|
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London on 20 September 1989, closing after 4264 performances on 30 October 1999. On 11 April 1991, it opened at the Broadway Theatre in New York, again running for over 4000 performances.
Since opening, Miss Saigon has been successfully produced in many cities around the world including Stuttgart and Toronto, where new theatres were designed specifically to house the show. In December 1994 the London production became the Theatre Royal's (Drury Lane) longest running musical, eclipsing the record set by My Fair Lady.
After a tour of the six largest venues in the British Isles and Ireland, the production was redesigned so that it could be accommodated in smaller theatres. This 'new' tour started in July 2004.
The show was inspired by a photograph inadvertently found by Schönberg in a magazine of a Vietnamese mother leaving her child at a departure gate at Ho Chi Minh Airport to board a plane for the United States of America where her father, an ex-GI, would be in a position to provide a much better life.
Lea Salonga originally starred as Kim, with Simon Bowman as GI Chris. Another major role is that of "The Engineer", the Vietnamese pimp. There was a controversy when the production transferred from the West End to Broadway when Actors' Equity refused to allow the white British actor who had played the Engineer, Jonathan Pryce, to recreate the role because "it would be an affront to the Asian community". However, after pressure from the producer Cameron Mackintosh, the general public, and many of its own members, Actors' Equity was forced to reverse its decision, and Pryce starred alongside Salonga and Willy Falk (as Chris) when the show opened.
Lea Salonga won a Tony Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical" in 1991; however the show was pipped to the award for 'Best Musical' by Will Rogers Follies.
Notable songs include "Movie In My Mind", "The Last Night Of The World", "I Still Believe", "The American Dream" and "Why God, Why?"
Synopsis
An adaptation of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, it tells the story of an American soldier, Chris, and a Vietnamese girl, Kim, who meet in a Vietnamese brothel during the final days of the Vietnam war, and fall in love. They go through a form of marriage, and Chris plans to take Kim back to the USA with him. The sudden evacuation of American troops at the Fall of Saigon forces him to leave her behind, not knowing that she is pregnant.
Kim brings up her little boy, Tam, alone, and finds herself forced to kill to defend him against her vengeful cousin. She escapes to Thailand, where Chris eventually comes to look for her. During the years of separation, he has met and married an American girl. Kim wants them to take her son to a better life in the USA, but they are reluctant to separate him from his mother. In order to ensure her child's future, she kills herself.
See also
External link
|
