Phantom, it was everybody dressed up as a dancing cat in Cats, it was the helicopter in Miss Saigon. And then all of a sudden, Rent came and it was contemporary. The people on stage looked like the people that were walking in Times Square. They looked like New Yorkers, they were New Yorkers, it was a story about something we were all dealing with, which was not only the HIV and AIDS crisis, but the income inequality that existed, the gentrification of New York City, the anxiety and fear that everybody — not only New Yorkers but everybody — was having as we were approaching the end of the millennium. Y2K was a thing in 2000. There was a lot of anxiety about that. I lived through that and everybody thought their bank accounts were gonna go to zero because none of the computers knew what 2000 meant. Like that was a thing. That was an actual thing we stressed out about.

And also with Rent, the show wasn't a spectacle. It was tables and chairs and lights and humanity. What was put on stage was people. Real people, real stories that we as the audience could connect to. So it was like a breath of fresh air when it came to making theater because it expanded our definition of what theater could be. You don't need a helicopter, you don't need a turntable. And I'm not there to knock those shows — those shows work because they have wonderful characters that we fall in love with. But Broadway was starting to be this thing where we needed that, like you need all of this to be a Broadway show. And Rent came along and said “No, you don't. You don't need that at all. Let's get back to people and stories. That's what we're here for.”

I'll ask you the same question about your time on Glee. How did you get involved and can you talk about your experience? 

TL: I wish I had some really fancy story about Glee, but it's the old fashioned story of I put myself on tape and I got the job. Literally that's what it was. I was on season two of Glee, and at the time, people were like “This is a really cool show,” and it definitely was developing an audience. But nobody knew that it was going to be what it was going to be. I remember we did that first episode in season two with “Teenage Dream” and we just had no idea that it was gonna blow up like that. We had a lot of fun doing it, but I literally filmed that episode and then flew home to New York to do more theater. We didn't think anything of it. I was like “Oh, great, what a cool job. What a cool thing to be on a TV show and perform ‘Teenage Dream’ on Glee, say a few lines.” And then it wasn't until we went back — I remember we were filming like Sectionals or Regionals or something — and all the Warblers were together with the New Directions and we were competing against each other at one of these finals, right? And Darren Criss, who was just an actor who got this great role as Blaine, looked at his phone and was like “You guys, Katy Perry just tweeted me because of our ‘Teenage Dream.’” I was literally watching in real time somebody's star rise — somebody who I adore and really had so much respect for, and still do — and it was such a wonderful thing to be able to watch. I think part of the reason why it did become what it became was because in prime time, we were seeing this relationship that was developing between Chris Colfer and Darren Criss's character, between Blaine and Kurt. It was a prime time television show, and I think what's brilliant is Ryan Murphy was like “I have everybody's attention on a Tuesday night. So let me do something that we've not seen before on television, which is here's a teenage love story. Here's a) a story about a teenager being bullied that has to transfer schools and then b) let's show this really loving relationship between these two boys.” The power of that and the power of doing that through music is not lost on me either and there is a great deal of empathy that can be that can be created when there was a song attached to that. I, for one, can never listen to that song again and not think of that moment, and I think that's the the power of that show. They were like “Oh good, we have a platform. Let's use it to expand people's minds and hearts through music.”

Other than the obvious difference between performing on a stage versus behind a camera for a television show, how are the two experiences different? 

TL: It’s incredibly different. As a singer, because I'm a theater performer, I'm trained to do it eight times a week and be as consistent as I can. And on television, you have got to get it right once in the studio, and then you have to do a really great lip sync. It's not like one is better than the other, but there are very different considerations. When you're singing live eight times a week, the way you take care of yourself changes, like what you eat, how much you sleep, how you socialize, you don't talk on the phone, you text a lot, you don't go to loud bars, etc., versus to just be able to show up on set and go to recording studio and record it. But also keep in mind, recording technique is also different because you're in this isolated box by yourself, but you also have to convey the energy in a booth with nothing around you for stimulus. So that is challenging in its own way, and you're definitely singing a song in the booth out of context. Whereas in theater, you get to go “Okay, these moments lead up to this song.” So you feel you've earned a song and you feel ready to sing a song. Whereas with television shows, you don't get that. You just sort of have to be ready to go. But to me, singing live eight times a week is way harder than singing in the booth once and lip syncing. 

