Over the past 50 years, George Takei has become famous for being many different things: Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu; an advocate for the Japanese American community; an out gay activist for LGBTQ issues; and a social media darling with millions of followers on Facebook. Now, at age 78, the pioneering Japanese American actor is about to make his debut on Broadway.
He will star in Allegiance, a new musical that begins previews at the Longacre Theatre on October 6. “Being on Broadway has always been my dream,” says Takei. “It’s definitely an ‘Oh, myyy!’” he adds with a big smile, using his trademark exclamation.
But Allegiance means a lot more to him than performing on a Broadway stage. The musical — written by Jay Kuo (music, lyrics, and book), Lorenzo Thione (book), and Marc Acito (book), and directed by Stafford Arima — is inspired by Takei’s own experiences of a shameful chapter in American history: the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans in prison camps during World War II.
The musical tells the story of the Kimura family — Tatsuo (opera singer Christópheren Nomura), an artichoke farmer, and his children, Kei (Tony Award winner Lea Salonga) and Sammy (Telly Leung) — whose lives are abruptly upended when President Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 authorizing the deportation and incarceration of all Japanese Americans living on the Pacific Coast. Takei takes on two roles in this production: the son, Sam, as an 80-year-old in the present day, as well as Sam’s grandfather, OjiiChan, during the scenes set in the 1940s.
Allegiance sprang from a chance encounter that occurred seven years ago at a Broadway theatre: Takei and his husband, Brad, were in town from Los Angeles to attend a performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights when they noticed, sitting in their same row, two men who had struck up a conversation with them at an Off-Broadway show the night before. “’Isn’t that a strange coincidence?’ I said to Brad,’” Takei recalls, “and Brad said, ‘I think they are stalking us!’”
The encounter was actually pure coincidence. The two men, co-creator Thione, just flown in from the West Coast, and his collaborator, composer, and lyricist Kuo, were catching up on as much theater as they could pack in in a few days. The previous night they had overheard a couple in the row behind them discussing Title of Show, a musical that Thione and Kuo had also just seen and loved. So they turned around to share their enthusiasm for that show with the two fans behind them — who turned out to be George and Brad Takei.
Recounting their second meeting at In the Heights, Thione recalls: “Halfway through the first act, we looked over and noticed that George was crying rivers!” During the intermission, Thione and Kuo asked Takei what had made him get so emotional. Takei told them that what set him off was the song “Inutil” (“Useless” in Spanish), which is sung by the father in the story to express his inability to help his family succeed in the States.
“I’m a weeper,” Takei explains. “I was reminded of the after-dinner conversations I used to have with my father when I was teenager. I was only 5 years old when we were sent away to the camps, so I was curious. My father described to me his sense of helplessness: He had three children — my brother was a year younger and my sister was a baby — and he didn’t know what was going to happen next. But what anguished him the most was the loyalty questionnaire, and he had to make a momentous decision.”
That document included the infamous questions No. 27 and No. 28, which all adults were required to answer. The former asked if the prisoners in the camps would be willing serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, and the latter if they would swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America, and forswear loyalty to the Emperor of Japan. “The key word is forswear,” notes Takei. “The government assumed that we had an existing loyalty to the emperor despite the fact that we were born here, educated, and reared here. It was offensive and insulting and it was enraging.”
Thione and Kuo were so moved by Takei’s story they continued an email correspondence with the actor and, a few weeks later, Kuo sent Takei a song he’d written, titled “Allegiance,” which expressed the dilemma of the loyalty question. “We felt that what he had shared with us would make for an incredible musical because music can transcend and transmit emotion in a way that no words by themselves can do,” says Thione.
“I was just blubbering in front of my computer when I heard it!” Takei reports. “I had always wanted to dramatize the story of the internment and I saw it as drama,” he says. “But I’m a musical theater fan, so I knew music has the power to reach you right here,” he says, indicating his heart.
“We were fortunate to find in George not only a collaborator but a friend, teacher, and mentor. He taught us so much,” Thione continues. Takei introduced his new friends to the Japanese concept of gaman, which means to endure with dignity and strength. “That word came to embody so much of the emotions and the spirit of the characters in the show,” says Thione. “So many Japanese American families had to withstand the humiliation and the injustice of the internment, and yet so many Japanese Americans have become senators, entrepreneurs. We were captured by the sense of this spirit of endurance and resilience.” Takei adds impishly, “My memory of gaman is in the camps. There’d be a line for the latrine and when I was desperate to go, and my mother would tell me, ‘Gaman, George, gaman!’”
