The return of “Miss Saigon” inevitably changes the discourse around it.
Claude-Michel Schoenberg’s musical melodrama about the ill-fated romance between a Vietnamese sex worker and an American soldier during the Vietnam War has been polarizing since its 1989 premiere. The original West End production featured Jonathan Pryce as a mixed-race prostitute who wore yellowface and played a role, and the show’s critics criticized its portrayal of East Asian peoples, particularly the vulgar sex of Vietnamese women. continue to express concern about the portrayal of
So when the Crucible Theater in Sheffield, England, announced that it would stage a new production of ‘,’ not everyone was happy.Miss Saigon” This summer. British East and South East Asian theater companies took over their show Protests were raised from the theater, saying that the musical was being sold.Harmful metaphors, misogyny, and racism”
But this new production (directed by Robert Hasty and Anthony Lau under the auspices of acclaimed producer Cameron Mackintosh and running until August 19) addresses these longstanding criticisms and reimagines the musical. The boycott may have been unjustified because it was intended to In keeping with the liberal sensibilities of the 21st century.
The outline of the story, which was heavily influenced by Puccini’s 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, remains largely unchanged. Chris (the hopelessly mean Christian Maynard) meets and falls in love with Kim (Jessica Lee) at a brothel, but their relationship ends abruptly when American troops withdraw from Saigon. Three years later, Chris, married to an American woman, discovers he has a young son with Kim. Kim tragically took her own life so that her children could be raised by American fathers and have a better life than she could afford.
However, the look and feel of the play has changed. First of all, there is casting. The Engineer’s previous male role, the plot pimp whose plot provides much of the narrative’s driving force, is here played by Joanna Ampil, who played Kim in two 1990s theatres, in an appropriately cheeky and pantomime. I am playing with the vitality of Theater Royal Drury Lane in London. Chris and his wife Ellen (Shaney Holmes) are played by black, not white, actors. This feels a bit gimmicky because while Chris manages to avoid some of the weight associated with being a “white savior”, it’s his American passport that really matters to the plot. .
More importantly, Ben Stones’ brilliant set design eschews the clichéd visual imagery associated with this show. The action unfolds around a striking industrial staircase against the backdrop of a large dark gray metal screen cut with geometric patterns, with a forbidden backdrop that evokes a decidedly sentimental urban landscape, often seen in movies. Very different from the idyllic vision of rural bamboo huts seen. “Miss Saigon” work.
Lee does an excellent job as Kim, giving her a dignified stoic that imbues her sad ballads with pathos despite the objectively corny music. Neither she nor the groups that support her in her brothel are overtly sexualized. They are just humans doing what they have to do to survive.
Director Hasty and Lau filed a lawsuit for By “reshaping and transforming” the problematic narrative rather than eliminating it entirely, and making a few adjustments to the libretto with Schoenberg’s blessing, they are making this ever-controversial musical relatively I managed to create a classy and humane version.
But it’s hard to shake off the suspicion that Orientalist kitsch was essential to the show’s commercial appeal. Remove the exotic unfamiliar attitude and you have essentially a love triangle with immigration paperwork. It’s still a heartbreaking tale, but is it as spectacular as it is?
The crowd in Manchester, 40 miles away, are enjoying themselves. ”Untitled Fuck Ma Su Gon Play‘, which runs until 22 July at the Royal Exchange Theater as part of the Manchester International Festival before moving to London’s Young Vic in September, is as irreverent as its title suggests.
Written by New York-based playwright Kimber Lee and directed by Roy Alexander Wise, the film features a series of frenzied developments in the stories of “Madame Butterfly” and “Miss Saigon.” , Kim’s character (May Mack) is repeated several times. They repeatedly endure the same abuse at the hands of a white-haired savior (Tom Weston-Jones) as the narrator (Rochelle Rose) delivers deliberately sardonic commentary.
The series of sketches begins in 1906 (the year Madame Butterfly premiered in New York) and ends in Vietnam in the mid-70s (where Miss Saigon was set). Along the way you’ll meet pop culture touchstones like Rogers and Hammerstein. Such as the musical “South Pacific” and the TV series “M*A*S*H”.
It’s vulgar, with Orientalist elements crammed for comical effect within Kim’s absurdly doll-like passivity and the general “hut-like dwelling” in which the romance unfolds. A playful pastiche. “The whole place looks like Pier 1 and Cost Plus,” quips the narrator, quipping, “There’s a tripartite relationship with IKEA, and this shack is their bastard half-breed.”
Kim’s American lover speaks to Kim in a gibberish made up of various Asian words such as bulgogi, sashimi and rice balls, which is translated into English by a narrator. 1990s.
Things take a fictional turn as the setting shifts to a dinner party in modern-day New York. Kim is now a struggling playwright, shouldering the burden of resisting decades of racist caricatures on stage and in film. At this point, his fun wears off somewhat, giving way to his essayistic self-exploration.
Kim’s mother, Rosie (Lourdes Faber), delivers a passionate monologue on behalf of first-generation immigrants, explaining that the callousness was something they had to come to terms with. She isn’t too keen on her daughter, she just wants her to live her own life. Her friends begged Kim to reconcile with her past and reminded her that American society has come a long way. I would love to stay here. Not so bad, right? ”
This is a lively, entertaining, and intelligent show, but the loss of momentum in the second half exposes the limitations of activist theater, where revision is the primary creative impulse. In other words, once you’ve made your case, there’s nowhere else to go.
In this respect, “Untitled Fuck M*ss S*gon Play” shares similarities with the new “Miss Saigon.” The show’s moral and aesthetic merit derives largely from its omissions, such as offensive caricatures and vulgar fetishism. rather than what is included.
These works serve as valuable cultural retouches. But the drive to sanitize problematic content is ultimately a matter of commercial self-preservation. Big brands like ‘Miss Saigon’ are too lucrative to be allowed to die.
Having lost its relevance, the musical is doomed to the afterlife of well-meaning but slightly boring remakes as it slowly and inexorably fades into oblivion.