Do people tend to recognize you more from your work on television or your work on stage? 

TL: I don't know. Actually, I really don't know. I think I probably get theater more, but I also feel like I get theater more because of the things that have been recorded live. So Rent was filmed live on Broadway and was shown in movie theaters, and I think so many people have watched that Rent film, that final performance. They also filmed Allegiance with me and George Takei and Lea Salonga — they filmed the Broadway production. I think it's great, these live captures of Broadway shows. It’s awesome. Because not everybody can get to New York. Not everybody can afford to come to New York. So to have that access, especially now with streaming, right at home, anywhere in the world, is great. 

Can you talk about your time in Aladdin?

TL: Aladdin was just a great time. It is really wonderful —  I've been in a lot of shows that don’t run very long — so to be in a hit where you didn't have to worry about “Are we going to get our closing notice? Are we going to get our two weeks notice and close on Broadway?” was like a dream. And then there is an added responsibility, I think, when you play a role like Aladdin, because people have such an emotional connection to that 1992 film and it has a nostalgia to it. People have what they imagined Aladdin to be or who that person is based on the animated film. I remember I would finish Act I, I would finish Act II, and I always called leaving the stage door and saying hi to people Act III. And I always did it because there was always, without fail, some little kid dressed up as Aladdin or Jasmine at the stage door who just wants to meet Aladdin. They have no idea who Telly is but they want to meet Aladdin, and that's part of your show. My castmates for sure would do that and were always aware of the fact that this movie, that music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, holds such a special place in people's hearts. You have a responsibility to carry that on a little bit. At first, it was actually quite daunting because you go “Gosh, I'm going to be disappointing. What if I'm not what people imagine Aladdin to be?” And you sort of have to release that and let that go and say “Listen, they loved the film and ‘A Whole New World’ might have been their wedding song, but they've stepped into the New Amsterdam Theatre. They're ready to be entertained and they're ready to see a live actor — me, a human being — breathe life, breathe humanity, into this character that was an animated person.” So that's really my job: to give this person that only lived in animation life, breath, and authenticity. That's it. I just have to be present with my scene partners every night. 

And of course there's pressure, with especially with a role like that, because people have such a strong, emotional, nostalgic connection to it, me included. I remember going to see Aladdin in the movie theater in 1992. I remember that experience, so I had that too. 

Leung in Aladdin, photo by Matthew Murphy

Do you have a favorite fun fact or behind-the-scenes secret you can share about the show?  

TL: One of the most magical moments of Aladdin is when that carpet flies. I'm sworn to secrecy as far as not revealing the Disney music at all. But there are moments where it doesn't fly...and in the final scene, Aladdin and Jasmine get on the carpet and it's supposed to fly off in full stage lights. It's the most wow moment because everybody's like “I don't see wires! I don't see anything! Is it hydraulics? Is it magnets? We don't know what it is!” But we fly on stage! There's only one time in my two years there that it didn't take flight. So Jasmine and I are ending the thing, we’re waving, we’re expecting to wave and fly off and we don't fly. And there's a good 30 seconds left where everybody's singing to us — they're supposed to sing to us as we fly off stage. I turned to my Jasmine and I go “We're not going to fly.” I was like “Well, we have to do something, we can't just sit here and keep waving.” I was like “I guess we should kiss again.” So we just ended up making out for a good 30 seconds on a carpet that sort of hovered over the stage, not flying off.

And in all of those shows, like in Wicked, there's always those stories where the witch doesn't fly or whatever. Those are always a blast. Of course I want the show to go well and for there not to be technical problems. But there's also a part of me that feels like “Oh, well, here we go,” especially when you've been doing a show for two years, when you go “Oh, I guess I have to figure out this moment, how we're gonna get through this.” 

Transitioning to your work with Theatre Raleigh, you mentioned your friendship with Lauren Kennedy Brady. Can you talk about how you started working with her and the theater? 

