{"id":2320943,"date":"2026-03-10T05:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2320943"},"modified":"2026-03-10T05:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:21:22","slug":"darren-criss-honors-lea-salonga-during-womens-history-month-segment-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/darren-criss-honors-lea-salonga-during-womens-history-month-segment-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Darren Criss honors Lea Salonga during Women\u2019s History Month segment \u2014 Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<div class=\"simplesocialbuttons simplesocial-simple-icons simplesocialbuttons_inline simplesocialbuttons-align-left post-142014 post  simplesocialbuttons-inline-no-animation\">\n\t\t<button class=\"ssb_fbshare-icon\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Facebook Share\" 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0-.09-.014l-.104-.046c-.03-.03-.06-.045-.091-.091-.015-.029-.029-.06-.045-.104v-.166l-.015-.105-.015-.119-.016-.105-.016-.06c0-.015-.014-.045-.014-.06-.03-.121-.09-.24-.15-.36l-.061-.06-.047-.06-.045-.045-.015-.03-.075-.06-.061-.061-.059-.045c-.016-.015-.03-.015-.061-.029l-.09-.061-.061-.03-.029-.015h-.016l-.076-.031-.09-.03-.09-.015h-.075l-.044-.015-.035-.007h-.045l-.06-.016h-.255l-.015-.075h-.039c-.03-.004-.055-.015-.08-.029-.035-.021-.064-.045-.09-.08-.018-.029-.034-.061-.045-.09-.008-.029-.012-.06-.012-.09 0-.037 0-.075.015-.113.015-.039.03-.07.06-.1l.061-.045c.029-.016.061-.03.09-.03l.062-.075h.032z\"\/><\/svg> <\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"simplesocialtxt\">Viber<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/button><br \/>\n <button onclick=\"javascript:window.location.href = this.dataset.href;return false;\" class=\"ssb_email-icon simplesocial-email-share\" aria-label=\"Share through Email\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-href=\"mailto:?subject=Darren Criss honors Lea Salonga during Women%E2%80%99s History Month segment&amp;body=https:\/\/asianjournal.com\/entertainment\/darren-criss-honors-lea-salonga-during-womens-history-month-segment\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"icon\"> <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" version=\"1.1\" id=\"Layer_1\" x=\"0px\" y=\"0px\" width=\"16px\" height=\"11.9px\" viewbox=\"-1214.1 1563.9 16 11.9\" enable-background=\"new -1214.1 1563.9 16 11.9\" xml:space=\"preserve\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<path d=\"M-1214.1,1565.2v1l8,4l8-4v-1c0-0.7-0.6-1.3-1.3-1.3h-13.4C-1213.5,1563.9-1214.1,1564.4-1214.1,1565.2z M-1214.1,1567.4v7.1c0,0.7,0.6,1.3,1.3,1.3h13.4c0.7,0,1.3-0.6,1.3-1.3v-7.1l-8,4L-1214.1,1567.4z\"\/> <\/svg> <\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"simplesocialtxt\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<h5><strong>Leah Salonga and Darren Criss\u00a0 Image: Facebook\/@darrencriss<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><strong>LOS ANGELES \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0Actor and singer\u00a0Darren Criss\u00a0paid tribute to Filipina Broadway icon\u00a0Lea Salonga\u00a0during a Women\u2019s History Month segment on\u00a0The Kelly Clarkson Show, highlighting her influence on musical theater and her impact on generations of performers.<\/p>\n<p>During the discussion, Criss was asked to name a woman in the Broadway community who had inspired him. He immediately cited Salonga, referring to her as\u00a0<em>\u201cthe venerable Lea Salonga.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re a Broadway person, her legacy is mighty,\u201d Criss said.<\/p>\n<p>Criss noted that Salonga\u2019s career has been particularly meaningful to members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, where she has long been regarded as a pioneering figure in international theater.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing part of the [Asian American and Pacific Islander] community, she\u2019s been a large shining beacon for a lot of folks and she\u2019s been such an amazing leader in my own life as a fan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The actor also reflected on meeting Salonga personally, saying his admiration for the performer deepened through their interactions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s an extraordinary woman and still a wonderful performer and just a great Broadway gal,\u201d Criss said. \u201cI think anybody that is familiar with her work personally and professionally would agree with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Criss and Salonga have appeared together at various industry events but have not yet collaborated in the same stage production.<\/p>\n<p>Criss first gained international recognition for his role as Blaine Anderson in the musical television series\u00a0Glee. He later won both a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for portraying Andrew Cunanan in\u00a0The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.<\/p>\n<p>Salonga, widely regarded as one of the most accomplished Filipino performers in global musical theater, rose to international prominence after winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in\u00a0Miss Saigonin 1991. She later performed in major productions of\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables\u00a0on Broadway and London\u2019s West End.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond theater, Salonga is also known worldwide as the singing voice of Disney princesses Jasmine in\u00a0Aladdin\u00a0and Fa Mulan in\u00a0Mulan.<\/p>\n<p>Criss\u2019s remarks came as Women\u2019s History Month observances across the United States highlight the contributions of women in arts, culture and public life. In the world of musical theater, Salonga\u2019s decades-long career continues to be widely recognized as a milestone in expanding global visibility for Asian performers on the Broadway stage.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source asianjournal.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share Post Viber icon Viber Email Leah Salonga and Darren Criss\u00a0 Image: Facebook\/@darrencriss LOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0Actor and singer\u00a0Darren Criss\u00a0paid tribute to Filipina Broadway icon\u00a0Lea Salonga\u00a0during a Women\u2019s History Month segment on\u00a0The Kelly Clarkson Show, highlighting her influence on musical theater and her impact on generations of performers. During the discussion, Criss was asked to name [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2320944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2320943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Darren-Criss-honors-Lea-Salonga-during-Womens-History-Month-segment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2320943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2320945,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320943\/revisions\/2320945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2320944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2320943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2320943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2320943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}