A sweet homecoming

A soot-faced girl steps into the light, clad in a dirty, oversized trench coat, a red baker boy hat perched atop her head. She looks into the crowd with sad, imploring eyes, and then sings the haunting first verse of the famed Claude-Michel Schonberg tune, On My Own.

- Chelsia Tan

By now, you may have seen the buzz on social media, or even watched Nathania Ong’s rousing performance in the flesh as Eponine, the tragic heroine of Les Miserables on London’s West End. In the past year, the Singaporean actor has captured the hearts of audiences with her portrayal of a character who perhaps most famously encapsulates the heartbreak of unrequited love.

Following a year-long season with the renowned musical, the London-based West End star is back in Singapore for another acclaimed production: Into the Woods, a retelling of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales reimagined by playwright James Lapine and legendary composer Stephen Sondheim.

Local media outlets in Singapore lapped up her breakthrough performance in Les Miserables with enthusiastic fervour. However, Nathania had already caught the attention of local theatre production company Pangdemonium in 2021 – months before she made her debut on West End in Be More Chill, a sci-fi musical about a social outcast who swallows a tiny supercomputer to become more popular and impress his high school crush.

“It’s actually a really funny story. Tracie and Adrian Pang’s son, Zachary, was a fellow student at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, the same school I attended. When I was in my final year of my Bachelor's programme, I performed Candide, which is this big operetta with a soprano role. He watched it and told them, ‘Hey, there’s another Singaporean here.

She’s pretty good. You should watch out for her,’” shares Nathania, who then sent some of her showcase materials to Pangdemonium through an industry liaison in school.