The Engineer-Final Bow?

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 4:47pm

I saw a production of Miss Saigon at the Walnut Street Theater in Philly yesterday, and The Engineer got the final bow at the curtain call. Would he really be considered the lead? I felt that he was a featured character.

Has he always gotten the final bow, ESPECIALLY after Kim?

[mikem]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 5:51pm

Miss Saigon is clearly Kim's story and she is clearly the main character. But in the original production, Jonathan Pryce was already a Tony and Olivier-winning actor and Lea Salonga was an unknown. I believe that Pryce got the last bow in the original production, and it's been perpetuated ever since.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 6:07pm

when Lea Salonga returned to the show she got the final bow

when I saw a regional production here in San Diego, Kim got the final bow but The Engineer got the third to last... so it went Thuy, Ellen, John, The Engineer, Chris and Kim... it was also one of the worst production of Miss Saigon I ever saw!

[vinnylin]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 6:51pm

I could be remembering it wrong but I think Lea got the last bow even toward the end of her original Broadway run (after Pryce left).

There's a plausible argument that The Engineer should be considered a featured role, but Pryce was considered leading and that's the category in which he won the Tony. Both Willy Falk, who played Chris, and Hinton Battle, who played John, were considered in the featured category that year.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 7:43pm

I would consider the Engineer leading if only because the guy has more songs and stage time then Chris... he's also the catalyst that brings everyone together and kinda moves the action forward

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 8:51pm

Very interesting, thanks!

Now am I crazy, but wouldn't "You Will Not Touch Him/Thuy's Death" make the perfect act break instead of the actual one?

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 12:44am

funny you should say that.. for the longest time i thought that sequence of You Will Not Touch Him/Thuy's Death was the Act I finale! i first bought the OLC recording on casette tape but for some reason they only sold the first cassette and it ended with This Is The Hour and it wasn't until years later that I ended up finally getting the 2nd cassette and i realized it wasn't! haha