Why did Miss Saigon close when it did?- Page 2

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 11:53am

I'm with Mamie - I can't understand why this musical ran as long as it did - I was bored to death when I saw it.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 12:00pm

This show feels very contradictory to me. There are parts with beautiful music ("I Still Believe," "Last Night of the World" and I like--!!SPOILER!--the "American Dream" reprise just before Kim shoots herself), but there are other parts that just feel extraneous (I skip every one of the Engineer's songs except "American Dream") and I don't understand why events were shown out of order. Nor did i understsand why Gigi was the focus of "Movie In My Mind." I mean, isn't the story about Kim? Why should we care what this random woman thinks of being a whore?

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 12:05pm

*still waiting for some comments about Ruthie's Ellen*
I have not seen the show, would love to... not because of anything... but because its SO famous! I heard that the helicopter and the big sets were stopped now and projections were used instead for the UK tour!!! BUt apparently, the projections worked MUCH better! I might try to catch the tour sometime! But Starlight Express still top of my UK Tour lists!

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 1:04pm

Ruthie Henshall, who sang Ellen in the Complete Symphonic Recording, did indeed close the show along with Lea Salonga and Will Chase on January 28, 2001. I saw the closing performance and was absolutely sad to see the show close. At the very least, the show should have stayed open until April 2001, so that it reached the 10-year mark (the show opened on Broadway on April 11, 1991).

Out of the big three London poperas (LES MIZ and PHANTOM being the other two), MISS SAIGON remains my favorite because it is the most intimate. Putting aside the helicopter and all that scenery, which make shows produced today look absolutely amateurish, MISS SAIGON is a tragic love story, and a good one at that. Sure the plot and music are derivative, but it's not bombastic like LES MIZ and PHANTOM. The show should have enjoyed a longer run.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 1:59pm

all musicals do not have to be happy. Having lived through the Vietnam Era, I was truly moved by this show. I found the music and acting superb (saw it first run in Toronto April 26, 1994....just happened to have my ticket out).
A friend I went with who was much younger did not like it at all.....and both of us feel it was because she could not relate to the whoel Vietnam thing.
I saw it again in San Francisco in 1999 before we moved and loved it as much. It had a lot of the people from that original Toronto cast.......my partner had never seen it, and he was quite moved

[Mamie]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 6:11pm

That might have something to do with it - but it's definitely not the whole answer. I also lived through the Viet Nam period. I lived here in DC and I saw many friends go off to a war that none of us understood. I marched on the mall against the war and I knew a few of those names on The Wall personally. When I saw "Letters From Nam" workshopped at the Kennedy Center I cried like a baby. When I saw "Miss Saigon" on Broadway I was completely bored.

Personal taste? Who knows?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 6:50pm

How do regional theaters pull off the helicopter?
Also...How did this show do when it first openened? Good reviews? I've always wondered how the big pop operas of the 80 - early 90s did when they opened. did critics love this show? or was it like - don't shoot me - Wicked, where the audience loves it but the critics hate it, yet its still successful.

[mlsheehan]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 7:59pm

I have to say I can't believe this show played on Broadway as long as it did. When I saw it (well into the run, I believe it was the third or fourth cast), the audience actually laughed at the end. And if that was bad enough, there was a brief spurt of applause, as if to say, "thank god she's gone!"

The actor playing Chris couldn't stay on pitch and the whole production looked terribly tired with little energy. The Engineer tried to create sparks, but couldn't get the cast in gear. Yet, it still ran for several more years.

I have to say it was the most disappointing evening I've ever spent in a Broadway theatre.

I'm sure the show has it's merits. But even after all this time, I still don't want to listen to the album.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 9:33pm

Miss Saigon has a lot of problems, but I have a soft spot for it since it was the first Equity show I ever saw (and first "big" musical) back in 1995. It also rekindled my love for theatre because even though I'd been seeing community shows since I was 6, Miss Saigon was the first musical I ever had a huge interest in.

It also helped that the cast I saw was superb...and incidentally, I can't believe Jennifer Paz was still playing Kim nine years later!

[Practically Perfect]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 4:52am

I think that Cameron Mackintosh made the right decision to take the show off Broadway when he did. It was an amazing show (I saw the London production, which also closed when it was doing extremely well.) It's much better to go out on a high rather than be performing to a 30% full theatre for a few months and have the closing come as no surprise. Cameron knows what he's doing.

Mary P x

[scooter38432]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 7:21am

Count me among those who thought this show was lousy.
It had a couple of wonderful power ballads, and the phenomenal performance of Lea Salonga ... but that was about it.
I squirmed and laughed throughout.

"That marine wants his beer." still rings in my head as one of the worst written lines of music/lyrics ever to hit Broadway. Luckily, songs like "I Still Believe" (sort of) made up for it.

[Sant]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 10:18am

I agree with Mamie and RedHot. I just don't get it why this show was so successful. It was the opera MADAME BUTTERFLY with Les Mis -esque score!