Takei’s own family spanned three generations of Japanese Americans. Using the terms adopted by the community, his father, who came to San Francisco as child, was Issei, while his mother, born in Sacramento, California, was second generation, Nisei; their children, third generation, Sansei. “But people who get technical say I am ‘Nissei and a half,’” he offers with a laugh. In Allegiance, Takei plays both a Sansei and an Issei. The grandfather Ojii-Chan, zero generation, is an amalgam of his mother’s relatives who were farmers in the Sacramento area, he says. “I see the Issei as heroic people who came here as immigrants, leaving everything that was familiar behind them and willing to work hard.”
The young adults in Allegiance, like so many of the Japanese American internees, were faced with stark choices: There were those who felt that they had to prove they were good Americans and eagerly signed up to join the 442nd the segregated military unit that was created for them; there were others who felt that this wasn’t the America to which their parents had come to build a better life. They were willing to fight as free Americans, but not as prisoners who were declared the enemy simply because of the way they looked.
“The family in the show symbolically reflects the fracture that still exists in the Japanese American community today,” says Takei, adding that when the creators of Allegiance toured California doing readings for potential investors, they encountered both factions.
Director Arima, who signed on shortly after Kuo and Thione started writing the musical, brought to the project his own personal experience. His father had been interned in Canada where a similar hysteria against people of Japanese ancestry swept through during World War II. “It was part of my upbringing but my father and his siblings never really talked about it. So I always felt that this story was meant to be heard. I think the human story of the family in Allegiance will transcend race, age, and color, and connect with an audience on a very visceral level.”
Takei views Allegiance as his legacy. “In many ways, I have been sharing this story of the internment because it’s a continuing story of America,” he says. “From the very beginning, there were all those shining ideals about democracy articulated by our founding fathers, who kept other human beings as slaves. But our democracy has been getting better and better over the years. This year, we have marriage equality throughout the country, an African American is the president of the United States, and there is a possibility that a woman could be the next. With this one story, this show tells the epic story of America and shows how far we have come.”
But the actor has a more intimate connection to this musical as well. Each night on stage, as the adult Sam who looks back at the choices made by his father, Tatsuo, in those dark years of the internment, Takei also takes a very personal and emotional journey back in time.
“My father and I didn’t have a totally loving relationship; there was always tension,” he explains. “During one of those after-dinner conversations, things got a little heated and I said to him, ‘Daddy, you led us like sheep to the slaughter, taking us into the internment camps.’ He just sat there silent. Then he looked up at me and said, ‘Well, maybe you are right,’ and he got up, went into his bedroom, and closed the door. I realized that I had hit a nerve and I felt terrible. I wanted to apologize, but the door was closed. This is my way of saying, ‘I’m sorry, Daddy.’”
Privacy Policy
Last updated and effective as of January 14, 2019
Introduction and Your Acceptance of These Terms
Broadway Direct ("Us", "We", "Our") knows that your personal information is very important to you, and We respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how your personal information is collected, used, and protected and the choices available to you with respect to Our handling of your data. This Policy applies to all visitors to Broadway Direct.com, Our mobile services, services available via telephone, and those transactions that take place in person, by postal or electronic mail. (Collectively, the "Site"), including ticket sales, comments on articles, and any information provided to Us.. By visiting this website, you consent and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and to the collection, use and storage of your information by Us. From time to time, We may change this Privacy Policy. When We do, the “Last Updated” line above will be revised. You are responsible for regularly reviewing this Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this Site following the posting of a changed Privacy Policy indicates your acceptance of the changes. Unless We provide you with specific notice, no changes to Our Privacy Policy will apply retroactively. Please also refer to our Terms of Use and Lottery Terms & Conditions. If you require any more information or have any questions about Our privacy policy, please feel free to contact Us by email at [email protected].
Information We Collect
Information we collect directly from you: Your provision of your personal information to Us is completely voluntary; it is not a statutory or contractual requirement. Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) is information that is uniquely identifiable to you, such as your name, address, email address, phone number, credit card number and other personal information that is not otherwise publicly available. Certain features of Our website may require that you provide Us with your personal information, including:
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We comply with the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising set forth by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). You can opt-out of targeted advertising from certain providers at www.aboutads.info/consumers.
How We Use Your Personal Information
The personal information We collect allows Us to keep you posted on updates to Broadway Direct. It also helps Us to improve Our services, content, and advertising. If you don’t want to be on Our email list, you can opt out anytime by clicking the “unsubscribe” button or sending an unsubscribe email to [email protected]. From time to time, We may use your personal information to send transactional emails, such as communications about purchases and changes to Our terms, conditions, and policies. Because this information is important to your interaction with Broadway Direct, you may not opt out of receiving these communications. We may also use personal information for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, and research to improve Broadway Direct’s services, and customer communications. If you enter into a sweepstakes, contest, or similar promotion We may use the information you provide to administer those programs.
