REVIEW: MISS SAIGON (TOUR) @ MANCHESTER PALACE THEATRE

It was a full twenty-nine years ago that I sat in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane watching Lea Salonga lead the original company in Miss Saigon. The last of the 1980s mega-musicals, it was a feast for the eye and the ear. A glorious celebration of everything that was great about musical theatre. For some reason, even though the CD has been a constant on my playlist, my path has not crossed with the show since. I have quite literally missed Saigon. (See what I did there?) But now, courtesy of Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s latest tour I was able to reconnect with the show at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. But would it dim the rosy memories I have of triumphs three decades ago?

This production hails from a re-launch of the show in the West End back in 2014, and it remains a huge feat of storytelling. Visually it is just as lavish as it always was, telling the story of 17 year old Vietnamese girl Kim who finds herself through circumstance working at a bar presided over by The Engineer, a kind of pimp who will supply anything no matter how exotic to his clientele. It is here that a disillusioned US marine Chris falls for Kim, and with the communists days away from taking Saigon, he embarks on a hasty romance. But the tide of events overtakes them both and they are separated when the Americans evacuate Saigon and head home. The rest of the evening is concerned with Kim’s attempts to reunite Chris with herself and the son he doesn’t know he has. 

 

Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg proved they were no one hit wonders after the global success of Les Miserables, by giving us another of the all time great musical scores. From the sweaty urgency of “The Heat Is On” through the searing duet “The Last Night Of The World” and the anthemic “Bui Doi” the score bristles with memorable moments which tug at the heart strings. It is first rate material. Luckily they have a cast that can deliver.

Sooha Kim as Kim

Sooha Kim gives us a Kim who face radiates innocence and unswerving belief that Chris will return for her. She is at her absolute best when she finds that Chris is now married, the light fading in her eyes as the harsh truth hits her. Sooha naturally has a fine, strong voice which drives home the emotion of her material particularly when given a chance to shine solo as in “I’d Give My Life To You”.

 Red Concepción  and company

Balancing the high emotion of Kim’s plight, is the role of The Engineer. Slippery and sinister in equal measure, The Engineer has one goal. To get a visa and depart for America. He manipulates the situation around him to achieve his ambition, swiftly grabbing opportunities as they are presented. Red Concepción gives a multi-faceted performance making the most of the comic opportunities for the character whilst still conveying the desperation of his situation. The big show stopping number “The American Dream” gives him a tour-de-force chance to shine. He grasps it with panache.

At the performance I saw, the understudy Chris was on show. Vinny Coyle is a tall and vocally excellent performer, who delivers Chris’ heart break and turmoil to great effect. His scenes falling for Kim felt utterly real. I last saw Ryan O’Gorman being brilliant as Collins in Rent, and here he is providing another bravura performance as John. O'Gorman's rendition of “Boi Doi” is outstanding and one of the highlights of the evening. We also had the understudy Ellen, Emily Beth Harrington, who possesses a gorgeous clear singing voice as Chris’ new wife Ellen, served with the aftermath of events three years previously and caught between Chris and Kim. Na-Young Jeon similarly shines as bar girl Gigi whose “Movie In My Mind” encapsulates perfectly the fate of so many Vietnamese girls trapped in the horrors of war. The lead cast is completed by Gerald Santos as Thuy, promised to Kim by their fathers but now rejected in favour of Chris. Santos gives us hurt and then rage as he struggles to come to terms with the situation. His ultimate fate is sealed with a powerful vocal which heightened the drama on cue.

Despite the glorious leads, this is still very much an ensemble show. With a cast of 39 playing an assortment of soldiers and Vietnamese, the spectacle of the show is hard to beat. As sets slide in and out, and lighting changes and shimmers to create varying moods, the audience are swept up in a rollercoaster of storytelling which tour director Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy and legendary choreographer Bob Avian whip up into an evening of theatrical brilliance.  A word too for the 15 strong orchestra conducted by James Wycherley,  their lyrical playing on this complex score sounded magnificent. An orchestra of this quality in full flight is worth the admission price alone,  Boublil and Schönberg should be proud that their work is played to this standard every night.

Miss Saigon feels as fresh and relevant today as it did nearly 30 years ago.  This is due to the huge production values lavished on the show by Sir Cameron but also sadly in our knowledge that the horrors of war have not diminished in the interim.  It remains one of the great lynchpins of popular theatre.  If it truly is 'the last night of the world', you could do worse than spend it in the company of Miss Saigon.

