Lea Salonga, the Tony Award-winning Broadway star and \u201cDisney legend\u201d, will become the first Filipino to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.<\/p>\n
She will receive the Walk of Fame\u2019s 2,855th star on Sept 4, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which administers the Walk of Fame, announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cLea Salonga is a true trailblazer whose extraordinary talent and decades-long career have inspired audiences around the world,\u201d Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer achievement is a milestone, not only for Lea, but (also) for the Filipino community and for generations of artistes who will follow in her footsteps,\u201d Martinez added.<\/p>\n
Salonga\u2019s career spans more than four decades.<\/p>\n
She performed in theatres and appeared in a string of B-movies in the Philippines in the 1980s, before beating out more than 1,500 others for the role of Kim in Miss Saigon in 1988 at the age of 17.<\/p>\n
The musical, inspired by Puccini\u2019s Madama Butterfly set during the final years of the Vietnam War, catapulted her to international stardom.<\/p>\n
Her powerful, dramatic performance \u2013 which gave the musical\u2019s sweeping spectacle an intimate human centre \u2013 earned her the Olivier Award in 1990 and the Tony Award a year later.<\/p>\n
Salonga later became the first Asian performer to play the lovelorn street waif Eponine in Les Miserables on Broadway in 1993. She returned to the musical as the tragic figure of Fantine in its 2006 revival.<\/p>\n