Photo Flash: MISS SAIGON At Moonlight Amphitheatre, Show Runs Through 9/25

Moonlight Stage Productions (MSP) fills the Brengle Terrace Park in Vista, California - not just with local residents and tourists on a picnic but also with a giant statue of Vietnamese communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, and a US military helicopter falling from the sky on Wednesday through Sunday - as MSP concludes its 2010 summer season with a grand presentation of Tony award-winning musical "Miss Saigon" at the Moonlight Amphitheatre running until Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.

"Miss Saigon" alums Filipino-American stage actress Jennifer Paz (Kim) and Johann Michael Camat (The Engineer) reunite onstage in this lavish open air production. 

Douglas Carpenter (Chris), Cassandra Murphy (Ellen), Joseph Andreas (Thuy), Melvin Robert (John), Ace Young (Tam), Jebbel Arce, Sam Ayoub, Eric Badique, Marius Beltran, Katherine Brady, Joyelle Cabato, Kathleen Calvin, Kevane La'Marr Coleman, Rocky De Haro, Justin Deater, Jason Evans, Riley Faison, Sheila Ferrari, Nadia Guevara, Chester Lockhart, Nick Lorenzini, Dante Macatantan, Jason Maddy, Klarissa Mesee, Marlene Montes, Kevin Morin, Ian Parmenter, Andrew Ruesch, Matt Takahashi, Mark Velarde, Gabriel Villanueva, Shana Weinstein, and Joyce Yin complete the cast. 

"Moonlight's first-ever "Miss Saigon," based on Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly," is polished all the way. The cast - fronted by Jennifer Paz as the delicate but iron-willed Saigon bar girl Kim, and Douglas Carpenter as her American G.I. soul mate Chris - brings vivid voice to Claude-Michel Schönberg's stirring (and frequently fussy) score," said James Hebert in his review for the Union-Tribune.

"I implore you: Catch it if you can," said John Van Doorn for the North County Times.

From the creative minds behind "Les Miserables" Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubil, "Miss Saigon" is a modern retelling of Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" set during the '70s in war-torn Saigon, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand. Two young lovers, an American G.I. Chris and a Vietnamese bar girl Kim, are united by love but separated by war. With the main narrative unfolding amidst the turmoil of the last few days of the Vietnam War, Chris and Kim struggle to find each other again in the aftermath, following the bloodshed of America's wars.

MSP, a cultural arts program of the City of Vista, California partially funded by its non-profit fundraising arm the Moonlight Cultural Foundation, brings together Steven Glaudini ("Cats", "West Side Story") as director, Carlos Mendoza ("The New Mambo Kings" "The Pajama Game")  as choreographer, Charlie Reuter ("tick, tick...Boom!", "The Light in the Piazza") as musical director, and MSP's Kenneth Gammie as conductor in this production of "Miss Saigon".

For tickets, contact the VisTix Ticket Office at (760) 724-2110 or visit www.moonlightstage.com. Ticket Prices:  $22.00 -$45.00

Photos by Ken Jacques

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