“Miss Saigon” Puccini’s beloved opera Madame Butterfly…
Miss Saigon, based on Puccini’s beloved opera Madame Butterfly, owes its fame to the talented Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.
The inspiration for the show was a photograph that caught Schönberg’s attention, revealing a Vietnamese mother leaving her child at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, from where the child would join its ex-GI father for a better, safer life in the USA. The woman’s agony shone through the photo, and Schönberg was profoundly affected by her despair as she made the ultimate sacrifice, a theme which sits at the heart of the show’s plot.
The orphaned 17 year old barmaid, Kim, spends a night with Chris, an American soldier fighting in war-torn 1970s Vietnam. The evacuation of Saigon tears them apart. Unknown to Chris, Kim is pregnant with his son, but Chris makes it safely back to the States and marries Ellen, assuming Kim is dead. What happens when they meet, by chance, in Bangkok?
If it sounds like high drama, it is. The story mirrors similar tales of love and loss in every country in the world, across countless wars, throughout eons of human history, in an age-old pattern with universal themes: politics drives men to kill, lives are destroyed, women and children suffer.
The original premiered in late September 1989 and played more than 4000 times before closing a decade later in October 1999. Its decade-long Broadway run was equally successful and the show has toured the world ever since. This fresh revival of one of the best-loved musicals ever, marking its 25 year anniversary, is set to bring tears to the eyes of a new generation of musical lovers. And it will doubtless delight those lucky theatregoers who saw it the first time around just as much as the original.
Cameron Mackintosh’s revival is a reimagined version with a new song, Maybe, and this run marks the first time the song has been performed in English.
Booking from: Saturday, 3 May 2014
Booking until: Saturday, 27 February 2016
Age restrictions
Suitable for ages 12+
Miss Saigon – Prince Edward Theatre
28 Old Compton Street, London, W1D 4HS