I will be in London in early June which coincides with the anticipated return of Miss Saigon to the West End. Does anyone know if this is the original version of the show, or is it the watered down one that came later? Thanks in advance to anyone who might know!
It will not be the original staging if that's what you're asking. This production will have the new song "Maybe" in place of "Now That I've Seen Her." Laurence Connor is directing, and the scenery will be by Totie Driver and Matt Kinley. Laurence Connor directed the 25th Anniversary tour of Les Miserables and Matt Kinley designed it. The costumes, however, are still credited to Andreane Neofitou who designed the costumes for the original staging of Miss Saigon. Expect it to be similar to the scaled back versions of Les Miz and Phantom that Cameron has put out in the last few years claiming they're somehow better than the originals when he really means cheaper.
Thanks for the info. What kinds of cost cutting measures do you expect this version to have compared to the original? Smaller cast size? No helicopter? Smaller orchestra? Part of me feels like this could be a pretty impressive production because it's at the Prince Edward and the ticket prices start at $70 and go up to $240 which makes it one of the most expensive tickets in the West End. Well I hope that's an indication anyway.
Interesting about the new song, I didn't know that. Thanks!
Apprently there are some lyric changes/rewrites to the show, which they premiered in Manila in concert on the 29th-30th. Anyone attend or know what the lyric changes are?
I don't think they would ever use a real helicopter again...I don't think money is the main issue. No one associated with Ms. Saigon wound up really liking the real helicopter and it was thought to be a gimmick and more of a distraction than an enhancement of the emotion of the scene. There are many ways to insinuate helicopter with screens and graphics that are highly effective IMO.