By Kathryn Olsen
Salt Lake City‘s Eccles Theater often plays host to shows in unfamiliar landscapes and Broadway at the Eccles‘ Miss Saigon is currently telling a familiar tale in the setting of “a life where nothing seems real.” Based on Giacomo Puccini‘s Madame Butterfly, this 1989 classic of modern theater was penned by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, and Richard Maltby Jr. It was the second collaboration between Schonberg and Boubil, following their award-winning composition of Les Miserables, and this visionary love story set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War won three Tony awards for its original Broadway run. I, myself, have loved the music and story since high school and looked forward to seeing it on-stage for the first time.
Inside the popular Saigon nightclub Dreamland, Vietnamese women prepare to entertain and entice American GIs who might help them escape their war-torn land. Kim (Emily Bautista), a war orphan, is touted as especially attractive by the Engineer (Red Concepcion). When the women put on the show, Chris (Anthony Festa) is entranced by the innocence of this new arrival and is given one night with Kim by his best friend John (J. Daughtry). Rather than a one-night stand, this becomes a relationship akin to marriage. But when the military evacuates, Chris is unable to take Kim with him and it is not until years later that what he left behind comes back to haunt him.
Bautista boldly tackles the role in an entrancing way. Her vocals belie the timid character at the play’s opening, but emerge as she develops the fortitude to make life-shattering decisions to survive.
Festa’s complementary role of Kim’s lover, Chris, starts from an opposing position of power and courage and discovers his own vulnerability. He is a man struggling to do the right thing while unsure of the consequences and his most powerful moments reflect that brutal truth.
Daughtry plays John with a similar relentless devotion to justice. His second-act “Bui-Doi” is a show-stopper set over video and photo of the children suffering in the wake of the Vietnam War. He is a realist from beginning to end, but his emotional beats echo his lament that his work is “too much for one heart.”
Jinwoo Jung as Thuy is unmistakably the villain in life and death and his attempt to balance his right to marriage with his nationalist brutality makes him a constantly-jarring character. Jung never ceases to appall, but is an astounding vocalist and his commanding presence carries the bulk of the play’s tension.
By contrast, Concepcion’s Engineer is an antagonist with a despicable agenda. In the course of his “engineering,” he is constantly turning a profit from turning tricks and looking for easier ways to achieve his “American dream” of opulence and immorality. The appreciation for his performance is for how greasily he maneuvers every situation to his perceived advantage.
Ellen (Ellie Fishman) and Gigi (Christine Bunuan) spend the least amount of time on stage, but are compelling in their own rights. Gigi, one of the bar girls at Dreamland, heart-breakingly dreams of the movie in her mind, where she escapes to America and lives in a world of love and hope. Ellen, who lives in such a world, struggles to find her way forward when confronted with her husband’s tragic past and captures attention with the nightmare she now must face.
Director Laurence Connor helms this unforgettable musical experience with keen understanding and valuable experience. The strongest feature is in the realism of its choreography–Bob Avian’s Musical Staging and Choreography most often creates isolated moments of extraordinary focus in the midst of chaos. There are dance sequences in the nightclub or during a victory parade, but most of the interactions seem extensions of body language. The stage design by Adrian Vaux, Totie Driver, and Matt Kinley allows the pieces to be transformed from hotels to hovels, bars to bedrooms with ingenious ease, while Lighting Design by Bruno Poet and Projections by Luke Halls immerse the cast and audience in the terror of the war. Mick Potter‘s Sound Design effectively conveys the bustle of Bankok as well as the riots breaking out during the evacuation of Saigon. Musical Director Will Curry and Musical Supervisor James Moore collaborate to showcase individual talents as well as a strong ensemble. The costumes by Andreane Neofitou richly reflect the different cultures and period-appropriate wardrobe choices.
Miss Saigon is a show not to be missed, but as it deals with such adult themes as war, prostitution, and racism, it is not for younger audiences. It is not the last night of the world, though, so hurry to the Eccles for a chance to see this masterpiece of musical theater.
Broadway at the Eccles Presents Miss Saigon; Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Lyrics by Alain Boublil, and Richard Maltby Jr.
The Eccles Theater, 131 Main St, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Oct 15-20, 2019, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $55-130
Contact: 385-468-1010
Broadway at the Eccles Facebook Page
Miss Saigon U.S. Tour Facebook Page
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