Allegiance has arrived at Little Tokyo’s Aritani Theatre, and if the feel-good Broadway musical about the forced internment of 70,000 American citizens and another 40,000 longtime U.S. residents tries too hard to be a crowd-pleaser in ways that the similarly fact-based Parade and The Scottsboro Boys did not, its East West Players debut is if nothing else a splendidly performed (and refreshingly homegrown) Los Angeles Premiere that scores bonus points for the light it sheds on a dark stain in American history.

It’s December 7, 1941 and Salinas, California natives Sammy and Kei Kimura (Ethan Le Phong and Elena Wang) and their Japanese-born father Tatsuo (Scott Watanabe) and grandfather Ojii-chan (George Takei) are about to find their hitherto tranquil lives thrown into chaos by the infamy of Executive Order 9066 and given only days to sell everything they own—at ten cents to the dollar—before being sent off to Wyoming’s Heart Mountain Internment Camp where not only will they be under the constant watch of armed guards, all four will be sharing a cramped barracks room without even a bathroom to call their own.

Neither the Kimuras’ lives, nor those of their fellow internees, will ever be the same again.

Completing Allegiance’s cast of major characters are volunteer army nurse Hannah Campbell (Natalie Holt MacDonald), who like the camp’s armed guards sees Sammy and his family as something less than American, and U.S.A.-born Frankie Suzuki (Eymard Cabling), whose refusal to sign a loyalty oath to a country that considers him “the enemy” places him at odds with the gung-ho-to-enlist Sammy and much of the Japanese-American community.

Significantly reworked following its 2012 Old Globe Theatre World Premiere in ways calculated to make it more commercially mainstream, Allegiance On Broadway retained only seven of the out-of-town tryout’s nineteen songs, had blue-eyed-blonde Hannah singing twice as many as before, and demoted Japanese-American Citizens League field executive Mike Masaoka (Greg Watanabe) to a non-singing cameo, changes evident in the Act One finale, originally a political statement pitting brother against sister and friend against friend and now an upbeat celebration of two young couples in love.

What remains in Marc Acito, Jay Kuo, and Lorenzo Thione’s still powerful book is a story that bears retelling, that of American families forced to live in cramped barracks, swelter during the summer, freeze during the winter, and do so month after month, year after year, while finding ingenious ways to make camp life livable with gardens and baseball games and teenage dance parties.

Allegiance’s nearly two-dozen songs score points for composer Kuo’s gift for the Broadway hook, particularly American Idol-ready power ballads like “What Makes A Man,” “Higher,” and “Stronger Than Before” that would do any Disney musical proud. Still, only a handful (“Paradise” among them) sound like anything you’d have heard in the boogie-woogie 1940s, and Kuo’s lyrics are mostly pedestrian.

East West Players (co-producing with the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center) gives L.A. audiences an entirely from-the-ground-up production, from director Snehal Desai’s assured direction to Rumi Oyama’s thrilling choreography (integrating traditional Japanese dance, martial arts moves, and Broadway pizzazz) to Marc Macalintal’s accomplished musical direction and a top-drawer orchestra providing pitch-perfect backup.

Scenic designer Se Hyun Oh’s budget-restricted set has a number of striking moments (the wishing trees are particularly lovely though I’m darned if I can tell you what the hanging boxes are supposed to mean) and Adam Flemming’s projections prove especially effective in a sequence depicting the bombing of Hiroshima.

Halei Parker’s eclectic mix of 1940s costumes and traditional Japanese garb, Karyn Lawrence’s vibrant lighting, Glenn Michael Baker’s spot-on properties, and Cricket S. Myers’ expert sound design are every bit as fine as any you’d see at a major regional theater.

Cesar Cipriano merits kudos for some exhilarating Go For Broke fight choreography as well.

Charismatic Broadway/West End vet Phong anchors the production with his peppy, powerhouse-piped Sammy, with SoCal favorite Cabling’s dynamic Frankie, MacDonald’s pert and pretty Hannah (taking audiences on a journey from fear and distrust to acceptance), Scott Watanabe’s warmth-and-gravitas-mixing Tatsuo, Greg Watanabe’s safe-in-D.C. Mike, and above all the luminous Wang’s gloriously voiced Kei earning cheers of their own.

Broadway-caliber triple-threats Cesar Cipriano as Ben Masoka and Johnny Goto, Janelle Dote (assistant choreographer, dance captain) as Mrs. Kaori Maruyama, Jordan Goodsell as an assortment of dastardly Hakujin, Sharline Liu as Mrs. Natsumi Tanaka, Miyuki Miyagi as Peggy Maruyama, Glenn Shiroma as Mr. Masato Maruyama, Chad Takeda as Tom Maruyama, and Grace Yoo as Nan Goto all shine, with Goodsell earning added kudos for crooning “With You” with silky 1940s pipes.

Last but not least, TV icon Takei (a stalwart Sam and an adorable Ojii-chan) gets top billing as befits his box office draw though not the size of his two cameos.

Shen Heckel is assistant director. Alison M. De La Cruz is executive producer. Morgan Zupanski is production stage manager and Brandon Hong Cheng and Lydia Runge are assistant stage managers. Jade Cagalawan is company manager.

As history lesson alone (one made sadly relevant by recent presidential demands for a Muslim registry), Allegiance merits attention. Though not the brilliant piece of musical theater its subject matter deserves, expect to be standing up cheering by evening’s end.

East West Players, JACCC’s Aratani Theatre at 244 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
www.allegiancemusical.com

–Steven Stanley
March 1, 2018
Photos: Michael Lamont

Tags: East West Players, George Takei, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, Jay Kuo, Lorenzo Thione, Los Angeles Theater Review, Marc Acito