Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Allegiance coming to streaming

There's a new streaming service called Broadway on Demand, and this Friday, they're going to have the Allegiance musical available. Apparently this Broadway service has a free tier, so I might sign up for that if they have enough interesting shows I want to see. By coincidence I had recently listened to my Allegiance soundtrack CD again, and I do like several songs in it, especially the ones sung by Lea Salonga.

The fictional story of the Kimura family is somewhat similar to the historical story of the Uno family, in PBS's Asian Americans special. The Uno family were split apart not only by the Japanese internment camps, but also by questions of loyalty. Disillusioned by American racism, Buddy Uno had moved to Japan to become a war correspondent, losing his American citizenship and making Japanese propaganda. Meanwhile, part of his family were in the camps, while two of his brothers enlisted in the U.S. army and publically called their brother Buddy a traitor in an interview. So it was like a Civil War tragedy, pitting brother against brother. Anyway, I didn't know of the Uno family's history when I watched Allegiance years ago, so maybe rewatching it will add new meaning to the conflict of the fictional Kimura family, where brother and sister become estranged.

I still have some ambivalence about George Takei, but he has a small role. I do think the rest of the cast and production are worthy of being seen.

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