TL: Lauren and I met in 2000 at the St. Louis Muny, which is America's largest outdoor theater, where we both did White Christmas together. I was in the ensemble and Lauren was playing the Vera-Ellen part in White Christmas. I can't remember the character's name anymore (Writer’s Note: character’s name is Judy Haynes). She was phenomenal. Showstopping. Not only singing, but tap dancing. I have the best story about Lauren Kennedy. Lauren, you could have fooled me, but she was like “I'm not really a tapper.” And every day when we went to rehearsal, we would show up to the outdoor rehearsal platforms, which is where you rehearse a lot for The Muny shows. And Lauren Kennedy had already been there for like an hour, tap dancing on her own, over and over and over and over again. It was really inspiring to watch Lauren do that. Not only was she somebody who, of course, had already been on Broadway so many times, but to watch her work that hard, I was like “Wow, that's really inspiring.” It made everybody else work to rise to her level. That's really the first time we met, was working on White Christmas. 

How did you end up directing at Theatre Raleigh?

TL: It’s interesting; Lauren reached out and said “I really love Yellow Face. I really love this David Henry Hwang play.” And she was like “I hear you're starting to direct a bit more. Would you ever consider coming down to direct it?” I was like “I'm a fan of the play, but I've never done the play. So I'm gonna have to dive in and sort of discover what this is.” But I said “Gosh, yes, I absolutely would love to!” Raleigh is very different than New York, LA, San Francisco, communities where there's a lot of Asian people living there. And in those places, where there's a huge Asian population, you might get more Asian American stories. I really appreciate and respect the fact that Lauren was like “I really want to bring this Asian American play and this Asian American story to my Raleigh audience because it's a story that they’ve probably not heard before.” I said “Yes, let's absolutely! That sounds like an amazing idea.” I was so thankful that I got a chance to do it and bring that story because not only is it a show that centers around an Asian American story, but it's also about the theater. It's very insider-y when it comes to how Broadway shows are made. So I said “Not only are we giving this Raleigh audience a taste of an Asian American story that they might not have heard, but we're also giving them a little backstage peek at the machinations of what it is to make a Broadway show.”

Can you walk me through the process of putting together a cabaret style concert like the one you’ll be performing on the 26th? 

TL: I've done a lot of concerts and I've done a lot of cabaret work. I just came back from Tokyo yesterday doing a bunch of concerts. I love my doing my own shows like this, like the show that I'm gonna bring to Theatre Raleigh because it's me. It's not me as Angel in Rent, or me as Aladdin. It's me as Telly. What I would love is for the audience at Theatre Raleigh to go “You know what? After that 70 minutes, I really know this person. I sort of know who Telly is and what makes Telly tick and what his sense of humor is, what music he enjoys. I can feel his heart after 70 minutes.” That to me is always the objective of doing shows like this, and being able to share my story. The challenge of putting together a show like this is I think everybody has that little voice in their brain that says “Oh, who cares about my story? I don't have an interesting life.” In actuality, if you dig a little deeper, your story is very interesting and you are enough. All you have to do is be brave enough to share that story with other people. It is always my hope that when I share my story with other people, that they, first of all, don't feel so alone in the universe, that they go “Oh my gosh, I felt that way before,” or “That story about your mom, that's very much like my mom,” that they feel some sort of connection. I hope that as people leave Theatre Raleigh, they go “Gosh, Telly just shared his story for the last 70 minutes and music he loves. Maybe I can have the courage to share my story and tell my stories to other people in whatever format that may be.” For some people it's writing, for some people it's painting. For me, it happens to be through telling jokes and singing songs on stage. That's how I do it. But I always really enjoy getting to just be me on a stage and connecting with an audience in an intimate setting.

I'm bringing my longtime musical collaborator with me, Gary Adler. Gary Adler, besides being a phenomenal music director, was the conductor of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular for many years, but he was also the music director of Avenue Q for its entire run on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He is also the one of the composers of the Off-Broadway musical Alter Boys. We've worked together on many things over the last 20 years, including cabarets and concerts, and several albums as well. We've made three albums now together, so I'm really excited that I get to bring Gary to Theatre Raleigh as well. The day after the concert, Gary and I are going to be doing some masterclass work, so you can also sign up for some classes if you are aspiring singer or theater artist and you want to come in and work on your tunes. I always like to think of my masterclasses as next steps, because everybody is so different in their process and everybody's just a different artist. In that masterclass setting, I might have people who are professional actors and I might have people who are just like, “I like to karaoke sing,” or “I like to sing in my shower.” And that's great. There's always something we can be doing to better our craft, to better our work as singers and as storytellers, and that's what I'm interested in with these masterclasses. So I know for me, when I'm working on a song, I never think of it as being “done.”

