Miss Saigon

Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg

Lyrics by Alain Boubil & Richard Maltby Jr.

Performance Date: July 16, 2019

Chuck and I ready for the show!

So, not only is this review WELL overdue, but it’s also going to be a little bit different than my other theater reviews. My last few theater reviews have focused primarily on the actual production, instead of the material; this is because in those cases, I’d seen the original production before (or, at least, a nearly-identical touring production), and so my aim was to highlight the differences between the original and the revival. In the case of Miss Saigon, I’ve never seen the original production (except on YouTube, and despite my considering it to be my second favorite musical (and bonus points to anyone who can remember what my first is (and Chuck, you can’t play))). So, in short, this review will be about the actual material of Miss Saigon, not so much the actual performance we enjoyed.

The cast of the National Tour of Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon was Boubil & Schönberg’s follow up to their massively successful Les Misérables, and while I think it can be considered successful, it didn’t recreate the overwhelming success of their first foray. For comparison, Les Mis’ original run in London ran for just a few months shy of 34 years (it’s currently being semi-revived as the new 25th anniversary production once its theater is refurbished and renamed). Miss Saigon’s original London run was a mere-but-still-impressive 10 years. On Broadway, Les Mis is currently the sixth-longest running show in history (with 6,680 performances, and 2 revivals), while Miss Saigon trails behind at the number 13 spot, with 4,092 performances, and a single revival (fun fact, The Book of Mormon is currently the 14th spot, with 3,610 performances as of November 10, 2019, so in just over a year, assuming that it is still running, it will overtake Miss Saigon (A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: COVID-19 sure messed this up, didn’t it?)).

It’s tough to say why Miss Saigon has not been as popular as Les Mis. The original production incurred a lot of controversy over some of its casting (its two leading male roles, one an Eurasian, the other an Asian, were both played by white males); I fully support the outrage that people felt about the issue. There is also quite a bit of still-ongoing controversy regarding racism, sexism, and misogyny. I want to state outright that I fully recognize that I currently do not have enough information, or worldview, to make a definitive statement either way, so I will simply leave it at that. I would welcome some education into these issues in regards to this show.

Emily Bautista and Anthony Festa as the lovers, Kim and Chris

As I mentioned, I do consider this show to be one of my favorites, as it’s another that I grew up on, and, problems aside, there are some great musical moments and great storytelling ideas within it. Kim is the central character (I absolutely CANNOT STAND that in every curtain call I’ve seen, The Engineer gets the final bow), and her storyline is heart-wrenching. This is a girl that is constantly down-trodden upon, and every time there is a glimmer of hope, it is snatched away from her. Les Mis is a downer musical too, but it at least ends with a hopeful note. Miss Saigon ends with a gunshot and leaves behind a child that no one really wants. It’s a harsh reality of life, but DAMN.

Stacie Bono as Ellen

The other leading female role is Ellen, and her character signifies a lot of the problems with the material. The main evidence for this is her second act song, most popularly known as “Now That I’ve Seen Her”. Every production of the show rewrites this song, all in an attempt to make Ellen more sympathetic. Here’s the issue: Ellen’s role in the story is to be a roadblock. Without her, a main central conflict of the show does not exist. She’s the other woman (although, since she is ACTUALLY married to Chris, that really makes Kim the other woman). There’s no amount of justification needed for her actions; I’ve never once questioned why she does what she does, and I don’t gain any new insight into her after the song than I had before, especially when in the scene following, she basically lays out all her reasonings anyway. But, the authors are so convinced that she is also a sympathetic character that they keep trying to shoehorn this song in for her, when she just doesn’t need it. It’s a great song out of context, but I wish the authors would just stop tinkering with it and just let her be the antagonist that her role in the plot requires her to be.

Red Concepcion as The Engineer leads the Cast in “The American Dream”

The performance we saw was the touring version of Miss Saigon’s (so far) only Broadway revival, itself a transfer of the 25th anniversary production from London. As I mentioned, I’ve never seen a production live, only YouTube videos, and endlessly listening to the Original London Cast recording and the Complete Symphonic recording (which I prefer). Seeing the show live was a great experience, except for one small problem: not only did the authors tinker with Ellen’s song again, they changed lyrics throughout the ENTIRE show. Now, some lyric changes are to be expected, but the sheer amount in this production was baffling, and became a source of irritation and distraction. Instead of being able to immerse myself in the show, I was constantly pulled out of it by thinking, “Oh, THAT’s a new lyric”, and “Wait, what?”. It got me to thinking: At what point does altered material become something completely different from the original? A theatrical revival is essentially the same as a cinematic remake (or reboot, as we like to say now). However, in some cases, the remake of a movie is so distantly removed from its original source that one doesn’t realize that they are, in fact, the same movie (Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai and Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven is an excellent example). At what point does the endless (and, in my opinion, wholly unnecessary) lyrical changes make Miss Saigon an entirely different show from its original production? I don’t think there’s a clear cut answer, but it’s worth thinking about.

Having now seen both Les Mis and Miss Saigon, and seeing the differences, and exploring more of the issues people have with it, Miss Saigon, while an emotional journey with some beautiful music, becomes problematic. Also, the changes made to the show actually make it seem less-than, an overly-edited story of love at what feels like the end of the world. Upon reexamination, it is entirely possible that Miss Saigon will fall further down my list of favorite Broadway shows.

FINAL GRADE: C