In the review of A Christmas Carol I expressed my, not exactly positive, view regarding classic works being gratuitously altered. I don’t wish to appear hypocritical by saying that I loved this musical, based on an opera by Puccini, Madama Butterfly, written as a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alan Boubill, but, at least they had the decency to change the name and let it live or die on its own merit, rather than cash in on the back of the original work. This version takes it one step further, being revamp of the original 1989 Miss Saigon but, as it was carried out by the same production company, they can do what they want with it.
Although a musical, it betrays its operatic roots in that all of the dialogue is sung, which I found a bit difficult to grasp at some points, but overall worked wonderfully. It was also a series of set pieces and did flit about in time now and again, but it was done so superbly that it never came across as staccato.
The story is very straightforward, centring around the love affair between an American serviceman, Chris, stationed in Saigon in the final days of the Vietnam War, and an innocent young local girl, Kim, who has just been press-ganged into working in a bar/brothel, owned by a French-Vietnamese hustler, known as the Engineer. One night, the girls, operated by the Engineer, parade to be voted Miss Saigon by the patrons, most of whom are soldiers, the successful entrant is then raffled off.
The Engineer, Seann Miley Moore, raffles tonight’s Miss Saigon, Gigi, played by Ace
Chris is taken by the innocence of Kim and they dance for a while before he offers to pay her to leave the club and return to safety. The Engineer, sensing that this means Chris doesn’t like Kim, provides a room and insists they stay, which they do. The two fall in love but it turns out that Kim has a cousin, Thuy, to whom she was betrothed years before, who is now an officer in the North Vietnamese Army and he arrives to take her home. The two men argue and draw their guns but Thuy storms out and Chris promises to take Kim back to the USA when the war is over. When he is back on base, Saigon falls and he is told that he must evacuate immediately, with no prospect of even seeing Kim, let alone taking her with him.
Jack Kane as Chris, the morning after.
Three years later, Thuy, now a commissar in the new Communist government, has ordered his soldiers to search for the Engineer, who has changed his name and is working in the rice fields for a pittance on a re-education scheme. When they find him, Thuy orders him to find Kim and bring her to him, which he does after discovering her hiding in a tumbledown shack. Still believing that Chris will return for her, she refuses to go back to Thuy and reveals a three-year-old son, Tam, who is the product of her relationship with Chris.
Locals scramble to get a place on the helicopter leaving Saigon
I don’t want to include any spoilers here so the rest of the synopsis will be brief – I can hear the sighs of relief from here!
The Engineer, who also wants to relocate to the USA, is still playing the options and devises a way to get them both to the States by persuading Kim to say that he is her brother, therefore the boy’s uncle. They flee on a boat to Bangkok and contact the American Embassy, knowing that they have a scheme by which BuiDoi – the name for street children conceived to Americans during the war – can be reunited with their fathers and relocated to there.
Kim, Julianne Pundan, comforts Tam
Word gets back to the Veterans’ Association in Atlanta, where Chris is now living with his new wife, Ellen, that Kim is still alive, and, after the shock has worn off and the situation discussed between the couple, it is arranged that they travel to Thailand to see Kim and Tam. When they get there, accompanied by John, the VA man who was fighting in the war with Chris, they check into a hotel and the two men go to find Kim, but she has already set off, got to Chris’s room and met Ellen. They have along talk about the future before Chris arrives back.
It is finally decided that Tam go to America with his father, and start a new life. The story ends a short time later.
Emily Langham as Ellen, comes to terms with her new situation
As I said at the beginning, this is a reboot of the musical since its first production in 1989; I didn’t get a chance to see the original so can’t comment on the alterations. I did find it difficult, however, to pick out any flaws in the story, setting, costumes or attitudes which jarred with the timeframe. I was 25 years-old in 1975 so can remember the period vividly – it is why I am looking in the fridge which stumps me.
The acting, was amazing, with Jack Kane as Chris and Julianne Pundan, Kim, exuding an innocence within their relationship, so much at odds with their ‘normal’ lives as a battle hardened soldier and a conscript in a brothel.
Seann Miley Moore, as The Engineer, is described in the programme as ‘the embodiment of queer Asian excellence, a proud Pinoy powerhouse….’ something I copied so as not to mislanguage and cause offence, all too easily done it seems nowadays. He filled the whole stage with his presence, although I did find it a bit over the top after a while, as his sexuality not only defined his character but totally consumed it, making The Engineer eventually feel somewhat one dimensional. His big song The American Dream, which I thought lasted a bit too long, was a good example, being a cavort assuming various sexual positions and gestures, so that the dream appeared not extend beyond carnal gratification, and one he was already living out in Vietnam and Bangkok.
Seann Miley Moore as the Engineer, sitting on a dollar sign, imagining his American Dream
The songs were superb and well performed, the most famous of which, The Last Night of the World, tenderly rendered by Kim and Chris, was magnificent.
The direction from Marcia Graciano was extremely effective, in both the more subdued moments, when very imaginative lighting from Christian Clark, used spots on a blacked out stage to split it into two segments portraying Atlanta and Bangkok simultaneously, as well as realistic war scenes and the amazing special effects. The evacuation of the soldiers and staff from the America Embassy onto a helicopter was breathtaking. The candle-lighting technique needs a bit more work though.
Obviously, being a musical, the orchestra and the dancers need to be on top form, and this group were; the former, under the direction of Ben Mark Turner and the latter directed by choreographer, Jasmin Colangelo, were superb.
If you have the opportunity to see this show, either here at the magnificent Leeds Grand Theatre, until 13th December, 2025, or later on its tour, please take it, you will not be sorry. More information and tickets are at https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/miss-saigon-2025/
For details of the other venues please see https://miss-saigon.com/
Information as to future Heritage Theatre shows is at https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/
Photographs by Danny Kaan
Tyke It To The Limit 