By James Murphy
In 1989, Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg followed on from the musical theatre misery on the ramparts of revolutionary Paris in Les Miserables with the tragedy that occurred during the Vietnam War in Saigon just as the city was about to fall in Miss Saigon. In the three-and-a-half decades since its West End debut, the polarising work has eclipsed the success of My Fair Lady, while attracting protests ahead of its Broadway debut and consistently since. While opinions remain divided on the work’s depictions of Vietnamese and Asian peoples, and US imperialism, there’s no denying the quality of GWB’s latest production which stars a diverse and entirely Australian cast.
Miss Saigon, an adaptation of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, begins at the brothel, Dreamland, of the Engineer, played by non-binary X-Factor and Eurovision star Seann Miley Moore. G.I’s Chris (Nigel Huckle) and John (Lewis Francis) contemplate the impending of the war in their own ways: Chris is morose, Joe is debauched. The Engineer crowns and pimps the sex workers under his control, including the popular Gigi (Kimberley Hodgson) and 17-year-old Kim (Abigail Adriano), who is working her first night. Kim’s village has been burned, and her family killed. Chris, who, unlike Pinkerton in Butterfly is painted as a sympathetic character, “saves” Kim from all the other men, yet sleeps with her in exchange for money, like all the other men would have done. Saigon falls. Chris leaves Kim and, unbeknown to him, his son, behind. Three years pass: Chris is married to Ellen (Helpmann Award winner Kerrie-Anne Greenland); Kim is destitute but holding out hope for his return, while her senior communist official Thuy seeks to win her love, with force if necessary.
One criticism of Miss Saigon is its characterisation as a love story. Chris and Kim do transition from disinterest to infatuation rapidly. This perhaps could be explained by the fog of war, the troops at the gates. Love-at-first-sight is not uncommon in musical theatre: “Maria, I’ve just met a girl named Maria.” Given the power imbalance, though, and the well documented phenomenon of US soldiers leaving a legacy of children behind following foreign deployment, it is potentially more appropriately characterised as an abuse story or a colonialist tragedy. The other predominant objections are the sexualisation of Asian women and the perpetuation of the white saviour myth: escaping to America is painted as a better life without sufficient exploration of the inverse: remaining in your homeland but that homeland no longer being subject to colonial or communist oppression.
Leaving those objections aside, GWB’s latest production, with its casting, has ensured that all major roles and much of the ensemble are Asian-Australians; Jonathon Pryce famously/infamously played the Engineer in yellow face with eye prosthetics. In an interview with the Financial Review, Miley Moore states that the female characters in Saigon accurately depict the resilience of his sisters and aunties. As the Engineer, SMM garners the biggest curtain call applause. Their rendition of The American Dream before a decapitated Stature of Liberty is a highlight, as is Huckle’s soaring ‘Why God Why?”, Greenland’s ‘Maybe’ and this productions ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, Hodgson and Adriano’s ‘The Movie in My Mind’. Adriano consistently induces goose bumps when she sings; she has tapped into the raw tragedy of her role. Both Saigon and Les Mis explore the cognitive narratives, the escapist fantasies, the rocks we hold on to escape despair; and what happens when those life rafts are taken away. Adriano represents this downward arc exceptionally.
As with any Cameron Mackintosh and GWB production, the sets and costumes are mouth dropping. Yes, there’s a helicopter and no, you are probably not quite prepared for how spectacular this will be. There are red light district neon signs and smooth and seamless Saigon street set shifts. Saigon doesn’t have the popular culture infiltrating, show stopping songs of Les Mis, but it is packed with big belting sings and the cast rise to the vocal demands.
As conflicts rage at an almost unprecedented rate, in Gaza, Myanmar, Ukraine and more, Miss Saigon is a timely opportunity to reflect on the darkness that can emerge from the shadows in times like these but, also, on the resilience of spirit that can emerge from the darkest places.
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