NEW YORK — Her name might not be that well known in America. Her face is not always recognized either. Chances are, though, Lea Salonga's set of pipes will be familiar — if you're 7 or younger.

As she moves through Manhattan these days, adults barely notice the Philippine-born actress and singer who won a Tony Award for her work in Miss Saigon.

Her ace in the hole, though, comes when she is introduced to children. A parent will tell the child that Ms. Salonga supplied the singing voice to Princess Jasmine in Aladdin or the spunky lead character in Mulan.

The child will invariably look at her, confused.

“And then I tell them to close their eyes and I sing a song from the movie and they suddenly look at me like, "Ahhh! Where did that come from?' ” she says. “It's pretty magical.”

Other than occasionally freaking out kids, Ms. Salonga says her anonymity in the United States is a welcome change. In the Philippines, she is considered a national treasure whose face is familiar to kids and adults alike.

“I enjoy my privacy,” she says.

“Back home, I can't go to a mall or the grocery store without getting chased or stared at, and that makes me feel very uncomfortable.”

Ms. Salonga brings both her experiences here and in Asia to the Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song, the 1958 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

With a plot and dialogue completely revamped by David Henry Hwang, the musical now manages to salvage such songs riven with stereotypes like “I Enjoy Being a Girl” and “Chop Suey” from seeming hopelessly dated.

Ms. Salonga, 31, stars as a young immigrant who flees communist China for San Francisco in the 1960s, finding a tug between the promise of assimilation and the pull of identity. The cast, which features Jose Llana and Sandra Allen, is entirely pan-Asian.

“In my head, it feels like I'm home,” says Ms. Salonga. “Knowing that I'm in New York City and knowing that this is on Broadway and everyone is an Asian person, it's like, "Wow! This is pretty darn cool.' It's rare that this happens.”

The political incorrectness of the original musical — as well as the 1961 movie version — was lost on Ms. Salonga: “I don't remember feeling that because I saw it as an Asian in an Asian country so it didn't hit me that it was a threat,” she says.

“Then I came here and saw how a lot of people my age have to struggle with racism and how they're looked at in a condescending way. I didn't grow up that way. I came into this country with a strong sense of self and a lot of confidence.”

Ms. Salonga earned that confidence as a child, becoming the Shirley Temple of the Philippines with a voice both tender and strong. She made her professional debut in The King and I at age 7, was a recording artist and host of a TV variety show with her brother at 12.

“I always knew I could sing,” she says. “But I didn't realize I had anything particularly special.”

At 18, Ms. Salonga beat out hundreds to win the role of Kim in the London production of Miss Saigon,” a part she calls the biggest break in her life. “Everything that came after that, came as a result of that,” she says.

When the production arrived in New York in 1990, Ms. Salonga won a Tony and two years later appeared in Les Miserables on Broadway. She also has starred in such shows as Proof, My Fair Lady and Into the Woods in Asia.

“She has one of the most engaging voices of musical comedy I have ever heard,” says Flower Drum Song producer Benjamin Mordecai. “When you hear that voice you are just totally lost in it.”

Her life outside the theater is certainly full these days. Besides an impending marriage, just consider the list of her errands before the curtain rises: The cat needs to be fed, bills have to be paid and dry cleaning must dropped off.

Do Broadway divas really drop off dry cleaning?

“You know, we can do with fewer divas,” she says with a chuckle. “Be a diva on stage, but offstage just be normal. It's so needless to be arrogant. It takes too much energy.”

Ask him about apples
Mag says men here aren't healthy
Radio Q102 lets in the adults
Smart mouth
Trade Secrets
Trim fat, but not the flavor, in Crockpot Potato Soup
Warm up to a good frozen soup
Web serves up vast selection of sites for Internet browsers who love wine
Body & mind
Don't put off treatment for depression
A voice kids and theatergoers love
Local star search gone country
Get to it