After all, I stay in Saigon and this is an interesting trivia for anybody who would ask, is Miss Saigon story truly from Saigon?
I decided to make a page dedicated to the creation of the Miss Saigon musicale of 1989 as a tribute to the coalition of many artistic talents to bring this to stage. The videos show the pre-Miss Saigon, the vision, the hard work, the ingenuity, the poignant lyrics.
Miss Saigon’s inception started in Provence, France in a meeting with the brilliant musical artists Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil and Cameron Mckintosh, the American producer.
They went to New York, California, Hawaii and the Philippines in search of the lead singing actress for the role of Kim. Their patience paid off when coming to Manila, they found very good contenders for the main and other roles. Lea Salonga and Monique Wilson, both 18 years old then, were the two major candidates as Kim. The role ended up to Ms. Lea Salonga. The team of Cameron Mckintosh also found some Filipino singing actors for the other roles.
Note: These 5-part video of the Making of Miss Saigon was also produced by Mr. Cameron Mckintosh, producer of the Miss Saigon musicale.
The story of Miss Saigon was inspired by the works of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly. The plot centered on a Kim, a Vietnamese girl who meets an American soldier towards the end of the war. The girl was promised of a new life in America but the promise was not realized. The musicale ends in a tragic decision of Kim to end her life and let her son be brought to America by her estranged lover so her son will have a better life.
The first Miss Saigon made its world preview on the 20th of September 1989 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
The Original West End Cast
Kim – Lea Salonga
The Engineer – Jonathan Pryce
Christ – Simon Bowman
John – Peter Polycarpou
Ellen – Claire Moore
Thuy – Keith Burns
Gigi – Isay Alvarez
Tam – Allen Evangelista, Wasseem Hamdan, David Platt
Alternate Kim – Monique Wilson
Music – Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil
Lyrics – Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr.
I got the list of the lead cast from Wikipedia. But watching the Making of Miss Saigon, there are many names missing.
Miss Saigon ran for a decade in the West End with more than 4,000 performances.
The re-staging of Miss Saigon hauled many awards early this year in the 15th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards. Miss Saigon 2016 stars JonJon Briones, Eva Noblezada and Chris Peluso. To date, there were 8 Filipinas who have played Kim in Miss Saigon.
Along Le Thanh Ton 