The Heat is On! MISS SAIGON Lands in Birmingham this Month

Winner of a record-breaking nine Whatsonstage Awards 2015 including Best Show, Birmingham Hippodrome is thrilled to play host to Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed new production of Boublil and Schönberg's legendary musical MISS SAIGON which lands in Birmingham for 9 weeks from 26 July - 23 Sept as part of a major new UK Tour.

Ryan O'Gorman will play 'John', and Marsha Songcome will play 'Gigi' until 1 August when Na-Young Jeon will take over the role. They join the previously announced Red Concepcion as 'The Engineer', Sooha Kim as 'Kim', Ashley Gilmour as 'Chris', Zoë Doano as 'Ellen' and Gerald Santos as 'Thuy'. At certain performances 'The Engineer' will be played by Christian Rey Marbella, and 'Kim' will be played by Joreen Bautista.

They are joined by David Allwood, Randy Chien, Vinny Coyle, Kristine Mae Diaz, Michael James Eborall, Aynrand Ferrer, Seng Henk Goh, Emily Beth Harrington, Jack Heasman, Tom Hier, Barnaby Hughes, Kamm Kunaree, David Kar-Hing Lee, Amanda Lingdren, Ela Lisondra, Winchester Lopez, Christian Rey Marbella, Jay Marsh, Tom Mussell, Thao Nguyen, Saori Oda, YoungJoo Park, Kiel Payton, Katherine Picar, Alistair So, Carl Jae-Suk Sohlberg, Eloisa Amalia Tan, Gavin Tsang, Amadeus Williams, and Gerald Zarcilla.

Red Concepcion's many theatre credits in his native Philippines include 'Adam/Felicia' in "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" for which he won the ALIW Award and Gawah Buhay Award, 'Tommy' in "The Normal Heart" and 'Alan Strang' in "Equus" as well as the musicals "West Side Story" and "Hairspray".

Sooha Kim made her professional debut in this recent production of "Miss Saigon" at the Prince Edward Theatre where she covered the role of 'Kim' before going on to play the role in the Japanese production. Her credits whilst training in Korea include 'Maureen' in "Rent" and 'Carmen' in "Fame".

Ashley Gilmour also appeared in "Miss Saigon" at the Prince Edward Theatre. His most recent credits include playing 'Link Larkin' in the national tour of "Hairspray".

Zoë Doano's many West End theatre credits include 'Cosette' in "Les Misérables", 'Johanna' in "Sweeney Todd" and most recently 'Grazia' in "Death Takes A Holiday". She has also appeared in the national tours of "The Sound of Music" and "High Society".

Ryan O'Gorman is currently playing the role of 'Tom Collins' in the 20th Anniversary UK Tour of "Rent". His other theatre credits include "Les Misérables", at the Queen's Theatre, "The Phantom of the Opera" at Her Majesty's Theatre, "Billy Elliot" at the Victoria Palace Theatre and the UK tour of "Oliver!".

Gerald Santos was the youngest ever winner of the biggest singing contest in the Philippines, Pinoy Pop Superstar. He has released five studio albums and has won numerous awards including winning twice Best Male Concert performer at the prestigious ALIW Awards.

Marsha Songcome returns to "Miss Saigon" having previously played the role of 'Gigi' at the Prince Edward Theatre. She is currently appearing in Disney's "Aladdin" in the West End. Her other theatre credits include: 'Sophie' in "Mamma Mia!" and 'Rizzo' in "Grease" in Sweden.

Na-Young Jeon has previously played the role of 'Fantine' in "Les Misérables" at the Queen's Theatre, a role she also played in South Korea. Her other theatre credits include: 'Esmerelda' in "Notre Dame de Paris" in South Korea; 'Bianca' in "Kiss Me Kate" in Amsterdam and "Miss Saigon" and "High School Musical" in the Netherlands.

In March, this production of MISS SAIGON opened on Broadway where it plays to nightly ovations and has just been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The New Yorker recently called it a "Dynamite Broadway revival". When the smash-hit run of this production opened in London in May 2014 to record-breaking advance sales and critical acclaim, Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph wrote, "This thrilling new production spills out beyond the theatre and speaks directly to the times we live in". The show swept the board at the 2015 Whatsonstage.com awards winning a record breaking nine awards, the most awards ever won by a single show in the 15-year history of the awards including: Best West End Show and Best Revival of a Musical.

MISS SAIGON tells the story of the last days of the Vietnam War, 17 year-old Kim is forced to work in a Saigon bar run by a notorious character known as the Engineer. There she meets and falls in love with an American GI named Chris but they are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. For 3 years Kim goes on an epic journey of survival to find her way back to Chris, who has no idea he's fathered a son.

MISS SAIGON has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil, adapted from original French lyrics by Alain Boublil, with additional lyrics by Michael Mahler. The new production is directed by Laurence Connor with musical staging by Bob Avian and additional choreography by Geoffrey Garratt. Production design is by Totie Driver and Matt Kinley based on an original concept by Adrian Vaux; costume design by Andreane Neofitou; lighting design by Bruno Poet; projections by Luke Halls; sound design by Mick Potter; and orchestrations by William David Brohn.

Since its London premiere in 1989, Cameron Mackintosh's production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's legendary musical MISS SAIGON has become one of the most successful musicals in history. The original Broadway production of MISS SAIGON opened on April 11, 1991 with what was the largest advance sale in Broadway history ($37 million). The show went on to play for nearly ten years and 4,063 performances seen by more than 5.9 million people. MISS SAIGON has been performed in 28 countries, over 300 cities in 15 different languages, has won over 40 awards including 2 Olivier Awards, 3 Tony Awards, and 4 Drama Desk Awards and been seen by over 35 million people worldwide.

www.miss-saigon.com

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

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