Quote of the Day: I’m seventeen and I’m new here today. The village I come from seems so far away. All of the girls know much more what to say, but I know I have a heart like the sea. A million dreams are in me! Kim from Miss Saigon, currently on tour and playing at The Ordway Performing Arts Center in St. Paul, MN, October 8-13, 2013, created by the team who gave us Les Miserables, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubill.
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Miss Saigon Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Ordway
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Miss Saigon is a love story set in war torn Vietnam, mid-1970’s. Two star-crossed lovers cling to each other as the world crumbles into chaos. As the lyrics explain in The Last Night of the World, “In a place that won’t let us feel. In a life where nothing seems real. I found you.” Chris, an American G.I, meets Kim, a young Vietnamese girl forced into prostitution. The bond they form in two short weeks gives them each the courage to battle on through the turmoil of the end of the war and its aftermath. Kim waits with unfailing hope that Chris will return for her and their son, but the world is a mess, and then it gets even more complicated.
Miss Saigon. Description: Manna Nichols (as Kim) and Charlie Brady (as Chris) in Miss Saigon. Photo Credit: Bob Compton Photography
The story is beautiful and sad. The music gives you the chills, at times feeling like you are in the chaos. Helicopters are coming with a cacophony of sound and people running every which way. Then, in a glimmer of light, Chris and Kim find each other, embrace, and shut the world out for just a little while. A cavern of loss echoes when they are separated.
Miss Saigon. Description: Manna Nichols as Kim. Photo Credit: Billy Bustamante
Miss Saigon depicts a time in history when people didn’t know if they were going to live another day. Soldiers who might not have ever been around death before watched whole villages get destroyed, and the villagers watched their world disintegrate. Who do you trust? What is real? How do you get away from the madness? I first saw this musical 20 years ago on Broadway in NYC. It was the first musical I’d ever seen that had diversity in the casting and characters. The first time a heavy topic like this was set to music and played out in front of me. It showed me how dark the world can be and how desperate people become, what they’ll do out of love, and what a mother will sacrifice to give her child a better life.
Miss Saigon gives audiences something new to experience. It might not be exactly how some people would have liked it done, but it did break the mold of the typical white European-American characters and story line. As the controversy rages on about this show, we can thank our lucky stars to be living in America where we have freedom of speech, the right to assemble and protest, and freedoms won by those soldiers and leaders who fought for them and all the people from various nations who call this great country home. We all have the right to form our own opinions on anything from banned books to protested plays from our own experiences with them.
My favorite song from Miss Saigon is The Last Night of the World. Have a listen on Youtube, a clip from the Johnny Carson Show with Lea Salonga and Sean McDermott.
Go. Create. Inspire!
Journaling Prompt: Do you know someone who was in the Vietnam war? Were you, or do you know someone, who has been a protester for any cause?
I love musicals….any sort, I well remember Miss Saigon from years ago.
Yvonne.
Looks and sounds like a wonderful play!!! We have the Lexington Opera House here I hope they show this there sometime. If they do I am totally game!
Oh, to have seen “Miss Saigon” on Broadway! Thanks for the gorgeous clip. . . good seeing Johnny again. I also remember the controversy around the play. Couldn’t agree with you more about how fortunate we are in the USA.
I saw Miss Saigon in London’s West End over 20 years ago. I remember the haunting songs and the helicopter which appeared to hover over the audience. Amazing.
“heart like a sea” thats cool.
………dhole
To have seen “Miss Saigon” on Broadway! Congratulations on winning Siv Maria’s new book, by the way!!
Miss Saigon came to Seattle when we were out there and I had the honor of seeing it. It was as you describe here — noisy, sad, startling, beautiful. Yes, I guess you can say I’ve been a protestor of sorts when I’ve prayed at our local abortion facility, but I’m not protesting the women, but it’s more an act of prayer for them and what they’re about to go through (or just went through), and to give hope that someday, maybe, we’ll find better alternatives than death to solve our challenges. It takes bravery to stand up and out in this way, and I don’t take it lightly, but I believe in prayer and what my presence may do to show love to someone who is hurting. Even if some don’t take it that way, that’s the intention of my heart.
Had the pleasure of seeing this play also, but it’s been years ago and I had sorta forgotten it; so was nice to visit your blog and read about it. Twas a sad play I thought, brought back some not to fond memories of the time.
Been awhile since I’ve visited, so today am catching up with everyone, working my way down the blog log etc.
Sandy and Stanley
I do know an attorney friend who was in the Vietnam war. He contracted malaria there. Emotional scars, if any still exist, he keeps them to himself. Maybe that’s another thing he learned there. The story you describe sounds absolutely beautiful.
I’m not too familiar with this play… sounds beautiful… it made me think of the song One Night In Bangkok, but that’s from the musical Chess… Bangkok/Thailand… Saigon/Vietnam… there are slight similarities…?