Turning an opera into a musical is a fairly common thing to do. The late Jonathan Larson used La Boheme as the inspiration for Rent. Oscar Hammerstein II used Bizet’s music from Carmen for his show Carmen Jones. Elton John and Tim Rice used Verdi’s Aida as the inspiration for, of course, their version of Aida. And the creative team behind Les Misérables, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, along with Richard Maltby, Jr., used Puccini’s Madama Butterfly as the inspiration for Miss Saigon. The touring production of the 2017 Broadway revival is now playing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through August 11th. The show will return in October for two weeks at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa.
Miss Saigon sets the story of a young girl who falls in love with a soldier in Vietnam. Kim (Emily Bautista at most performances; Myra Molloy at others) works for an insidious man at a club named The Engineer (Red Concepcíon). He puts on a “contest” called Miss Saigon with the winner to be the prize for a Marine. One of those Marines, Chris (Anthony Festa) becomes smitten with Kim and after a night of sex (her first time), he offers to bring her to America. When he leaves Vietnam, due to the imminent fall of Saigon, he goes without taking her. She holds out hope that he will one day return for her and honor his promise.
Three years go by and lot has changed for both Chris and Kim. When they are reunited those changes lead to a tragic ending that won’t be revealed here. (Not everyone knows Madama Butterfly – no reason to give it all away.)
The original production opened in London in 1989. It was soon followed by a Broadway production in 1991. In both productions, Lea Salonga played Kim and Jonathan Pryce played The Engineer. They both were awarded the Olivier Award and the Tony Award for their performances. In the 2017 revival, Eva Nobelzada (who is currently in Hadestown) played Kim and Jon Jon Briones played The Engineer.
Musical staging and choreography for this production is by Bob Avian, who collaborated with Michael Bennett on A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls and more. He was the original choreographer of Miss Saigon.
Laurence Connor is the director of this production, as he was of the revival. He was also the director for new productions of Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera.
It should be noted that Michael Mahler is also credited with additional lyrics.
For tickets at the Pantages go here.
Tickets at Segerstrom Hall had not gone at sale at press time.
Main Photo: Anthony Festa & Emily Bautista in “Miss Saigon” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)