By Joy McKay.
Despite being a lover of musical theatre somehow Miss Saigon has always passed me by. I think the wonder of flying monkeys or cars or people dressed up as cats or trains appeals to me more than tales of the Vietnam War.
However, Miss Saigon was written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the team responsible for the Les Misérables, another historically based musical which, despite lacking any of that wonder, remains one of my favourites.
The show has fallen somewhat out of fashion, with its difficult subject becoming less relevant and sometimes controversial to new audiences, it has been on hiatus for the last ten years. But it has now been given a refresh by Michael Harrison and Cameron MacKintosh for a new touring production.
Always so lucky to have these big shows play on our doorstep, I was excited for my first experience of Miss Saigon at Mayflower Theatre.
The story remains an uncomfortable one; a foreign military presence, women forced into prostitution due to their country being ravaged by war, oppressive regimes and poverty.
The setting may be unfamiliar but the tragedies are not, and I guess the fact that this is a reimagining of Madame Butterfly attests to that.
It is also impossible to avoid the importance of race and gender in this story; based in Vietnam and then Thailand with Vietnamese, Thai, Black and White American characters it is based on some truth.
However it is important to remember this is a tiny snapshot of the type of lives real people were living and that the people represented of all races and genders should not be considered stereotypes but archetypes, used to drive a narrative.
Having addressed the negatives, the show was outstanding. The ingenuity of set design, staging and lighting was mesmerising and, at times, confusing; making buildings appear and disappear.
The actors were to take full advantage of a small space perfectly. Miss Saigon does not have famous stand-out musical numbers, in the same way as sister show Les Mis. But there are echoes of that score in these compositions; a Schönberg and Boublil signature heard in cadence or refrain.
Whist all of the cast performed beautifully, this production was absolutely carried by Julianne Pundam playing Kim and Seann Miley Moore as The Engineer. Pundam makes her professional debut in Miss Saigon.
Whist the show obviously has an ensemble cast, so much stage time is given to the role of Kim, be it in a group, duo or solo, and her performance was consistently strong and confident. If this is how she is starting her career I can’t wait to see where it heads.
Seann Miley Moore is a performer already known to me before seeing the show, described in the programme as “the embodiment of queer Asian excellence.” You could easily believe the role had been written for them rather than 14 years before they were born!
The Engineer is integral to the story, pulling together all of the other characters and should be an unpleasant, greedy, conniving one. However Miley Moore’s performance is fun, campy, extrovert and more than a little bit sexy! Fully allowed to shine in the penultimate number “The American Dream” it’s worth going to see the show for their performance in that alone.
Although far from a fairytale, Miss Saigon is funny and sweet at times but juxtaposed with such sadness and tragedy, not all of which is fiction.
Prepare yourself for a real feast, leaving you fulfilled and drained but grateful for the experience.
Tickets for Miss Saigon (Tuesday 27 January – Saturday 7 February 2026) are on sale at mayflower.org.uk or 02380 711811.
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