Miss Saigon

It was a busy weekend. On Saturday I was climbing Mt Beerwah, then on Sunday it was off to see Miss Saigon at QPAC. It turned out to be another good day, and an excellent performance.


It's been a long time since I've been to a show like this. The last one was Stomp, about this time last year. The theatre isn't a place I spend a lot of time. I'm glad I went to see this one, though.

The story is set in Saigon, starting at the end of the Vietnam war and following the lives of Kim and Chris over the next few years. I didn't know much about the story going into the show, except that it was a love story. I didn't expect a happy ending, though.

The action starts in a Saigon bar/brothel. Chris is there, with a few other US soldiers. He's having a bit of an emotional crisis when he meets Kim, a Vietnamese girl who's fled the countryside looking for safety in the city. They fall in love, but are almost immediately separated by the fall of Saigon. This sets up all the tragedies that follow in both their lives, until we finally witness their reunion.

The desparation of the girls in Saigon is clearly shown, as well as their opinion of the US soldiers they entertain. Personally, I don't think this situation has changed much in Asia, although circumstances are not as desperate now as they were then. There are still plenty of girls working in places like that all across Asia, still getting taken advantage of by tourists and the bar owners. And they probably still despise their customers, while also looking for the one who might marry them and take them out of there. As the Engineer says repeatedly in the show, men are always the same.

One of my favourite sequences from the show was the American Dream, sung by the Engineer. It was funny, cynical, and well executed. The striptease by the animated Statue of Liberty shown on the screen above the stage drove the point home.

The show was very well done. The set changes were very smoothly done. The pace of the set changes was pretty fast, so doing it all so smoothly was very impressive. The cast were great - the singing was passionate, and high quality. And, as the Brisbane Times review pointed out, the guys looked suitably buff when they took their shirts off!

Overall it was a powerful performance. The story alone is powerful, and almost had me in tears at the end. Combine that with the excellent performances, music and sets, it becomes an experience I'll remember for a long time.