MISS SAIGON
It must be vouchsafed that MISS SIAGON sprang from the moldering libretto of Puccini’s MADAME BUTTERFLY.
Yet the tragedy is inspired, updated and augmented by a poignant photo of what came to symbolize the tragedy and insensitivity intrinsic to the ill conceived Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1982.
The photo depicts a Vietnamese mother, unwelcome in America, bidding farewell to her half American daughter, whom she will in all probability never see again.
The daughter is about to board a plane for an uncertain and culturally ambiguous future in the United States.
A plot synopsis could never fully account for the emotional whiffle dale this musical puts its audience through, but nevertheless one follows.
A group of Marines enter a Saigon bar brothel combo, determined to enjoy their last few liberty days before the imminent fall of Saigon.
Chris, weary of the death, destruction and decadence, is clearly not enjoying the degrading ambience of the bar scene.
His friend, John, sets him up with a couple of beers and one whole night with a new “fresh meat” bar girl.
The new girl is Kim: recently orphaned by the war, only seventeen years and just in from the cratered provinces.
Reluctantly John spends the night with Kim and magically they connect in the tragic manner of Romeo and Juliet.
In the morning, while Kim sleeps, John expresses his bitter sweet regret with the song “Why God Why?”
He realizes that this special night has forever changed his life and will always be emblazoned on his heart.
John and Kim spend the remaining two weeks together before the fall of Saigon catapults them worlds apart.
After the fall, Kim sustains her life and her inner virtue despite the hard scrapple circumstances she finds herself.
Without John’s knowledge, she gives birth to his son and leaves communist Vietnam for the fathomless moral abyss of Bangkok.
Despite the degradation and survival wages of the sex industry, Kim is buoyed by her dream: that one day John will return and that three of them will live together, as a family, in America.
A great musical is only as great as its vocalists and this amazing multi-racial cast of 45 superb actors boasts plenty vocal talent.
Catherine Gloria is spectacular: her voice is imbued with a certain virtuousness and purity that establishes the stainless and resolute character of Kim even as she survives by plying the sex trade of Bangkok.
Noel Anthony has a voice that bellows the inner agony of Chris as he feels the tremendous void left in his heart and soul by his separation from Kim.
Paul Araquistain has mastered the sleazy voice of Dicken’s Fagin; he uses it to personify a man who would pimp his own mother, and did: Tran “the Engineer” and unrepentant.
David Sattler, as John, sings in a measured, clipped voice that resonates the voice of reason and compassion: a balm trying to assuage the residual chaos, pathos and suffering left by the heartless Vietnam era.
The lighting by Michael Ramsaur moves across the spectrum from tranquil moonlight to as hellish and as nightmarish as the bridge scene in APOCALYPSE NOW.
To get a fresh perspective on the world and to trivialize the truly trivial concerns in your own life, get thee to MISS SAIGON.
It will lift you out of your midlife doldrums and reacquaint you with the human condition.
For tickets call the box office at 650-579-5565.
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Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle