To commemorate the Japanese-American Day of Remembrance, the memorial for Japanese American Internment, George Takei took to Facebook to initiate a crowd funding campaign through IndieGoGo to raise funds for the show. The initial target was $50,000; the eventual total raised exceeded $158,000. The musical premiered in September 2012 at the Old Globe, directed by Stafford Arima and choreographed by Andrew Palermo, with designs by Donyale Werle (sets), Howell Binkley (lighting) and Alejo Vietti (costumes). It became the Old Globe's biggest box-office success in history. To help fund and publicize a Broadway run, the producers sold "Allegiance" "Priority Passes" in 2014 for five dollars. The pass allowed people to buy tickets before they were available to the general public. The Broadway production began previews on October 6, 2015, at the Longacre Theatre and opened officially on November 8, 2015, with the same cast and crew as in San Diego, except that Christopheren Nomura played Tatsuo, Katie Rose Clarke was Hannah and Greg Watanabe was Mike. It closed on February 14, 2016, after 37 previews and 111 regular performances. The Broadway cast album was released on January 29, 2016. A filmed performance of the Broadway production was screened at roughly 600 movie theatres in North America in December 2016, with encore screenings on the Japanese Day of Remembrance in February 2017. Additional screenings were held in 481 theatres on December 7, 2017, to coincide with the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, and in Hawaii on December 7 and 9, 2017. East West Players (EWP) collaborated with Los Angeles' Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) to mount the musical there in 2018, with Takei reprising his roles. Five actors from the original Broadway production, but direction was by EWP's artistic director Snehal Desai, with musical direction by Marc Macalintal and new choreography by Rumi Oyama. The producers created an interactive study guide about Japanese internment during World War II for educators and students. For the Old Globe production in 2012, critics felt the subject was important but the show required better execution. Writing for the "Los Angeles Times", Anne Marie Welsh concluded the "show needs a sharper emotional focus and musical edge to match its bold subject". For the "San Diego Reader", critic Jeff Smith wrote "Right now, "Allegiance" is, at best, an 'important' musical.