You are Sunlight, and I Moon

My programmes and souvenir brochure - worth getting for
stunning photos of the 2015-16 cast

Hello hello hello again you lovely people, I am happy to bring you another West End review! I'm amazed that I managed to get down to London for a second time, but I am so glad I did; as this time, I was FINALLY able to see a show which I have been dying to see since it was first revived last year, and that show is Miss Saigon -  the last of what I call Cameron Macintosh's "Big 4", or his mega-musicals of the '80s for me to see (the other 3 being CATS, Les Mis and Phantom).

Written by Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg (who also wrote Les Mis), with Richard Maltby Jr providing additional lyrics, Miss Saigon originally opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, starring Jonathon Pryce and a then-17-year-old Lea Salonga. It then transferred to Broadway in 1991, also with Pryce and Salonga, and it is rumoured that the revival is to be transferring to the Great White Way in the next couple of years, after the London run closes in February next year. The original production won 2 Oliviers and 3 Tonys, and the revival was nominated for another 2 Oliviers this year, but unfortunately didn't win either of them. Despite that however, it won 9 WhatsOnStage.com awards, more than the entire history of the awards show, 4 of which to all the acting in a musical catagories - which interestingly ALL went to actors playing Vietnamese characters.........

Now before I go any further, I want to let you all know that Miss Saigon deals with a very distressing
and disturbing subject, so some parts of the show aren't necessarily for the faint-hearted; nevertheless, it's what sometimes needed in drama, and definitely works in the piece's favour. It packs a punch, but it's necessary.

Based on Puccini's 1903 opera Madama Butterfly (which I would love to see now to compare, I'm definitely up for talking about opera on here!), the piece is set at the end of the Vietnam war, and the years that follow and tells the story of a young Vietnamese girl (Kim) and an American GI (Chris). After meeting in the club where Kim works, the couple fall in love, but are shortly torn apart due to the fall of Saigon.... and tragedy ensures.......

Like Les Mis, Miss Saigon has a HUGE cast, and before going onto the principals, I would like to give a shout out to the ensemble, who become about 10 different characters EACH throughout the entire show. From prostitutes and pimps, to townspeople, refugees and Ho Chi Minh's soldiers, they were all fantastic and gave it them all, especially in the powerful bits. Oh and before I forget, the acrobatics during Morning of the Dragon......!
Now, I have to give a couple of honourable mentions to the principals. They all had their moments, such as Gigi's look of "I failed you" when Kim was leading Chris away and Thuy's look of anguish and despair when Tam was introduced; but there are 3 people I need to go more into.

Original revival stars Eva Noblezada as Kim
and Alistair Brammer as Chris - Chris is now being
played by Chris Peluso

First is Tanya Manalang, who played Kim, and who is actually the alternate for that part. I tell you what, to play her, you need lungs of steel, as she was on stage CONSTANTLY! She really connected with the entire audience, whether it was in the softer moments or the harder ones, you really believed she was in love with Chris Peluso's Chris (who was so close to getting an hon.mention, he's gorgeous and has SUCH a smooth voice), or that she would do anything to ensure that her son would have a good life. I get the feeling that along with the principal Kim, Eva Noblezada (who I have also heard very good things about), Tanya's got a good career ahead of her - well done Tanya!

Next is Jon Jon Briones as The Engineer, a half-French, half-Vietnamese pimp who owns the sleazy nightclub where Kim works and is desperate to get to the States. Now, I mentioned that the revival of this show was nominated for 2 Oliviers: one was for Best Revival of a Musical, and the other was Best Actor in a Musical, for this guy - and now that I have seen Jon Jon's performance, HOW DID HE NOT WIN??!! The Engineer is one of the hardest characters to play in the show - and Jon Jon did it magnificentally! He was funny, cowardly, scary, incredibly selfish and so much more, all joining together to become probably THE most charismatic performance I have EVER seen in my life!!!

And finally, I HAVE to mention Carolyn Maitland as Ellen, Chris' American wife, who gave me (other than the end of the piece) the only moment in the show which made me really cry. Carolyn is currently stepping in to play Ellen while Siobhan Dillon is recovering form an operation (get well soon Siobhan, if by some small chance you are reading this), and as she was the understudy for Ellen before the cast change earlier this year, she knew EXACTLY what to do! She also had won West End Frame's Understudy of the Year Award last year for her work in Saigon and I'm not surprised. Boubil, Schonberg and Macintosh have never been truly happy before in how Ellen's part was written. A lot of fans see her as a bad person as they believe she takes Chris away from Kim, but she's really not. She's as much a victim as everyone else, as she had no idea about Kim before she met Chris. And so, to help solve the problem, a new song was written for Ellen. What was Now That I See Her, is now called Maybe; and it really really works!! There are so many emotions going on in there, confusion, uncertainty, disbelief, with Ellen coming to the decision that if it's meant to be, she will give Chris up so he can be with Kim - it just shows how much she loves Chris and it's heart-breaking!! I think not having John in The Confrontation works as well - it's just Chris and Ellen dealing with the problem together as it should be, and it shows how strong a bond they have together. Back on to Ms Maitland, I'm not sure what else to say like I said, her song moved me to tears and she was FANTASTIC!!!

You'll need a glass of Pimms
after the 1st half........

I find this piece interesting, as though I had never SEEN the piece before, I feel like I know it very well. In my final year of university, I decided to talk about Madama Butterfly for my final Italian speaking exam, and I did talk about Miss Saigon at the end when talking about Butterfly's legacy, and drew some comparisons; it feels nice to see the show at last over a year later!

As well as the new song Maybe, there are also a lot of other small lyric changes they've made throughout. And from that, I can tell you (from first noticing that in the 2014 live revival cast recording, which you all need to listen to btw), that they have made it a much grittier show than the original recording presents. And on top of that, I think I know the one thing that glues the piece together, and that is not having the Vietnam war as a setting - but as a character.

Think about it - everything revolves around the war, its actions affect everyone else around it. As John says in the nightmare scene "It's not you, it's war that's cruel". I think the reason the show has been made a lot more gritty and realistically violent was due to how the Vietnam war was, or rather what war is - brutal, gritty and cruel. Personally, making war the villain of the show has been the small tick that's made the piece REALLY work. Though having said that, like I said, it is a hard piece just as much as it is powerful, so you might need something alcoholic after the 1st half........ Like I said previously, it packs a punch and it hits hard - but it's necessary.

As I said, Miss Saigon is unfortunately closing 27 February 2016, so get your tickets while you can, and get yourself down to the Prince Edward Theatre, to experience what I think has been the most powerful and moving piece of theatre I have seen in a very long time.

Oh and bring your tissues; you're going to need them......

Update: click here to read my review of the 25th Anniversary cinema screening of Miss Saigon