Experience the acclaimed new production of the legendary musical MISS SAIGON, from the creators of Les Misérables. This is the epic story of a young Vietnamese woman named Kim. In a bar run by a notorious character called The Engineer, Kim meets an American G.I. That encounter will change their lives forever. Featuring stunning spectacle, a sensational cast of 42, and a soaring score including Broadway hits like “Last Night of the World,” “The Movie in My Mind,” and “The Heat is On in Saigon,” this is a theatrical event you will never forget.
MISS SAIGON
Reviews
The music in this production, though not memorable, is superb and certainly adds to the story, all performed with wonderful voices by the cast of this outstanding national touring company.
Under Laurence Connor’s vigorous direction, the production’s technical elements are astounding by any measure, but especially impressive given that this is a very large tour — about five buses and six trucks. Thus, the Engineer still has his pink Cadillac with the looming grotesque face of the Liberty Statue behind him in “The American Dream.” When he joyfully humps the hood of the car it strikes you as a kind of metaphor for the entire mess of the Vietnam War. Plus, it’s awfully engaging, as is this production of Miss Saigon. Whatever the show’s flaws, it’s definitely worth a look, and just as impressively, a listen. If only it weren’t for that damned sound problem…
Today, it’s impossible to watch Kim and Tam’s struggles without thinking of the family separations and inhumane conditions happening at our southern border. The musical remains vital not in its representation of Vietnamese culture or people — with luck, contemporary playwrights will fill our stages with many others — but as a warning to us. Being American doesn’t mean we’re good.
There are aspects of the story of Miss Saigon that are problematic, and the show has seen its fair share of controversy over the years. Sure, Miss Saigon has a beautiful score, and some striking staging—the scene where a helicopter takes Chris and the rest of his platoon out of Vietnam as locals attempt to climb the fence, desperate for a ticket out, is the best known set piece, and it is impressive. But, the female ensemble spends nearly the entire show gyrating and wearing next to nothing while being objectified and abused by men.
Reading this fails to tell the story with the same passion as is presented by the magnificent cast and crew of Miss Saigon. The visual effects are stunning, the music is steady and beautiful. You may be sitting a hundred or two hundred feet or more off stage but it is so powerful that the entire audience is drawn into each scene.
Connor’s direction is too often static, but several illusions fill in a bit of the deficit: Thuy’s ghost appears and interacts with Kim in a nice piece of staging, and, though we expected the touring version to offer merely a video helicopter, the arrival of this loud, hovering craft pitching and yawing over the stage brings an odd relief from the seemingly louder singing.
Kim’s flash back (Fall of Saigon 1975) is another dramatic scene at the American Embassy, as we watch Chris frantically search for Kim standing behind a tall chain link fence with razor wire. She is among the desperate people begging to leave on the last helicopter to America, before the city fell to advancing North Vietnamese troops. Chris and other Americans board a life-size helicopter as it comes down onto a rooftop. Lighting designer Bruno Poet enhances this scene to appear as if the helicopter takes off and flies over the audiences heads. The faces of desperate Vietnamese losing hope of escaping, will stay in my soul for quite some time.
Those who worry this show demonstrates a ‘white savior’ need not fear. There is no hero come to rescue Kim and the victims of Vietnam. Sure, Chris thinks he will ‘save’ Kim but we all know that is a failed attempt. And while Ellen’s new song “Maybe” is supposed to be more sympathetic it just further illustrates how lost and useless Ellen is in a world she does not understand.
The music in this production, though not memorable, is superb and certainly adds to the story, all performed with wonderful voices by the cast of this outstanding national touring company.
Under Laurence Connor’s vigorous direction, the production’s technical elements are astounding by any measure, but especially impressive given that this is a very large tour — about five buses and six trucks. Thus, the Engineer still has his pink Cadillac with the looming grotesque face of the Liberty Statue behind him in “The American Dream.” When he joyfully humps the hood of the car it strikes you as a kind of metaphor for the entire mess of the Vietnam War. Plus, it’s awfully engaging, as is this production of Miss Saigon. Whatever the show’s flaws, it’s definitely worth a look, and just as impressively, a listen. If only it weren’t for that damned sound problem…
Today, it’s impossible to watch Kim and Tam’s struggles without thinking of the family separations and inhumane conditions happening at our southern border. The musical remains vital not in its representation of Vietnamese culture or people — with luck, contemporary playwrights will fill our stages with many others — but as a warning to us. Being American doesn’t mean we’re good.
There are aspects of the story of Miss Saigon that are problematic, and the show has seen its fair share of controversy over the years. Sure, Miss Saigon has a beautiful score, and some striking staging—the scene where a helicopter takes Chris and the rest of his platoon out of Vietnam as locals attempt to climb the fence, desperate for a ticket out, is the best known set piece, and it is impressive. But, the female ensemble spends nearly the entire show gyrating and wearing next to nothing while being objectified and abused by men.
Reading this fails to tell the story with the same passion as is presented by the magnificent cast and crew of Miss Saigon. The visual effects are stunning, the music is steady and beautiful. You may be sitting a hundred or two hundred feet or more off stage but it is so powerful that the entire audience is drawn into each scene.
Connor’s direction is too often static, but several illusions fill in a bit of the deficit: Thuy’s ghost appears and interacts with Kim in a nice piece of staging, and, though we expected the touring version to offer merely a video helicopter, the arrival of this loud, hovering craft pitching and yawing over the stage brings an odd relief from the seemingly louder singing.
Kim’s flash back (Fall of Saigon 1975) is another dramatic scene at the American Embassy, as we watch Chris frantically search for Kim standing behind a tall chain link fence with razor wire. She is among the desperate people begging to leave on the last helicopter to America, before the city fell to advancing North Vietnamese troops. Chris and other Americans board a life-size helicopter as it comes down onto a rooftop. Lighting designer Bruno Poet enhances this scene to appear as if the helicopter takes off and flies over the audiences heads. The faces of desperate Vietnamese losing hope of escaping, will stay in my soul for quite some time.
Those who worry this show demonstrates a ‘white savior’ need not fear. There is no hero come to rescue Kim and the victims of Vietnam. Sure, Chris thinks he will ‘save’ Kim but we all know that is a failed attempt. And while Ellen’s new song “Maybe” is supposed to be more sympathetic it just further illustrates how lost and useless Ellen is in a world she does not understand.