Which do you prefer - Miss Saigon or Les Miserables? — Page 3

I prefer Les Miserables. It had a very cinematic feel about it. I am still amazed at the stagecraft, lighting, and music. I'm thinking of seeing it again in NYC this summer.

I'm comparing to totally different things, because I have seen Les Miserables on stage, but I never got to see Miss Saigon. But I prefer Les Mis. I always seem to connect to it more emotionally. It's always stuck with me more than Miss Saigon has. But I might feel differently if I were to see Miss Saigon. But I do love both.

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I like both shows, but Les Miz has the better score (which isn't saying much). Miss Saigon has some pretty music, but those lyrics...yikes. Clunky to say the least. I loved the Forbidden Broadway parody, they equate the lyrics to Hallmark cards. Hilarious. The best thing about that show was that it gave us Lea Salonga. Ultimately, it's storyline is kind of sexist and a bit racist. A bitter pill to swallow for some "pretty music" and a cool scene with a helicopter. IMHO.

I prefer Miss Saigon, I can't stand Les Miz, but none of them are masterpieces.

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Well, at least when the opera was written there wasn't any sort of heightened awareness to those subjects. MS was written in the late 80's and presented in the early 90's, when we all should've expected more from this silly entertainment.

It's hard to do an updated Madama Butterfly without a Butterfly, so the characterization of Kim was rather limited. Though, honestly, I don't find Kim a sexist portrayal of women in the least. She is a very strong woman, and I don't think that I could have survived what she all underwent. Plus, at least Kim was waiting for a man who loved her.

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Not to love her, but to rescue her. That is not a strong character, and Chris is so unlikable as to be almost a villian.

Then I guess I didn't understand what you said. How do you feel Miss Saigon is sexist and racist?

I don't think Chris is unlikeable, because you have to consider his situation. It's my opinion that he kind of numbs himself to everything after losing Kim, and after three years of that, it's easy to write her off as just a fling. Don't get me wrong, I don't like his actions all of the time, but I can understand them. I love MS because the characters are multi-faceted in that way.

As for Kim needing to be rescued, well, she's kind of in a situation where she has to be. Her only way of getting out of that life she's now leading is Chris. Even after they flee Vietnam, she's still stuck working as a bar girl in Thailand because she needs money. The only way she could have gotten out of it is by marrying Thuy, and who would want to marry the guy it is insinuated is responsible for the burning of her village? That, and she didn't love him.

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I'd hardly classify Kim as "hooker with a heart of gold." She's in that lifestyle because she has to be, not to mention the fact that the first time we see her is her first "day on the job." She's not exactly a world-weary hooker trying to make good. She's trapped in a world that she has no control over, genuinely (I think) falls in love-at-first-site with Chris, and needs a way out.

The idolization of America is pretty much skewered in "The American Dream." The whole point of the number is to parody the outlandishness and fakery of that very opinion of America.

But it doesn't have to make overtly racist statemants to be racist.

Basically the portrayal of Kim is one of the sweet innocent vietnamese girl who wants nothing more than to go to america. It's a stereotype that you see in dozens of books and movies. Sure, it's easy to see why someone would prefer the conditions of the US to that of war-torn Saigon, but why wouldn't she go to China or India-- they're closer and atleast one of them doesn't have a communist government.

Her romanticising of the US has more to do with american geocentrism than anything else.

Updated On: 6/28/07 at 03:07 PM

Thank you Ben4. You seem to have seen the same show that I did. You are much better at putting your opinions into blog form than I do. I appreciate your statements.

Updated On: 6/28/07 at 03:12 PM