One of my songs that I'm singing at my concert is a song called “Being Alive” from the musical Company. I first learned that song in college. Then I got to perform that song my senior year of college; I got to play Bobby in Company for my senior year and it was directed by Billy Porter. But that song means something different at 22 years old than it does when you sing it at 35, which is the actual age of the character, and when I sing it now at 44. Having loved, having lost, now being married and partnered for 20 years, the song means something different. I think that songs are always living and breathing and evolving because we are always living and breathing and evolving. So I always think that with songs, there's a next step. So that's what we're going to title our masterclass, Next Steps. It's happening the Saturday morning after my show. My show is Friday night and the masterclass is happening Saturday.

Photo by Benjamin Rivera

How do you choose which songs you want to include your cabaret performances? 

TL: I always like to link a song with a story, so oftentimes, I link a song based on what kind of story I want to tell on stage. When I craft a setlist, I have to make sure there's a nice variety of music in there — something for the diehard theater fans, so for sure, you're going to hear some show tunes — but I also throw in some pop and rock songs in there for like the husbands that got dragged there by their wives. So I definitely want to throw in some familiar songs that are not from the theater as well. And at the end of the day, they're all songs that I love. I have such an eclectic taste in music that I want my setlist to reflect that. So that's sort of how I pick a set, based on where I am in my life and what story I want to tell and who my audience is, too.

Can you talk about the albums you’ve released? 

TL: There's three albums and a single that I've released. The first one that we did is an album called “I’ll Cover You.” I worked on that with Gary Adler — he did many of the arrangements on that album and it's all cover tunes. So not only is “I’ll Cover You” a song that means a lot to me because it's my favorite Broadway love song from Rent, but what we've done on that album is take songs that you know and love and sort of done a fresh new take on them, musically. All the arrangements are accomplished with a string quartet and a rhythm section — a jazz trio — so it's a piano, bass, drums, and a string quartet on that album. My second album is an album called “Songs For You.” Each one of the songs on that album are dedicated to somebody special, whether that's my parents or my husband — I dedicated one song to the Gleeks — there's one mashup on that album that was actually inspired by the Glee fans I met at a fan convention I did in London. There's a song that's dedicated to Stephen Schwartz, who has always been not only a visiting teacher that would come to Carnegie Mellon all the time, his alma mater — I've known him since I was a student — but he's also just been a wonderful champion for me through Wicked and through Godspell. There's a song in there dedicated to New Yorkers because I’m a diehard New Yorker. So anyway, that was “Songs For You.”

The third album that we did is an album that we actually made during COVID. All of the musicians recorded on their own at home, I recorded in somebody's walking closet, and we pieced the whole thing together. We made it a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, so anything that you download or stream or buy off “You Matter,” which is the name of the album, goes to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. They do amazing work and it’s our theater community's way of giving back, especially during COVID. They really stepped up. I think they just donated $400,000 in humanitarian relief in Palestine. They do incredible work. So that’s a little six song EP that we made in isolation in COVID. And then there’s also a dance single. I love to go out dancing! This theater person can certainly get hip! I made a dance remix of “New York State of Mind” that's also available as well.

You mentioned that you’ve also done some teaching. Can you talk about that? 

TL: I credit where I am today to amazing teachers that have come into my life and so generously shared what they've learned over their experiences and their careers. At some point, I did feel this deep need to karmically give back in tribute and in honor of all of those great teachers. There was an amazing teacher — his name is Vincent Grasso, Mr. Vinny Grasso — he's no longer with us, but he was my high school theater teacher. And Vinny Grasso wasn't paid anything extra to come and volunteer after school from 3pm to 6pm to teach us how to paint sets and block the show and have all of us run around the theater like crazy people putting on a show. But he did it because he loved us and he loved the theater, and he wanted us to have that experience. It’s people like that where I go “Gosh, if there was ever an opportunity for me to give back, I would really love to do that.” It's interesting - I do see myself teaching more. I see myself being an academia more.

