REVIEW: Miss Saigon, Mayflower Theatre

By Hilary Porter

CAMERON Mackintosh's acclaimed production of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical Miss Saigon has landed in Southampton and it is epic!

From the 19 trucks that carry the extraordinary set, the full-grown helicopter that airlifts the Americans from the US Embassy in Saigon, to the gravitas and scale of human emotions this tragedy evokes, this production packs a punch as big as anything on the West End and Broadway.

The original show ran for more than ten years at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane throughout the 1990s. The revised 25th anniversary production ran at the Prince Edward Theatre 2014- 16 and it's this super-charged juggernaut that is thrilling audiences at the Mayflower until March 17 on its UK tour.

Based on the story of Puccini's 1903 opera Madama Butterfly, the show charts the horrendous human fallout of the Vietnam war. There is man's inhumanity to man but man's sexual exploitation of women that comes with military, political or economic power is far more harrowing.

Set during the desperate last days of the Vietnam War, 17 year-old orphan Kim is forced to work in a Saigon bar run by the notorious pimp the Engineer. On her first night, she meets and falls in love with American GI Chris but they are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. For three years Kim battles to survive and find her way back to Chris, who has no idea he's fathered a son.

The themes of war and displacement and the unsettling references to The American Dream resonate as strongly as ever today and the show cleverly juxtaposes feelings of doom and darkness with the razzmatazz of fabulous dancer-singers and a powerfully sung through drama.

The principals are all exceptional but none more so than 18-year-old Joreen Bautista who played the role of Kim on press night:utterly believable, she perfectly captured the innocent, passionate and ultimately tragic lover, whilst Ashley Gilmour proved an equally perfect match. Their beautiful combined vocals on romantic duets - Sun and Moon and The Last Night of the World brought light and shade to the desperate scenes that followed.

Schönberg’s superb score also offered light relief in the Engineer's If You Want To Die In Bed and The American Dream despite the malevolent undercurrent, and actor Red Concepcion played an Engineer that could be sleazy, sinister, vicious and twisted but also a captivating, Fagan-like showman who played to the audience with perfectly timed jokes and winks.

Other standout tear-jerking moments are Kim's I’d Give My Life For You , and her duet of Movie in My Mind with Kristine Diaz, who plays fellow bar girl Gigi. Colour and variety comes in the raucous, sexy numbers of the Engineer’s clubs in Saigon and Bangkok with gyrating scantily clad girls, and the choral stomp of the Ho Chi Minh revolutionary guard in The Morning of the Dragon so reminiscent of the synchronised military marching of North Korean dictators.

A film of the Bui Doi – the children of liaisons between US soldiers and Vietnamese – “The living reminder of all the good we failed to do” also makes you gulp hard.

Miss Saigon runs at the Mayflower until Saturday, March 17. To book tickets, visit website mayflower.org.uk or call the box office on 02380 711811.