MISS SAIGON Remains Relevant, Given the Continuous Acts of Violence and War Today

Dreamland

After watching My Fair Lady in London’s Drury Lane on his 16th birthday with his parents, Cameron Mackintosh ensured that all his musicals remained top-notch and relevant throughout its entire run. Miss Saigon did not fall apart at Drury Lane; it ran twice as My Fair Lady. Mackintosh is the producer behind award-winning and smash hits musicals, such as Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Oliver! and Mary Poppins. For Mackintosh, although the musical is set in the mid-1970s, Miss Saigon has always been a contemporary musical contrary to a period piece. The historic turn of events and symbolic themes of Miss Saigon remind the audience that it is still relevant, given the continuous proliferation of acts of violence, war, and conflicts today.

“This show is like dancing on a razor blade. The story is so powerful and poignant that you cannot do anything gratifying. Everything has to come out of the drama and storytelling,” Mackintosh shared.

Ten years ago, a new revival of Miss Saigon opened at London’s Prince Edward Theatre. Following the gala performance, members of the original cast, including Lea Salonga and Simon Bowman, performed songs from the show at the curtain call, filmed for cinema broadcast. After 760 performances, the 2014 West End production closed. It was transferred to Broadway in 2017 and had its final curtain call after 340 performances in 2018.

The Movie in My Mind

Miss Saigon is a musical in two acts by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr., based on Giacomo Puccini’s 1904 opera in three acts Madama Butterfly. At the Saigon airport, an emotional scene photograph of a Vietnamese little girl who was parting with her Vietnamese mother to join her ex-GI father living in the United States caught Schönberg’s attention. Schönberg and Boublil felt it was the perfect representation for unfolding the dramatic characters in Puccini’s opera against the backdrop of the American-Vietnam War. Kim and Chris's heartbreaking and tear-jerking love story in Miss Saigon has turned Schönberg and Boublil’s work into a beloved musical produced by Mackintosh for over 35 years. It continues a fantastic journey at the highest level, highlighting brilliant performers.

The Heat is On in Manila

After its phenomenally successful run in Australia in collaboration with Opera Australia, GMG Productions, in association with GWB Entertainment, presented this new and stunning production in Manila 24 years after a six-month commercially successful run in the Philippine capital.

“Miss Saigon, as seen by over 40 million worldwide, holds a special place in the hearts of Filipinos, a cherished chapter in the lives of countless Filipino performers who have graced the stage to tell its story,” CEO of GMG Productions Carlos Candal shared.

This is the Hour

In 2014, this new production starred Filipino actors Eva Noblezada (Kim), Jonjon Briones (The Engineer), Rachelle Ann Go (Gigi), English actor Alistair Brammer (Chris), British actor Hugh Maynard (John), Australian actor Tamsin Carroll (Ellen) and South Korean actor Kwang-Ho Hong (Thuy). From the original musical staging of Laurence Connor and Bob Avian, Australian Production Director Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy and Mackintosh agreed that this is the hour for a reimagined storytelling of Miss Saigon. Ten years prior, Van der Spuy originated this new production and became the resident director. Ten years later, he rejoined as the associate director of the latest production that premiered at London’s Prince Edward Theatre. Twenty-three years after the original West End production was staged for the first time in Manila at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Theatre at Solaire in Manila became the first stop in Asia for the new touring production of Miss Saigon after the Australian run.

For this reimagined production, Van der Spuy presented Miss Saigon, one of the greatest Mackintosh musicals of our time, which was more relevant than ever. Move by times and themes during the traumatic fall of Saigon; Van der Spuy reinvents to adapt and evolve as a reflection of the changing world of artificial intelligence, war, climate change, oil prices, and political conflicts.

Mackintosh’s collaborator on Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera, set designers Matt Kinley and Totie Driver teamed up for the 2014 London revival. Driver had transformed the prior touring concepts of the late Adrian Vaux. At the same time, Kinley rebuilt new elements and options for two iconic musical sequences in the show, “Kim’s Nightmare” and “The American Dream.” Driver created the refugee camp and Kim’s dressing room and dressed the set with Elvis’ postcards and an ornament of the Statue of Liberty.

Kinley and Driver meticulously designed and constructed a stunning visual spectacle, creating a scenic effect by adding many layers of skeletal and heavy textiles. With a pool of great engineers and sculptors, with the help of studios, the vision to see a fascinating and thrilling Act 2 was achieved. In a limited space, Kinley and Driver delivered the tragic and desperate flashback nightmarish scene as the skeletal Huey helicopter ascends, breaking Kim and Chris and the fall of Saigon in a more intimate and intense scene unfolding in a full house.

For projectionist Luke Halls, who did not have the chance to see the original Drury Lane production, meeting people’s expectations and ensuring you deliver something impressive is one of the challenges of working on a classic hit and much-loved production. Halls was studying theatre when he first saw the most talked-about sequences of musical theatre from the last 35 years. With his comparatively recent discipline in projection design, Halls paved the way to explore ideas unavailable to the original production. Blended with lights, sound, and performers, Halls brought a new avenue to a new audience about the universal tragic story of Miss Saigon.

