Miss Saigon
Show: Miss Saigon
Venue: Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Date: 20th January 2018
Director: Laurence Connor
Music: Claude-Michel Schönberg (music) & Alain Boubill (lyrics)
Producer: Sir Cameron Mackintosh
Starring: Sooha Kim (Kim), Red Concepción (The Engineer), Ashley Gilmour (Chris), Ryan O’Gorman (John) & Zoë Doano (Ellen)
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My feelings about this show are pretty mixed. I’d definitely go as far as to say that I liked it, and am glad to have seen it, but wouldn’t say I loved it. Despite enjoying going to the theatre fairly often, my experience of musicals is admittedly somewhat lacking, but based on that limited experience, I’d say there are generally two types: A play with songs, as it were, in which the characters have normal conversations and the musical numbers are integrated into the story (akin to Singin’ in the Rain, which incidentally I saw and adored at the end of last year); and a continuous musically driven show, in which every single line is sung and accompanied by music, even simple exchanges between the more defined songs. Miss Saigon falls very firmly into the latter type, which as a concept just sadly doesn’t wholly work for me.
Personally, I find that when every single line is sung, the show can’t escape an inevitably cheesy feeling. I mean, nothing kills the tension of someone having a gun held to their head if their attacker is singing threats at them in a high falsetto… This is of course purely personal preference, and fans of this style of show will no doubt love Miss Saigon fall all its musical melodrama.
Aside from the structure, I had a few other slight niggles with the story itself. Namely, the insta-love between Kim and Chris (seriously, they made Romeo and Juliet’s romance look slow and considered). It was also a lot… let’s say… raunchier than I realised. I’m not a prude, but I knew very little about the story going in, and suffice it to say there were some children in the audience whose parents I suspect were feeling a tad awkward at certain moments.
But, I have to say that twenty minutes or so into the show, once I had settled into the swing of the characters literally singing everything at each other, I was really drawn in, and there was a lot to enjoy. Lead performer, Sooha Kim, was excellent as the story’s tragic heroine, and she was able to easily avoid the cheese-factor that can plague a lot of theatre-style singers (no offence intended to others, of course). Red Conceptión (what a fabulous name!) was also great, and added a brilliant note of humour throughout. Whilst the intermittent exchanges being sung may have niggled me, the stand-out, properly choreographed and clearly defined numbers were slick and performed wonderfully by all.
Sooha Kim and Red Concepción
The set design was very good, and staging changes were handled effortlessly, but it was the sound design that really stood out to me – You really could believe that gunshots were ringing out and helicopters were looming overhead. I also have to give props to the orchestra (lead by James McKeon). As I said, the entire show (over two hours, excluding the interval) was constantly driven by music, with virtually no respite, and it was performed seamlessly.
The story in general I liked, and it certainly had some powerful moments. Though stylistically Miss Saigon may not have been my favourite kind of show, I could recognise and appreciate its appeal, and thought this particular production was put on to an incredibly high standard.
Callum McLaughlin 
great review, Callum
Much appreciated.
Fantastic review! I have a lot of mixed feelings about Miss Saigon… I first discovered it many years ago and instantly fell in love with the music and story, but it’s one of those things where I like it more on a nostalgic/sentimental level than on an intellectual one. So I completely concur with your criticisms of the story. But I’m glad you mostly enjoyed it regardless!
But it’s interesting that you dislike sung-through musicals, because I’m the opposite! For me it feels cornier and more unbelievable when actors are having a spoken conversation and then burst into choreographed song and dance, than when the music is ingrained into the narrative? For some reason it actually helps me suspend my disbelief when music is already built into the logic of the story. But as you say, it’s totally a personal preference thing. And it definitely varies on a show by show basis for me… my two favorite musicals are Les Mis and Merrily We Roll Along – Les Mis is sung-through, Merrily is not, and each works so well with its own method, I can see the pros and cons of each style.
That’s a very good point, and I can totally get that. I’ve seen so few musicals (on stage and on screen) that I definitely need to try more to see which style works best overall for me. So far, I’d definitely say non sung-through, but that’s based purely on loving two that aren’t. Interestingly though, they both explain the musical numbers in the story: Singin’ in the Rain is about a film studio making a musical, so the majority of the songs are in-universe ones; and Dancer in the Dark (the Björk movie) makes it clear that the musical sections take place purely in the main character’s head, as she uses music like daydreams to escape the stresses of her life.
Like you, I think I’d find it really cheesy if the songs didn’t make sense in terms of the narrative, and actors suddenly burst into a dance routine with no explanation.
It’ll be interesting to see how I feel about the comparison between the two styles as I try out more examples of both!
That totally makes sense when you explain it like that. It’s definitely key that the music serves some kind of purpose beyond the creative team just feeling like setting the story to music. You could argue that Miss Saigon kind of falls into that trap – the integration of music is never really justified or terribly necessary to the narrative? I’ve never minded it or even thought about it critically before because I like a lot of the musical numbers in MS and I think the music does heighten a lot of the show’s powerful moments, but I imagine if you go into the show not knowing much about it, ‘why are they singing everything’ could be a legitimate question that you take away from it. I honestly think they only chose to make it as a musical because it’s adapted from the opera Madama Butterfly, so the musical medium seemed like a logical step.
That’s a very good point, and I’m all the more keen to see Madama Butterfly now that I’ve seen Miss Saigon.
The more I reflect on it, the more I see its merits, so I think a little more experience of musicals in general will go a long way to helping me get into the swing of them.
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