REVIEW | Miss Saigon, Prince Edward Theatre
It's tradition with my mum and I that late January we always take a coach to London with some old dancing friends to go shopping and see a theatre show. When I was younger this was always so exciting, wondering what wonderful musicals I've heard so much about are going to be available for me to see and what imagination will take place on the stage.
In recent years this excitement has flagged with not many new and exciting musicals making their way to the West End, making it hard to decide whether to see a musical or not. It feels like local theatres and companies are taking it upon themselves to perform musicals there audiences would want to see and showing a variety of stuff. With that in mind when deciding to watch Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward Theatre in London I wasn't expecting much, there had been such a huge hype around this show (it'll close in February 2016) I wanted to see what the fuss was all about.
A modern adaption of the opera Madame Butterfly, the story is epic. It has a strong thread that will pull at your heartstrings until the very end. The set itself was absolutely stunning, it presented itself to be aesthetically pleasing and I loved how they created each and every one of the scenes to perfection.
The score has been written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the same people who wrote the score for Les Miserables. I felt like the score perfectly aligned with the show and was so beautiful sound wise from the orchestra that it guided us well through the storyline, leaving little pause for actual dialogue to be used in the storytelling. The song 'Maybe' didn't give the character of Ellen any more drive and umph to really make her role stand out above the rest of the performing cast.
The production was slick and tight, no sloppiness was made from the changing of the scenes and the cast were really good in portraying specific characters within the scene. However, I just felt like I couldn't hear their articulation of the song lyrics enough to understand what was being sung and found myself following the storyline through visual representation. Which for me made me start to dislike this performance.
Jon Jon Briones who played the Engineer in this production was nothing short of phenomenal. His performance was very interactive with the audience and he executed it well. I couldn't stop laughing and he was a real stand out of the show for me personally and I'd go back to see it just for his performance alone.
I absolutely loved how Kim's character (performed by Eva Noblezada) showed the vulnerability and innocence that was being portrayed. Her vocals were absolutely stunning, those that can only belong to the lungs of a leading West End lady.
I'm not sure whether I would see this musical again in London but possibly during its tour as I feel like I could warm to it the second time around.
Miss Saigon will close on the 27 February so I'd give it a watch and let me know your thoughts!
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