Information Collected By/Shared With Third Parties
Other than as provided in this Privacy Policy, we do not share your personal information with third parties.
Advertising. We partner with advertising companies who may use information from cookies and the tracking tags they place on our website to provide you with targeted advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you based on your use of our website and to track the effectiveness of ads served to you. These advertising company partners may anonymously track your Internet usage across other websites in their networks beyond our website. Any information that these advertising companies collect via cookies and tracking tags is generally not personally identifiable (unless, for example, you provide personal information to them through an ad or email message). You are welcome to browse the site in private/incognito mode, which means cookies will not be activated and previous cookies will not be tracked. If you need help with this, contact us at [email protected]. If you would like more information about the use of cookies and tracking tags and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, see the Network Advertising Initiatives consumer Web site at http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/.
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Third Parties Doing Work for Us. Third parties have no rights to use any data We have collected on your behalf. However, We may employ other companies or individuals to perform functions on Our behalf, such as sending postal mail, email, and text messages, conducting sweepstakes/contests, prize fulfillment and promotional activities, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments and providing customer service. These outside suppliers, agents and vendors have access to your personal information only as needed to perform their functions.
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When necessary. We may also release personal information when we believe, in good faith, that such release is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Ourselves, Our clients, Our users, or others. We may disclose personal information about you to law enforcement, other government officials, or other third parties, as We, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, or other activity that is illegal or may expose Us to legal liability.
Public Forums
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Co-Branded Pages
We may enter into relationships with “powered by” partners, business partners, sponsors, and co-branded sites (referred to here as “co-branded pages”). These might include, for example, pages that share our name and that of another entity. There may be a specific privacy policy on any such co-branded page. Any personal information that you provide when signing up at any co-branded page may be collected by, or shared with, our third party partner. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, our third party partners’ use of your personal information. If you want to learn more about other entities’ privacy practices, please review the websites of those third parties.
Transactions With Third Party E-commerce Partners, Vendors and Advertisers
When you provide personal information to one of Our Site’s third party e-commerce partners, vendors or advertisers (i.e. Ticketmaster.com, Telecharge.com), this transaction will occur in connection with the site of the e-commerce partner, vendor or advertiser, not on the Site, and, as such, the personal information you provide is collected pursuant to and controlled by the privacy policy of such e-commerce partner, vendor or advertiser. Broadway Direct is not responsible for such parties’ privacy policies and We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the applicable privacy policy of the e-commerce site with which you transact business or to contact the operator of such site for more information.
Delivery of Advertising and Other Content
In addition to ads and content that We may serve you directly, We use third-party advertising companies and marketing services companies to serve ads and other content when you visit Broadway Direct and elsewhere on the internet and in other media. Both We and these companies may use information about your visits to Broadway Direct and elsewhere to serve ads and other content to you. In the course of doing so, a unique third-party cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser by such companies. In addition, We and these companies may use Web beacons to help manage Our online advertising and content. These Web beacons enable Us and the third-party companies to recognize a browser’s cookie when a browser visits this Site and to learn which banner ads bring users to our website and to serve you ads that you may find of interest elsewhere on the internet and in other media. Both Broadway Direct and these companies may use information obtained from your visits to Broadway Direct or other websites, and information received from you offline in order to provide advertisements about goods and services and other content of interest to you across the internet and in other media. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used in this manner by Our third party advertising companies, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp and/or www.aboutads.info/choices. European users may opt out of receiving targeted advertising by visiting http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/. In addition, we may provide PII and Anonymous Information to marketing services companies. This may include information we received from you offline or online. These companies may combine information we provide (including PII and Anonymous Information) with personal and anonymous information they may have about you, using cookies they place or that We place on their behalf, as described in the section regarding “Cookies and Tracking Tags”. We require these companies to delete the PII we provide them. These companies may use the resulting non-personal information and such cookies for their own marketing purposes, and they may provide the same to their customers for their customer’s marketing purposes. Some of Our emails may contain tags that allow Us and Our advertisers and other partners to determine the types of content that may be of interest to you. Those tags may contain PII and may be shared with others to the same extent indicated in the section regarding “Cookies and Tracking Tags”. Those tags may not be deleted but you can opt out of receiving the emails.
Use of This Site by Children
The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and We request that such individuals do not provide personal information through the Site. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided Us with PII without the parent or guardian’s consent by, for example, misrepresenting his or her age, that parent or guardian should contact us at [email protected]. If Broadway Direct determines that it has collected personal information of children under the age of 13, Broadway Direct will immediately delete such information and any accounts believed to be held by children under 13. In addition, we may not collect or process information from a citizen of an EU member state under the age of sixteen (16) without such person’s parental consent. If you are a citizen of an EU member state under the age of 16, please tell your parents that you are using the Site and have your parents email Us at [email protected] so that We may delete any information We may have collected about you.
