It follows the Kimura family in the years following the attack on Pearl Harbor, as they are forced to leave their farm in Salinas, California, and are sent to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in the rural plains of Wyoming.

In the fall of 2008, George Takei and his husband, Brad, were coincidentally seated next to Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione at an Off-Broadway show, where a brief conversation revealed a common love of theater.

At intermission, Kuo and Thione approached Takei, curious as to why he had been so emotionally affected by the father's song ("Inútil” (Useless)) in which he laments his inability to help his family.

Over the course of that intermission, Takei recounted his personal experience as a child in a Japanese internment camp, during World War II, and his own father's sense of helplessness at his inability to protect his family that was mirrored in the song.

Abe comments that the resistance by the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee was a studied act of civil disobedience, not a gang of "fists-raised revolutionaries".

No resistance leader at Heart Mountain was beaten bloody or hunted by guards", draft cards were not burned, and no newspaper articles affected the internment; notably Frankie would not have been taken to the infirmary by military police, which causes the key conflict in the show.

[6] Abe objects to the portrayal of the activities and treatment of the resisters, and to the "relentless optimism" of the score, concluding that the show distorts the historical lesson, diminishes the real impact of "the anger and suppressed rage" that the internees carried from the internment camps, and "risks supplanting the truth of the resistance and the Japanese American experience in the popular mind [and] cheapens the fabric of basic reality to achieve [commercial] ends.

Even as Japanese-Americans in the Western US are incarcerated in internment camps, Mike Masaoka, head of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), advises them to trust the US government.

Sammy's family sells their beautiful farm for a discounted price and are sent to the bleak Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming ("Do Not Fight the Storm").

Masaoka and the JACL advise internees to swear allegiance on the loyalty questionnaire to avoid being separated from their families ("Paradise"); Tatsuo is sent to a brutal prison for refusing.

The siblings choose diverging paths: Sammy will risk his life in military service, while Kei joins the resistance advocating for internees' rights ("Our Time Now").

Already furious at Kei and Frankie for their role in the draft resistance, their involvement in Hannah's death is the final straw; he accepts a job in Washington offered by Masaoka.

[8] 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).

[11] 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.

[17] Takei reprised his roles for the musical's Los Angeles production at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, co-produced by East West Players (EWP), for a run from February 21 to April 1, 2018.

[18][19] Takei was joined by five actors from the original Broadway cast in the production, with direction by EWP's artistic director Snehal Desai and choreography by Rumi Oyama.

[21] The musical received an Off West End production at the Charing Cross Theatre in London from January 7 to April 8, 2023, with Takei and Leung reprising their roles.

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".

[2][29] "The majority of critics admired Allegiance's noble intentions to illuminate a dark corner of America’s past, but found the book melodramatic and the score derivative.

"[34] In a review that gave Allegiance three stars out of four, USA Today felt that even though the show "is as corny as Kansas in August and as obvious as Lady Gaga on a red carpet ... [but] if you can make a critic who sneered in the first act leave the theater a little teary-eyed, you're probably doing something right.

"[36] In The New York Times, however, Charles Isherwood praised the performers but wrote: "The show wants to illuminate a dark passage in American history with complexity and honesty, but the first requirement of any Broadway musical is to entertain.

"[37] Variety felt that, despite good performances and designs, the well-intentioned story would have been better suited as a play, and that "In their sincere efforts to 'humanize' their complex historical material, the creatives have oversimplified and reduced it to generic themes.

"[38] In a similar way, The Hollywood Reporter felt that as a musical, "the broad-strokes storytelling ... seems ill-suited to examining such complex issues, and the book's superficial character development doesn't help either.

"[41] Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press complained of jarring writing, commenting: "There are long periods of unrelenting misery, with families ripped from their homes and subjected to brutality by vindictive white soldiers.

"[42] Critical of both the score and the script, Jesse Green of Vulture thought that outside of several moments, "too much of the show is devoted to far-fetched plot twists whose attempts to gin up excitement only look silly in the shadow of the larger forces at work.

"[43] Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal praised Takei, Salonga and Arima's direction, and felt the set was worthy of a Tony Award, but criticized Kuo's score, and deemed the show "of no artistic value whatsoever, save as an object lesson in how to write a really bad Broadway musical.