Allegiance Review: George Takei is heartbreaking in moving musical

You’d have to be made of stone not to be moved by the final moments of George Takei’s Allegiance. World War II claimed casualties amongst the California-based Japanese American community that the story revolves around. Playing the aging veteran, Sam Kimura, Takei’s devastation is so poignant and so powerfully conveyed it’s as if the actor’s own heart is breaking.

In some ways it is. Takei put his name to a musical that debuted on Broadway in 2015 not out of ego but partly because it’s good for publicity and mainly because Allegiance is his story. Sam is a made-up character but the internment camp he finds himself in after the bombing of Pearl Harbour is based on the one a five-year-old George was confined to and writers Marc Acito, Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione weave his experiences and observations into their fictional plot.

I was surprised to learn that a not so kindly Uncle Sam interned 120,000 of Takei’s fellow Japanese Americans simply and shockingly because they had the same skin colour as those Pearl Harbour bombers. As Takei states in the programme, they lost everything – their homes, their land, their businesses – in an egregious violation of their rights.

In the show, Sam (Telly Leung) responds to imprisonment by vowing to fight for his country and thus prove his patriotism. He falls for a white nurse before going off to war and that’s pretty much it plot-wise. The show is more concerned with generational conflict than big events, throwing in a secondary love story between Sam’s sister Kei (Aynrand Ferrer) and an anti-war internee to flesh things out.

It doesn’t always gel. There are whole songs that could be distilled into just a few lines of dialogue and so many ballads that they cancel each other out, even if Ferrer’s operatic belt is a thing of wonder and Leung’s sweetness is utterly captivating. The lyrics often land with a thud (“For all our sakes, I’ll do what it takes”), and one character is said to have died peacefully shortly after he’s had what looks like an agonisingly painful heart attack.

For all its flaws, though, Allegiance is worth a watch for some of its catchier tunes and exuberant dancing, its filling in of a piece of history that is seldom acknowledged, the platform it gives to Asian performers who are still woefully underserved in musical theatre, and for Takei himself.

The Star Trek legend and activist for, among other things, LGBTQ and immigration rights is on double duty as the older Sam and, in the internment camp, Sam’s wise grandfather Ojii-Chan. It’s a rare chance to see him on a London stage and, aged 85, he has a stately presence and, especially when joining the ensemble in song, an infectious enthusiasm for a show that might have its shortcomings but is nonetheless a deeply affecting and important one.

Rating: 3/5

George Takei’s Allegiance is at the Charing Cross Theatre, London, until 8 April. Get tickets here.