Allegiance is a new musical about love, family and heroism during the Japanese American internment, with music and lyrics by Jay Kuo and book by Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione, starring Tony Award (R) winning actress Ms. Lea Salonga and screen and TV icon, Mr. George Takei.

«Allegiance is a major musical about a forgotten part of history,” says Takei, who spent his childhood in an internment camp in Arkansas and was a founder of the Japanese American National Museum. «Kuo’s music soars, and the epic story stirs deep emotions. This is a hugely important, historic work.”

Allegiance follows the Omura family, forced from their home in Salinas, California to the Heart Mountain internment camp in the wastelands of Wyoming during World War II. Their story reflects the deep conflicts of a nation and a people divided: father Tatsuo, a successful store owner, resists their unjust internment; mother Kimiko fears for their future, quietly resigned to their fate; older son James volunteers in an all-Japanese army regiment; and younger son Sam yearns for acceptance by and inclusion in America.

The Omura’s conflicts mirror the larger rift between the Japanese American Citizens League, which urged compliance with the internment and unwavering loyalty to America, and the resisters of the internment, who steadfastly refused to serve a country that had put them in concentration camps. This universal story sheds new light upon a dark, under-explored, and wrenching chapter of American history. Through the remembrances of Old Sam and his tutor Gloria, the painful past is revisited, and at long last redemption and understanding begin to heal decades old wounds.

Allegiance held its first staged reading at the Japanese American National Museum on July 13, 2009. It held a second, full reading on February 22, 2010 at the Mainstage Theatre on 42nd Street in NYC to rave audience reviews. A third industry reading is planned for October 2010, with an eye towards a Broadway bow in 2011-12. For more information, email info@singoutlouiseproductions.com.

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