Miss Saigon

[Barnaby12345]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:37pm

Miss Saigon is one of my favorite shows and I always hear negatives so I was wondering what the general concensus is on it!

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:41pm

I adore the music, I think it has one of the greatest musical scores ever written. But it's so intense at the end that it shys people away from it I think. I think that is partically why it not one of my top three.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:44pm

I love Lea Salonga in Miss Saigon and I love a lot of the musical, but for some reason I am not a big fan of the entire product and I have no clue why.

[musicalfandukie]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:46pm

i really like this show! great music!

[ForTheLoveOfLea]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:48pm

I really love the music too. "I Still Believe" makes me cry. Lea Salonga is my favorite singer and she completely delivers in this show. Some of her supporting cast I don't like. I think the story line is really unique but some of the lyrics are a bit contrived and Simon Bowman's voice is grating on the CD. Other than that, I really like it. I'm looking forward to catching the tour in New Brunswick in November.

[JoizeyActor]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:49pm

I can't stop listening to the cast recording. Beautiful music.

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:52pm

I won tix to see the tour while it was in WI. I entered a contest of "Who is your hero", and I won two tix for me and my 'hero' to go see the show. We both knew a little bit about the show before going into it...but never could have expected what we got. The show was amazing!! Now, I'll have you know, that my 'hero' is a teacher of mine that has become a good friend (i'm 15, she's 30) and when those girls came out on stage it was quite awkward lol, but funny none-the-less. The music is just amazing. I was bawling by the end of the show, as was my 'hero'. I loved the Engineer, he was hilarious!! Although it is a sad show, and very gut-wrenching, I still loved it!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 9:58pm

I love Miss Saigon! It's one of my favourites. I agree with everyone else that the music is stunningly beautiful, and Lea Salonga is a godsend.

I think a lot of the negative comments about it aren't necessarily about the show itself, but was/is part of the backlash against British mega-musicals in general. And since Miss Saigon was the fourth (at a time of serious bitterness over the so-called "British invasion"), it was criticized for being lavish and big, especially with the helicopter (which wasn't the most memorable thing in the show for me at all; I saw it in 1999, and it was, to me, just another set piece. For me, the stars of the show were its music, story and the character Kim).

The ending is devestating and intense, but it's to be expected - it's based on Madame Butterfly, after all. (Actually, I found Kim's "You will not touch him, don't touch my joy" part in the first act, when she shoots Thuy, even more intense and emotionally thrilling.)

The only gripe I have with the show is some of its staging. Hytner's direction felt cold and mechanical at times. I would love to see this show revived in a few years, with more passionate and smooth staging.

Updated On: 9/9/04 at 09:58 PM

[ForTheLoveOfLea]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 10:07pm

Well said, BlueWizard. I couldn't imagine anyone but Lea playing Kim, actually. I'm afraid I'm not going to like Kim in the tour. Has anyone seen the tour who can give me the dirt on how the cast is?

[LittleFish8386]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 10:33pm

I love love love Miss Saigon!!! It was the first show I ever saw on Broadway, so it holds a special place in my heart.
Just love it!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/8/04 at 10:45pm

Even as a lover of lavish musicals, I wasn't a fan of Miss Saigon. I own the OLC and I while I thought the music wasn't bad, there weren't any songs that really stuck out for me. I do think Lea S is fantastic though. I saw the tour in Vancouver last summer (with Alan Gillespie as whatshisname and Jen Hubilla as Kim) and I thought the performances were okay and the sets were beautiful (even though the helicopter "effect" was laughable), but I just didn't like it. And I'm all about those love stories where the oppressed fall in love with the oppressor (hello, AIDA!).

Jen Hubilla's okay. She's got a girlie thin voice, definitely not a belter, but some would argue that it suits the role. Jon Jon Briones as the Engineer was great. He plays sleazy very well.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/9/04 at 12:24am

One of my best friends from high school was in the original cast. I saw it shortly after opening and remember that I wasn't particularly impressed with it at all. When I met my friend after the show, before I even had a chance to lie and tell him how much I loved it, he interrupted me and told me, "Before you even say one word, I just wanna state for the record that this isn't a great show, but heck it's gonna run for years so I'm happy for the job and now I'll be able to afford to get a mortgage on something." And he told me that among the cast he wasn't alone in his opinion of the show (I met a few cast members afterwards with him and they were even harsher in their critique of it than I would have ever been).

That aside, I thought Salonga and Pryce were quite good. Nearly everything else for me was utterly forgettable -- especially the rather generic and indistinguished score (most of Salonga's music was some of the most bland pop pablum I'd ever heard -- it sounded like rejects from a local easy listening radio station).

I can vividly recall Pryce pulling out all the stops to sell the "American Dream" number, but that the song itself and the staging just sat there not helping at all, as if the creative team just hoped that through sheer presence and charisma, Pryce could turn straw into gold. He got close -- expending that much energy, he'd have stopped the show if he had been given a really solid number to perform. Instead, he just got a nice little bit of applause at the end.

The overall idea and concept of the show was an excellent one -- it just wasn't executed and staged with enough vision and creativity (it seems like most of the work went into that lame helicopter stunt, rather than the book, score and staging). I saw a production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly shortly afterwards and it was striking to me how far superior the original opera was scene by scene to the pale knock-off that was playing on Broadway. SO much potential wasted.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 9/9/04 at 12:38am

Margo~ I totally agree with you about Salonga & Pryce. Every time I see Pryce in any other role, I am reminded of his Engineer!

Although, Kevin Gray plays a very impressive, sleezy, over the top Engineer, too.

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 9/9/04 at 3:35am

It's a beautiful score, but the lyrics aren't special. If only the lyrics had of been better I would've called it my all-time great. However, this and Tanz der Vampire remain my favourite musical scores

[Guido Contini]

Posted: 9/9/04 at 3:46am

I really LOVE Miss Saigon. It was one of the first OBCRs I ever bought. I think Phantom was first. Anyway...I love Salonga in M.S. The Telephone Song is probably one of my faves, but I did a version of "The Heat Is On In Saigon" as a cabaret number my sophomore year in college.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/9/04 at 10:16am

I really do like most of the score, but I just can't stand the lyrics. I agree with Margo that it could have been staged better, but there were a few scenes that I did enjoy (I loved the nightmare sequence, but thought the helicopter was a bit lame. I was more impressed with the helicopter in the non-Equity tour). The American Dream is one of my all-time least favorite songs. Just a laundry list of supposedly American consumer excess followed by "The American Dream!" endlessly repeated until headache ensues. Very Jerry Herman.

[mallardo]

Posted: 9/9/04 at 10:31am

Anyone who knows Puccini's Madama Butterfly is going to have a hard time with this ersatz updating of it. The problem for me was that the most interesting character in the show was the Engineer, who has virtually nothing to do with the main plot line. The two leads, on the other hand, were badly under-written. No amount of glitzy staging could overcome the woeful book.