The heat is on as the acclaimed musical Miss Saigon is coming back to Manila.
Cameron Mackintosh’s brand-new production of the Tony Award-winning musical will premiere at the Theatre at Solaire in March 2024, GMG Productions — the same company that brought the blockbuster Broadway musical Hamilton to Manila — has announced.
I’m absolutely thrilled to be bringing my spectacular new production of Miss Saigon to Manila. Without a doubt, it is the best production of Saigon I have ever produced, with one of the most brilliant casts that have ever performed the show around the world. I can’t envisage another show of this scale being done in Manila for the foreseeable future,” British impresario Mackintosh said in a statement.
Thrilling
The reimagined Miss Saigon landing in Manila has just completed its run at the Sydney Opera House in Australia and will have limited seasons in Melbourne and Adelaide. Directed by Laurence Connor, with musical staging by Bob Avian and choreography by Geoffrey Garratt, the new international production has been described as “thrilling… [with] magnificent performances” by the UK Daily Telegraph, while the Daily Mail raved: “The greatest musical of all time just got even better!”
GWB Entertainment director Torben Brookman said Filipinos are in for an absolute treat with “the best production of this incredible show” one could see.
Miss Saigon was last staged in the Philippines in 2000 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines with Lea Salonga starring in the role of Kim, which she originated at the West End in London in 1989. She reprised the role on Broadway in 1991, winning her a Tony for Best Actress, making her the first Asian woman to win such an award.
Generations of Filipino talents have topbilled international productions of Miss Saigon. Among the more recent ones are Jon Jon Briones and Red Concepcion as the Engineer, Rachelle Ann Go as Gigi, and Joanna Ampil, a former Kim herself, who played the Engineer — the first woman to play the traditional male role — in the Sheffield Theatres’ revamped version of the musical in the UK.
Retelling
Mackintosh’s production of the Boublil and Schönberg classic musical first premiered in London’s West End in 1989. Since then, the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical has been seen by 38 million people worldwide, staged in 32 countries, in over 350 cities and in 15 different languages for the past 34 years.
Miss Saigon is a retelling of Giacomo Puccini’s classic opera Madame Butterfly. It is told during the 1970s in Vietnam and follows a young woman named Kim as she navigates the chaos of Saigon during the Vietnam War and falls in love with American G.I. soldier Chris.
The Manila season is presented at The Theatre at Solaire by GMG Productions, with tickets on sale beginning 6 November through TicketWorld. Fans can enjoy exclusive first access to the show with UnionBank of the Philippines as the official sponsor and pre-sale partner, or through the GMG Miss Saigon waitlist at www.gmg-productions.com. Pre-sale period will run from 23 October to 3 November.