Miss Saigon - Crucible Theatre, Sheffield - Tuesday 18th July 2023

Wendy
Jul 21, 2023
3 min read

This Sheffiled Theatres production of the classic musical based on Madame Butterfly is hands down, in my opinion, the best thing I've ever seen!

Read on to find out why!

Story

The story of Miss Saigon is based in the later end of the Vietnam war and focuses on the story of Viatnmese girl, Kim as she falls in love with US military man, Chris thanks to sleazy work of the Engineer while selling girls to soldiers for the night.

While the story remained relatively the same throughout, the big difference was that the Engineer character had been changed to a female role rather than the traditional male it has been since the musical's conception in 1989.

With this brought small changes to wordings in songs and a different understanding of what was happening throughout the show. I feel it worked VERY well and I could see this roler being male or female in future productions.

Sheffield Theatres have done an amazing job of making what can be sometimes a confusing story easier to understand with the direction and creative decisions made. I definitley found this production a lot more captivating and emotional than the London Revival in 2014 and the UK tour that followed. This is down to the amazing work the cast put in with each of these characters.

Cast

Starting with our lovestruck lead, Kim was played by Jessica Lee. I didn't think anyone would match the pure and raw emotion of Eva Noblezada from the 2014 revival... BOY was I wrong!! Even sat on the back row of the theatre, I could feel each emotion eminating from each note, each lyric and each move that Jessica made. She delivered the young, naiive characteristics while also showing Kim's desparation later on in the show.

Chris was played by Christian Maynard and let me tell you, this man is an absolute STAR! Again you could feel each hurtful feeling, each elated feeling and each loved-up moment coming from everything he did. There was a stark contrast between the immature, young GI in the beginning of the show to later on when him and Ellen go to Bangkok to see Kim and Tam.

The Engineer was played by an absolute Miss Saigon legend, Joanna Ampil who you may have heard as Kim on the international Miss Saigon soundtrack release back in the 90's (I believe!). Still giving the same sleazy performance as any male counterpart she delivered a more matriarchal touch to the Engineer and I thought this gave a much more emotional string to the bow of this character.

Ellen, Chris' wife was played by the sensational Shanay Holmes. Not only an absolute powerhouse of a voice, she gave a more realistic approach to how Ellen might be feeling throughout this ongoing story compared to other Ellen's I've seen perform the role. I sometimes feel Ellen is very quick to say yes to Chris when it comes to helping Tam but you can see Shanay's different take on this by showing a little more restraint.

The rest of cast were all absolutely amazing including Shane O'Riordan as John, Ethan Le Phong as Tuy and Aynrand Ferrer as Gigi.

Set

This was the highlight of the show in many ways! The 2 main set pieces were a set of stairs and a box. That was it! The rest was done by clever screen work on the wall of the stage and on the floor, oh and also the ceiling at some points!! They used clever floor plan imagery to show where characters were and the contrasting light and dark when showing the USA and Vietnam was very cleverly done.

Without the use of a helicopter as the big WOW moment, they still managed to deliver that WOW feeling with the way it was done. I won't spoil anything for people going to see it in the future. But prepare to be amazed!

Music

The music of Miss Saigon is classic and is loved by many all over the world. These renditions are just as amazing as any other, if not better! Ellen's Maybe, a song put in the revival in 2014 was beautifully painful, Chris's Why God Why was a clear look at a man who is torn and Kim's I'd Give My Life For You was gut-wrenching, especially with the way the boat crossing is shown at the end of the song.