‘Miss Saigon’ is a 1989 musical adaptation of the opera ‘Madame Butterfly’. After composer Claude-Michel Schonberg saw a picture of a Vietnamese woman making the ultimate sacrifice by leaving her child at an airport departure gate for them to go and live with their American father (an ex GI) in the United States, rather than staying in worn torn Vietnam, he was inspired by her actions and thus it became the central plot for ‘Miss Saigon’. Boublil and Schonberg relocated the action of ‘Madame Butterfly’ to Vietnam in the 1970’s amidst the American and Vietnamese war and told the love story of an American GI and a Vietnamese bargirl. 

When ‘Miss Saigon’ premiered it was billed as one of the most expensive musicals of all time with many never seen before technical elements including that of the now infamous Helicopter landing. The show premiered at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 20th September 1989, to financial and commercial success and ending up running in the West End for a decade. ‘Miss Saigon’ marked Boublil and Schonberg’s second hit after ‘Les Miserables’ and both have been enshrined in the musical theatre halls of history and are considered as two of the biggest juggernaut mega musicals. The production was directed by Nicholas Hytner, with musical staging by Bob Avian and scenic design by John Napier. Lea Salonga and Jonathan Pryce originated the roles of Kim and The Engineer, with both winning Oliviers for their work. 

The show transferred to Broadway with Salonga and Pryce bother reprising their roles. The creative team reunited for the transfer, and the show again opened to commercial and financial success again running on Broadway for a decade with Salonga and Pryce winning TONY awards for their work. The show enjoyed success internationally and with multiple American and UK tours. After producing the initial runs it was announced Cameron Mackintosh would produce a West End revival to coincide with the musicals 25th Anniversary to open at The Prince Edward theatre in 2014. After an extensive search it was announced that Eva Noblezada had won the role of Kim with actor Jon Jon Briones playing the engineer. Briones had played the role internationally before, but never on a scale as large as this. The production again was a success having reportedly broken a world record for opening day ticket sales in the excess of £4million. The production ran for two years before transferring to Broadway where Eva Noblezada, Jon Jon Briones, Alistair Brammer and Rachel Ann Go reprised their roles of Kim, The Engineer, Chris and Gigi respectively. The musical was a success on Broadway again having played in the theatre where it originally opened. 

‘Miss Saigon’ is still to this day, one of the most powerful musicals ever produced. We’re pretty sure a few of you might be totally in love with it, we know we are!

Cast recording available on Spotify and AppleMusic.

Also the documentaries “The heat is on in Saigon” and “The Heat is back on in Saigon” about the original and revival productions are available on YouTube as well as the DVD of the filmed 2014 London revival. 

FACTS:

Music: Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics: Alain Boublil, Richard Maltby Jr
Book: Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg

Theatre: 

Theatre Royal Drury Lane, West End

The Broadway Theatre, Broadway.

Run:

London: 20th September 1989 – 30th October 1999 (4,264 performances)

New York: 11th April 1991 – 28th January 2001 (4,092 performances) 

Awards:

TONYS.

(WON) Best performance by a leading actor in a musical – Jonathan Pryce, Best performance by a leading actress in a musical – Lea Salonga, Best performance by a featured actor in a musical – Hinton Battle. 

(NOMINATED) Best musical, Best book of a musical – Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, Best original score – Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Richard Maltby Jr, Best performance by a featured actor in a musical  – Willy Falk, Best choreography – Bob Avian, Best direction of a musical – Nicholas Hytner, Best Scenic Design – John Napier, Best lighting design – David Hersey. 

OLIVIERS

(WON) Best actor in a msucial – Jonathan Pryce, Best actress in a musical – Lea Salonga. 

(NOMINATED) Best Musical, Best director – Nicolas Hytner