California Visitors
California Civil Code § 1798.83 permits California residents to request information about whether we have disclosed personal information to any third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. California residents have the right to request in writing: (a) a list of the categories of Personal Information, such as name, email address and mailing address and the type of services provided to the customer that a business has disclosed to third parties (including affiliates that are separate legal entities) during the immediately preceding calendar year for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes and (b) the names and addresses of all such third parties. To make a request, please contact Us at the following email address: [email protected].
EU Visitors
If you are located within the European Union, you should be aware that your personal information will be transferred to the United States, the laws of which may be deemed by the European Union to have inadequate data protection. If you are located in a country outside the United States and voluntarily submit personal information to Us, you thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this privacy policy and to the transfer of that information to, and/or storage of that information in, the United States. We transfer Personal Information from the European Economic Area and Switzerland to the USA and other countries, some of which have not been determined by the European Commission to have an adequate level of data protection. Personal Information of EU residents will be transferred in compliance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).
Rights of EU Data Subjects
If you are a resident of the European Union, under the GDPR, European Union residents, as data subjects, have the following rights:
Right to access – This right allows individuals to obtain confirmation as to whether or not personal information concerning him or her is being processed and provide access to such personal information. It also allows individuals to request details of the processing of his or her personal information, including, without limitation, categories of recipients to whom the personal information have been or will be disclosed and purposes of processing.
Right to rectify – This right allows individuals to rectify any inaccurate personal information about him or her.
Right to restrict processing – This right allows individuals to block or suppress processing of personal data under certain circumstances.
Right to be forgotten – This right is also known as the “right to erasure”. It is an individual’s right to have personal data erased or to prevent processing in specific circumstances.
Right of data portability – This right allows individuals to move, copy or transfer personal data from one place to another in a secure manner without interrupting the integrity and usability of the information.
Right to object to processing – This right allows individuals to object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing, profiling and providing for purposes of scientific or historical research and statistics.
An EU resident has the right to access his or her personal data that We hold and to ask that their personal data be corrected or erased and to port their data. An EU resident may also have the right to object to, or request that We restrict certain processing or to withdraw consent previously provided. If you would like to exercise your rights under the GDPR, please contact us at [email protected]. If you are an EU resident and have a concern about our processing of your personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority where you reside. For contact details of your relevant local Data Protection Authority, please see http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/item-detail.cfm?item_id=612080
Security of Your Personal Information
Broadway Direct employs reasonable security measures consistent with standard industry practice, for personal information collected through this Site, including physical, electronic and operational measures to maintain security and prevent unauthorized access. While Broadway Direct takes all appropriate steps to safeguard personal information under Our control, unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or method of storing data can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As such, We cannot guarantee that personal information supplied by users will not be accessed on Our servers, or intercepted while being transmitted to Us over the Internet. We assume no liability for any damages you may suffer as a result of interception, alteration or misuse of information during such transfers.
Retention
We will retain your information for as long as your account or inquiry is active and for a reasonable time thereafter in accordance with Our standard procedures or as necessary to comply with Our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce Our agreements. Even if We delete some or all of your Personal Information, We may continue to retain and use aggregate or anonymous data previously collected and/or anonymize or aggregate your Personal Information. Please note that We will not be liable for disclosures of your data due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties.
Choice/Opt Out
This Site provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from Us, at any time, by email at [email protected], or by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email communication. The Site gives users the following options for removing their information from our database, to not receive future communications or to no longer receive our service, at any time.
Users can send mail to the following postal address: Broadway Direct 1501 Broadway 14th floor New York, NY 10036
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Users can opt-out of receiving future newsletter emails from Us by selecting the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our email. However, We are not responsible for removing your information from the lists of any third party who has previously been provided with your information or is collecting your information through their cookies. You have the right to withdraw your consent for Our processing for your personal information by contacting us at [email protected].
Correct/Update
This website gives users the following options for changing and modifying information previously provided, at any time.
Users can send mail to the following postal address: Broadway Direct 1501 Broadway 14th floor New York, NY 10036
Users can call the following telephone number: (800) 223-6715
Successors
In the event that We are, or any component of our operations is, merged with, or is acquired by, another entity, then any such successor or acquiring entity may become the successor to Our obligations with respect to the personal information that you have provided to Us, which would be necessary for the entity to effectively continue our business. By using this website, you consent to any transfer and use of such personal information by an entity assuming control of Our operations as a result of a merger, purchase of assets, or liquidation in bankruptcy or insolvency.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this website, or your dealings with this website, you can send an email to [email protected]. Our data protection officer can also be contacted at [email protected].