Direct from its smash London run, Cameron Mackintosh's stunning new production of Boublil and Schonberg's legendary musical Miss Saigon lands on Broadway in March, 2017, featuring its acclaimed stars Eva Noblezada and Jon Jon Briones.
Set in 1975 during the final days of the American occupation of Saigon, Miss Saigon is an epic love story about the relationship between an American GI and a young Vietnamese woman. Orphaned by war, 17-year-old Kim is forced to work as a bar girl in a sleazy Saigon nightclub, owned by a notorious wheeler-dealer known as "The Engineer." John, an American GI, buys his friend Chris the services of Kim for the night- a night that will change their lives forever.
Don't miss this "thrilling, soaring and spectacular" (The Times of London) musical when it returns to Broadway this spring for a limited engagement.
To be fair, the American figures are just as laughable and flat as their Vietnamese counterparts (let's not forget that Frenchmen wrote this and the British produced it). Les Misérables is also broad and melodramatic, but a better source and greater historical distance mitigates its sanctimonious patches. However, like Les Miz, Miss Saigon is ultimately stranded between extremes of cynicism and idealism: the Engineer's cartoonish hunger for American-style excess versus Kim's bland, maternal purity. What's lost in between is humanity or ambiguity, songs to tell us more about the characters' past, their quirks or inner nuances. Instead, stereotyped villains and victims shout-sing at each others' faces or collapse and bellow, 'Nooooo!' (twice). Diversity on Broadway should be celebrated, but give actors of color characters we all can care about.
Stylistically, 'Miss Saigon' is a remnant of the bombastic, spectacle-driven, opera-meets-rock English mega-musicals that conquered Broadway in the '80s and '90s, such as 'Les Miz' and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Cats' and 'Phantom.' But as a piece of political theater that depicts Americans involved in a disastrous foreign war, cultural misunderstanding, the difficulties of emigrating to the U.S. as a refugee and the pursuit of success through shameless exploitation, 'Miss Saigon' is more relevant and heartbreaking today than when it premiered on Broadway in 1991 at the same theater.
1989 | West End |
Original London Production West End |
1991 | Broadway |
Broadway Production Broadway |
2002 | US Tour |
Big League Productions US Tour |
2002 | Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
Paper Mill Production Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
2004 | UK Tour |
Touring Revival UK Tour |
2014 | West End |
West End Revival West End |
2017 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
2018 | US Tour |
US Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actress in a Musical | Rachelle Ann Go |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Miss Saigon |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Broadway's Backbone Best Musical Ensemble | Miss Saigon |
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Jon Jon Briones |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Eva Noblezada |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Miss Saigon |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Miss Saigon |
2017 | Theatre World Awards | Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance | Jon Jon Briones |
2017 | Theatre World Awards | Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance | Eva Noblezada |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Eva Noblezada |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Miss Saigon |
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