Sir Cameron Mackintosh Discusses Newest Incarnation of MISS SAIGON

Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the man responsible for a nearly unrivaled number of influential theatrical productions, has mounted a new incarnation of Miss Saigon at the Birmingham Hippodrome. He recently spoke with Express and Star about the upcoming production.

"This version is by far the best we have ever done," he says. "The world has sadly got worse, not better and we are indeed in gritty times and I think that is what has made the show feel even more contemporary than when it first came out nearly 30 years ago."

The show features a new collection of designers and takes a grittier approach to the already hard-hitting content. Mackintosh says that even at the beginning the subject matter posed a monumental challenge in terms of transfer to the stage. When first speaking with Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil he says, " the phrase I used then was 'doing this musical is like dancing on a razor blade'; you have to be utterly truthful and it has to deliver the power that only musical theatre can do, but everything had to come from the truth."

But what about the world famous helicopter scene? Mackintosh reassures: "It's the best of all the versions."

For more, visit Express and Star here.

Set in 1975 during the final days of the American occupation of Saigon, Miss Saigon is an epic love story about the relationship between an American GI and a young Vietnamese woman. Orphaned by war, 17-year-old Kim is forced to work as a bar girl in a sleazy Saigon nightclub, owned by a notorious wheeler-dealer known as "The Engineer." John, an American GI, buys his friend Chris the services of Kim for the night- a night that will change their lives forever.

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