UK Tour details at www.miss-saigon.com

REVIEW: THE LAST SHIP (TOUR) @ LIVERPOOL PLAYHOUSE THEATRE

When Sting’s musical The Last Ship closed on Broadway after only four months amid huge losses for the producers,  the sneering onlookers were only too ready to take a swipe at the multi-millionaire pop performer ‘playing’ at theatre.  But what they actually missed in their desire to cut the legend down to size, was the fact that he might well have created one of the all-time great British musicals.

Three years later and finally British audiences get to see the show about their own fair country.  In the interim director Lorne Campbell had taken apart the book.  Re-arranged the order of the songs,  elbowed a major character from the original, changed the gender of another and added some political commentary that would resonate deeply with home audiences.  Along the way the production also lost its original leading man Jimmy Nail, who quite literally jumped ship. 

The piece is set in the Teeside ship building community of the 1980s.  Just like the mining industry,  government forces gather to squeeze the shipyard to breaking point. On the eve of a showdown meeting Gideon Fletcher (Richard Fleeshman) returns to the home he abandoned for the sea some 17 years previously. There he had left his sweetheart Meg Dawson (Frances McNamee) at the quayside promising to return for her.  Naturally the decade and a half interim has not put Miss Dawson in good humour.  She also springs the surprise that Gideon left behind him a daughter Ellen (Katie Moore).  Meanwhile shipyard Foreman Jackie White is presiding over a meeting with yard boss Freddy Newland (Sean Kearns) and the Thatcher-esque minister Baroness Tynedale (Penelope Woodman).  It does not go well.  The assembled workers are told there is little future in the shipyard,  it is not economical in the current market place and to expect to sell the currently berthed half built ship Utopia as scrap metal.  In the face of such a bleak outlook,  the workers and their families take control of the situation and barricade themselves in.  Intending to finish the building of the Utopia and launching it onto the River Tees thereby gaining maximum publicity for their struggle.

Along the way of course there are personal battles to overcome.  Gideon tries to forge a relationship with the daughter he never knew he had,  and Jackie White faces an altogether more deadly foe.  It is somewhere in the hinterland between the community battle and the personal fights that this show finds the heart strings of its audience. Sting’s accomplished folk music score stands up proud alongside Blood Brothers and Billy Elliot in conveying the solidarity of these proud people. From the opening defiant jig “We’ve Got Nowt Else” to the beauty of Gideon’s lament for his father “Dead Man’s Boots”, it is a score of passion and quiet rage.  Frances McNamee provides a showstopping vocal with “If You Ever See Me Talking To A Sailor” which the rest of the cast never quite match.  Joe McGann, whilst lacking  Jimmy Nail’s earthy charisma,  brings a weary stoicism to Jackie White with Charlie Hardwick on fine form as his devoted wife Peggy.  Richard Fleeshman manages to provide a ‘stars in your eyes’ Sting vocal to his role as Gideon,  and Katie Moore presides over the evening as an ethereal Ellen, whipping in and out of the action as the narration demands it.  The ensemble is a very strong one, the movement in the show (it is not really dance) adding to the sense of mounting tension over the evolving events.  Kevin Wathen as alcoholic dock worker Davey Harrison was largely unintelligible to this ear, and diction might be a useful addition to his performance. The band led by musical director Richard John need a word of praise,  the joyous sound of folk music pervaded the entire evening and sent the audience home humming the tunes thanks to the lyrical talents of the gang of five in the pit. The use of projection designed by Fifty Nine Productions also added to the overall impressive atmosphere.

Lorne Campbell has created a show that perhaps could lose 15 minutes without diluting the drama, but gives another savage swipe at the politics of the Conservative led 1980s. By the final speech,  the audience were cheering the all too familiar fury against capitalism over community and when the fight to save the NHS is mentioned, well of course every person in the theatre is included in the struggle. The message being that there is strength in our community and you do not have to accept the hand that fate serves you or wants you to have.  It is a message that is powerfully and beautifully performed in The Last Ship. The heartfelt standing ovation said it all. Set sail whilst you can.

See the official website for tour dates:  www.thelastshipmusical.co.uk