“In theatre, storytelling through lighting is vital,” lighting designer Bruno Poet shared. Despite being a challenging show to light due to its highly fast-paced with many mood and location changes, Poet, who saw the Drury Lane production when he was a teenager with his family, was highly excited 24 years later when he was asked to light the new 2014 West End revival production. Whether hiding things with darkness or smoke, Poet provided brilliant illumination as epic as an opera and as intimate as a play with his creative freedom in lighting.

The Revelation

For the Manila production, Australian Production Director Van der Spuy assembled an exceptional multiracial and biracial cast from the Asia Pacific region who will continue their portrayal in Taiwan this month before landing in Singapore in August.

At 14, Philippine-based Kiara Dario made her professional theatre debut in Disney’s Camp Rock and took on her first lead role in Snow White and the Prince with Repertory Philippines. Dario, a songwriter and recording artist, made headlines when she was cast as Gigi. As Miss Saigon's stripper and “sex toy of Hanoi,” it became Dario’s defining moment as a theatre actor. It’s such a delight to catch an actor’s journey, who has transformed and matured in “The Movie in My Mind.” Gigi, she’s a combination of a sweet and itchy bitchy bar girl who envies Kim.

He made his Miss Saigon debut at the Sydney Opera House. The proud Filipino-Kiwi Laurence Mossman is delighted to reprise his role of Thuy and to return to the Philippines, where he started his theatre career. In playing a composite character in this iconic musical, Mossman surprised the audience with his powerful voice in “Thuy’s Intervention” and “You Will Not Touch Him.” As Kim’s cousin, Mossman’s transformation reflects that he is someone worth noticing and an actor to be watched for.

The man who stole the show during the opening of Act 2 was the moving rendition of “Bui Doi” performed by Lewis Francis, who plays John. As a marine and Chris’ friend, Francis gives a rousing musical soliloquy that gives the audience goosebumps. The most promising vocal artist, Francis, belts out with perfection and intonation.

Following her role as Belle in “A Christmas Carol,” Sarah Morrison is thrilled to join Miss Saigon as Ellen. As Chris’ American wife, Morrison’s voice and charisma as an understanding and loving woman is a vivid sense in “Room 317” and “Maybe.” The audience appreciated that she was a woman of character for Chris, Kim, and Tam.

The New York-based award-winning Australian-American performer Nigel Huckle is thrilled to be back in Manila as Chris. He was last seen in the Manila production of Les Misérables. Whether it is a soliloquy or a duo performance, the best interpretation and rendition of musical numbers in high and low goes to Huckle. The audience fell in love with him in “Why God Why?” “Sun and Moon,” and “The Confrontation.” As an American Marine sergeant, Huckle is Miss Saigon’s gem because he was perfect in singing and acting.

Filipino-Australian rising star Abigail Adriano, whose training includes both classical and contemporary music, made her professional lead role debut as Kim, whom she shares with Indonesia-born and Singapore-raised Louisa Villine as an alternate at certain performances. Adriano’s first theatrical experience before Miss Saigon was playing the role of Alice in Matilda. Like many other Filipino actors who played the “17-year-old virgin from the untouched and unchartered country,” at 19, Adriano was an astonishing revelation on stage. As an orphaned and forced to work as a bargirl in “Dreamland,” Adriano has a deep understanding of her role; she has the tenacity and consistency to deliver lines and sing songs in “I’d Give My Life For You,” “Sun and Moon (Reprise),” and “Little God of My Heart.” Her duet with Huckle in “Sun and Moon” and “The Last Night of the World” has magic and soaring chemistry. Adriano will never disappoint first-timers and regular theatergoers with his unique interpretation of a woman, wife, and mother.

Get ready for Big “Slayzian Energy” because no one gives you a buzz like the EnginQUEER Seann Miley Moore (SMM) does backstage or onstage in “Dreamland.” Pinoy Princess SMM is an embodiment of Asian queer excellence and an international beauty and fashion ambassador who is stealing the show every time he’s on stage. As a Vietnamese-French sleazy hustler and owner of "Dreamland," Moore made a fabulous statement by stepping in as the first openly queer for the role. Moore presents new humorous and vigorous slapstick throughout the show. He delivers his ad-lib seamlessly and naturally, creating a more enjoyable and relatable experience during Act 1’s “If You Want to Die in Bed” and Act 2’s two eleven o’clock musical numbers “What a Waste” and “The American Dream.” Moore is the star of Miss Saigon and one of the many reasons why the audience should see it for some shits and shots of Dreamland.

If you missed Miss Saigon in Manila, you may still catch the show at the Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands, in Singapore, starting August 15, 2024.

Photos: Daniel Boud, Andrew Beveridge

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