Tickets to MISS SAIGON Gala Performance Sell Out Within Minutes

The Gala Performance to celebrate 25 years of Boublil & Schönberg's Miss Saigon on Monday 22 September, has sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale this morning, Tuesday 26 August. Over 18,000 people tried to buy tickets when booking opened at 10.00am; an unprecedented amount for a single performance in a theatre with just over 1700 seats.

Fans who queued around the block at the Prince Edward Theatre managed to secure tickets at the original 1989 prices. Online demand was so overwhelming that it crashed the box office ticket system at 10.10am and the entire Delfont Mackintosh Theatre website shortly afterwards. The technical team restored the system as quickly as possible and the performance was sold out within minutes.

The Gala Performance was announced last week to salute 25 years since the musical originally premiered. To celebrate this milestone the cast of the new production will be joined onstage by members of the original company in a special finale.

For those who missed out on tickets this morning, there will be a limited number day seats available on the morning of Monday 22 September. The Gala Performance will also be recorded for BBC Radio 2 and will be broadcast in its entirety on Sunday 28 September.

The new production of "MISS SAIGON" opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in May this year and has been a triumphant success with record advance bookings. The overwhelming audience response has been just as rapturous as the original. The original production opened on 20 September 1989 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where it ran for 10 years and still holds the record for the longest run at that theatre. "MISS SAIGON" has been seen by over 40 million people worldwide. After opening in London, the new production most recently opened in Japan with other productions planned to open in Korea, Australia, Europe and the U.S.

"MISS SAIGON" stars Jon Jon Briones as 'The Engineer', Eva Noblezada as 'Kim', Alistair Brammer as 'Chris', Tamsin Carroll as 'Ellen',Kwang-Ho Hong as 'Thuy', Hugh Maynard as 'John' and Rachelle Ann Go as 'Gigi'.

"MISS SAIGON" tells the tragic tale of young bar girl Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with an American GI called Chris - but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

"MISS SAIGON" has Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg with Lyrics by Richard Maltby Jnr and Alain Boublil, adapted from Original French Lyrics by Alain Boublil with Additional Lyrics by Michael Mahler. This new production is directed by Laurence Connor with Musical Staging by Bob Avian and Additional Choreography by Geoffrey Garratt, Production Design 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 Realised by Luke Halls, Sound Design by Mick Potter and Orchestrations by William David Brohn. Musical Supervision is by Stephen Brooker and John Rigby. Musical Direction is by Alfonso Casado Trigo.