during the production transfer from west end to broadway, a lesser controversy erupted over salonga's citizenship, as she was neither british nor american. salonga is filipina, and the aea wanted to give priority to its own members, initially preventing her from reprising her role. however, mackintosh was unable to find a satisfactory replacement for salonga despite the extensive auditions that he conducted in several american and canadian cities. an arbitrator reversed the aea ruling a month later to allow salonga to star.