The next project I'm doing, I'm actually gonna be directing A Little Night Music at the University of Michigan, and it’s so exciting that I get to direct a Sondheim musical at the University of Michigan. They're going to have me back after the crazy Godspell musical. This time, I get an audience and I get a band and I get actors that don't have to wear masks. It's great. So I'm very excited about that. In fact, I get on a plane tomorrow night and I have to fly to Ann Arbor to do callbacks. But I see myself spending more time in classrooms. I really enjoy it. I really, really do. I personally don't have kids, my hubby and I don't plan to have kids, but I feel like in many ways, my students become my kids. I get them in a classroom or I get them for a show and give them a little piece of me and my artistry. They take that, and they take that with them forever and ever, as artists, and that's sort of my way of going “Well, here it is. Here's what I've learned, here's everything I've collected from all of my amazing teachers. Now take it and run with it and inspire other people.”

Is there anything else you’d still like to do in your career, besides continue to teach? Anything you’d still like to accomplish? 

TL: Yes! I would love to direct an original musical. As a young director in New York City right now, I'm working with a lot of amazing composers and authors and librettists on original musicals. When you work on original musicals, you never know, right? It starts with all of us getting in a living room and figuring it out moment to moment and shaping the show. Then you hope and pray you get to a reading, or two, or three, to develop the show and hear it out loud. You hope and pray that then becomes a workshop where you get to actually put it up on its feet a bit. Then you hope and pray that maybe you get to go out of town with the show, and then of course you hope and pray that it premieres on Broadway and it's a big hit. But I would really love to mount an original musical and get it up on its feet from beginning to end, to be part of the development of it with authors, and then to have a premiere of it. And it doesn't necessarily need to be Broadway. But to get it up and going, I think that would be a dream I’d like to fulfill.

I'm so inspired by Joe Mantello, who is able to direct a show and then turn around and be the lead in a Ryan Murphy series on television and then turn around and start a Broadway show as an actor, and then go back to directing another show. I would love to be able to permeate all of those places as an artist, sort of wherever I feel like I can really be of service. Sometimes that's me being on stage and being a presence, being somebody that can be seen. But sometimes, that's not how I can be of service. Sometimes, how I can be of service is behind the table and shaping a story and leading a company as a director

Of all the roles you've had and things you've done, be it performing, directing, teaching, etc.,what's been the most challenging?

TL: I think directing is always the most challenging because everybody looks to you to have all of the answers, and I think one of the most powerful things a director can actually say is “I don't know. But I think I've gathered the right smart, creative, collaborative people in a room to help me figure it out.” It is very difficult to admit when you don't know something. It is very difficult to ask for help. But it is also necessary as a director and as the leader of a company to be transparent with your collaborators and the people that you're leading when you don't know and that you need their help. The show doesn't happen without them. So even though there's this pressure and everybody's looking to you for the answer, at the end of the day, I'm the one going “We're gonna do this, guys.” But in order for me to make that decision to go “This is where we're heading,” I gotta go “What do you think? What do you think? What do you think? What do you think?” and make the best informed decision based on these brilliant people I've brought into the room and that I trust. So I think it's directing because for so much of directing, nobody knows what they're doing. If a director says they know what they're doing, they're lying.

Is there a must have that you have backstage, something that you cannot live without?

TL: You know what? Soft clothes. Like sweats or a robe. A dressing room becomes your home, especially between shows and things. Even if it's only one show, I will get out of my street clothes and put on my soft clothes to do warm ups. I always joke with my hubby- when you get home — it doesn't matter if you're in comfy jeans or whatever — you’re like “I gotta get out of my street clothes!” I'm gonna say soft clothes.

Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Telly Leung will be performing at Theatre Raleigh on January 26, 2024 at 7:30pm. Tickets and more information can be found here.

Feature photo courtesy of Theater Raleigh