don't presume you don't like musicals until you;ve seen this one
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Full review
I went to see Miss Saigon on Saturday 19th January 2002, at the palace theatre in Manchester. We had to go to the matinee because all of the evening performances were sold out. The palace theatre itself has recently undergone a development costing in excess of 300,000. There is a modern box office, different signage and front façade, new canopy, another kiosk and merchandise positions and a fully re-fitted pit bar. The surroundings looked and felt very elegant. The programme cost just £3.00 and they were on sale just as you walk through the entrance. The bar prices were a little steeper than I’d imagined them to be charging £1.00 for a small bottle of coca-cola. We sat in the stalls, which made us fairly level with the stage and suitably seated to see the performance at its best angle.
The people behind the stage and responsible for the technical side of things are as follows: Alain Boublil – Book, lyrics and original French lyrics Claude-Michel Schonberg – Conception, book and music Richard Maltby Jnr – Lyricist Cameron Mackintosh – Producer Nicholas Hytner – Director Bob Avian – Musical staging John Napier – Production Designer Andreane Neofitou – Costume Designer
Background
For those of you who aren’t familiar with where the tale comes from, A man by the name of John Luther Long had a story published in Century Magazine back in1897; That story was called Madame Butterfly. It is believed that Long had read a well-liked novel of that period called Madame Chrysantheme, which was written by a naval officer, Piere Loti. It was based on loti’s stay in Japan and told of his brief contract marriage to a geisha girl in Nagasaki. The feature in century magazine was such a success that American playwright and producer David Belasco created a one-act play also called Madame Butterfly. It premiered in New York in1900 and took the public by storm; a month later it was taken to London where it opened at the Duke of York’s theatre. Puccini was in London for the opening of TOSCA and went to see the play. He immediately realized it’s potential as an opera. On 17 February 1904 Puccini’s Madame Butterfly premiered at La Scala, Milan. Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Schonberg were first inspired by a photo, taken a few weeks before the fall of Saigon it was a picture of a woman giving up her baby at a Saigon airport in the anticipation of a new life for her child.
The Performance
The opening scene is set in a seedy looking bar/brothel in Saigon in 1975; the Engineer (played by Leo Tavarro Valdez) provides the comic relief the entire show. He is a great singer and has an extremely expressive way of performing (very camp.) He opens with a song, backed up by the girls and the marines, called “The heat is on in Saigon”. The dancing that the girls do is supposed to be sleazy, and there are some quite sordid routines in this part of the show, Kim (played by Ima Castro) is dragged into view of the audience, the actress who plays her is tiny, almost childlike and immediately you feel afraid for her. Her voice is amazingly big considering and she plays the part extremely well. Chris (played by Niklas Andersson), the lead male role in the show also has an incredibly powerful voice, he is a shy soldier and doesn’t seem interested in the Vietnamese nightlife, and however his friends decide to set him up anyway. The whole cast performed wonderfully and I was entranced the whole way through the show. The outline to the story is that the two of them fall in love, but unfortunately they are separated through no fault of their own. After many years of waiting they are re-united and the ending is not a happy one. I don’t want to give too much of the story away, I could very easily sit here and type out practically the whole thing because that is how great I thought it was, it has stuck in my head, every song, each scene, all filled with emotion and depth, but then that would spoil it for you, wouldn’t it? The staging and the effects of the lights and props were spectacular also, at one point a helicopter, full scale to a real one was in front of us, you have to see it to believe it. So I’ll finish just by saying that even if you’re not into musicals, give this one a try as you might surprise yourself.
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