A Question about Miss Saigon

[liz3]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 10:55am

I've been listening to Miss Saigon lately and was wondering why Kim kills herself in the end. Is it because she can't ever be with Chris again? Such a tragic story.

[mrcacou]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 11:11am

--------------Spoiler-----------------------
Chris and his wife want to leave Kim and Tam in Bangkok and support them from the USA. However kim really wants her son, Tam, to become an American boy as she's always dreamt. If she no longer lives, Chris and Hellen will have to take Tam back with them to the USA. Kim wants the best for her son and kills herself so that he can have a better life in America.

Posted: 3/19/06 at 2:25pm

well said...except its ELLEN =)

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 2:51pm

haha I read it and didn't even notice that.

I praise Saigon as much as I can, it's so worthy.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 2:54pm

Also, MISS SAIGON is based on the Puccini opera MADAME BUTTERFLY. In that story, an American naval officer and a local Japanese girl, Butterfly, have an affair. The officer returns to the U.S. and unbeknownst to him, Butterfly has become pregnant with his child. Years later, the officer, who has since married, returns to Japan with his wife. Butterfly attempts to win him back, but when she fails, she stabs herself in desperation. MADAME BUTTERFLY was also the inspiration for the play M BUTTERFLY, about a French military man who becomes involved with a Chinese opera star, who turns out to be a man in drag. This strange story was based, in part, on an actual case.

Posted: 3/19/06 at 3:38pm

Miss Saigon is one of my favorite shows of all time. Up there with Les Miz..i just love those Frenchies (despite Martin Guerre - blech) i can't wait to hear Pirate Queen!

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 3:40pm

I remember when my friend saw Miss Saigon.

It's sad that I missed it...considering Les Mis is all the way up there.

[greeneyed_one]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 4:07pm

It might not matter on this site but it would be nice to put a spoiler warning in the title. When I first heard Miss Saigon I had no idea what was going to happen at the end and it was a big surprise that made the show more interesting...just a suggestion.

[musicaltheater1]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 4:14pm

liz3, do you want to see how it ends on stage after she shoots herself? Click on the image to the left. That was the farewell poster. Both actors didn't perform on the last performance on Broadway.

Posted: 3/19/06 at 4:45pm

those actors are Matt Bogart and DeeDee Lynn Magno..just FYI
two amazing people to play chris and kim.

[jo]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 7:08pm

Other than being similar to Madame Butterfly, according to composers Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, what inspired them initially was seeing a photo of a Vietnamese woman handing over her son to Americans fleeing during the fall of Vietnam. She hoped for a better life for her son despite the feeling of grief over losing him.

"This photograph was for Alain and I the start of everything".

[mrcacou]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 7:14pm

If only these twon frenchies would consider produce their musicals (except Les Miz) in French as it is the language they wrote them in in the first place. Please Claude-Michel and Alain, can we have the song Martin Guerre in its original version : Je reviendrai !

Please, French musicals are crap nowadays, spare us the Notre Dame de Paris and Gone With The Wind, give us Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre in French, pleaaaaaaaaassssssssssssse.

[jo]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 9:09pm

I saw Les Miserables in French ( in Paris in 1992) based on the Cameron Mackintosh production. There is a CD of that production.

But before Les Miserables at the Barbican ( where it first opened in 1985), Boublil and Schonberg presented the very first production of their work at the Palais de Sport much earlier. It was the cast recording ( or concept album which inspired the production, not sure which) of this production which caught the attention of Cameron Mackintosh ...and the rest is history.

I am not sure whether Miss Saigon was originally written in French. Besides, the subject does not have much French connotations other than Vietnam being a former French colony. It was more of the American involvement in the Vietnam war which was the background of the story of Kim and Chris.
Updated On: 3/19/06 at 09:09 PM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 9:23pm

liz, you've never heard of Madame Butterfly.....have you?

[mrcacou]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 9:33pm

Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre were indeed written in French. As for the concept album of Les Miz, it was then done into a huge stage spectacular at le Palais des Sports in Paris, our Madison Square Garden in a way at that time. The original French lyrics were translated in English for the London opening and then, which is odd, the English version was translated back in French instead of updating the French Lyrics from 1980 but I am off topic now. oops sorry I am just so proud to be from a country where we have no great musicals but huge musicals writters !

[jo]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 10:50pm

I saw the West End production of Martin Guerre and liked it a lot ( I think it was Iain Glenn who played the lead and a French actor - his name I think is Jerome and I remember him from the 10th anniversary concert of Les Miserables - who played Martin). I had wondered why they decided not to transfer the show to Broadway.

Were there concept albums of the French Miss Saigon and the French Martin Guerre?

If so, would they be available online?

Thanks.

[mrcacou]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 11:00pm

The name of that actor is Jérôme Pradon ( what a great first name). He is acting in a small musical in Paris right now walled Chance. His break out role in the musical biz was as Marius in the French Les Misérables in 1992. And no there is no French Recording of Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre. The ony information we have is that the title song I'm Martin Guerre was written as Je reviendrai in French. France is not big on musicals the way you know them in Anglo-saxon country. Our musicals are more like huge concert palyed in costumes with bad music and lyrics. However I am part of a minority because some of these crapy shows have been huge hits.

[liz3]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 6:34am

Of course, Ive heard of Puccini's Madame Butterfly. Its music is beautiful.But I don't see anything wrong with asking if some piece of information has escaped you, do you?

[tophertilson]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 8:38am

I'd prefer SAIGON in French. Anything to avoid those god-awful English lyrics. Eesh!

TT

Posted: 3/20/06 at 1:27pm

chris' breakdown in particular is pretty bad..don't you think!??
"back when i didn't have a clue...who i am."
OY VEY!

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 2:58pm

yeah yeah... as much as i love miss saigon... it has some pretty shi* lyrics... i don't mind chris' breakdown... it used to bug me but now it doesn't... but the worst offender of all is "this little girl we could be in the sack for what it cost me to buy a big mac" aaaaaaaaaarrrggggh! the worst is when Peter Cousens sings it on the CSR... the guy REALLY sounds like he's trying to be tough when he sings it... aaaaaaarrggggh!

[mrkringas]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 3:03pm

Jerome Pradon played the villain Guillame. He is also notorious for his portrayal of Judas in the new dvd of JCS. Its a love/hate thing!

Although he was very good in Martin Guerre. It was Matt Rawle who played the title role and is about to star as Che in the London revival of Evita. Oh and he is also singing the **** out of the Balladeer in an acclaimed revival of Assassins at the Shefield Crucible.

[liz3]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 3:27pm

Someone mentioned Pirate Queen. Does anyone have any information
about this? Sorry to hassle you all but I don't live in an english-speaking country. I hope it's even better than Les Mis and Miss Saigon put together. Thanks.
Updated On: 3/20/06 at 03:27 PM

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 4:18pm

Jerome Pradon... wasn't he also the person on the Les Mis TAC who gets overacting as one of the students?? ooh that bugged me... ha! oh and his Judas was alright on the JCS DVD...

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 5:12pm

Wasn't another work, a novel, I think, called MADAME CHRYSANTHEMUM technically the work from which MISS SAIGON is derived, notwithstanding that photograph that inspired Boublil and Schonberg?

I could be wrong, but I believe MADAME CHRYSANTHEMUM inspired Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY, which, in turn, was ultimately updated in 80's Pop Opera form as MISS SAIGON.