I first saw this revival production of Miss Saigon back in May 2014, not long after it had opened and I fell in love with the show. Straight away it was up there as one of my favourite shows so when it was announced last year that the show would be closing I was devastated and rushed online to book tickets for the final evening performance on the 27th February. Since I originally saw it there have been a couple of new cast members in the principal roles (I hadn't seen Chris Peluso as Chris or Marsha Songcome as Gigi) so I was excited to see how the show had changed and equally I knew that all the cast would be giving the performance of a lifetime to provide this extraordinary show with the goodbye it deserved.
From the second the lights went down and the curtain came up the atmosphere in the theatre was electric. Eva Noblezada (who plays the role of Kim) has a phenomenal voice and really threw all her emotions into the performance. I'd Give My Life For You is one of my favourite musical theatre songs and her rendition, with its raw emotion, had me sobbing. In contrast, Jon Jon Briones as The Engineer brought incredibly believable charisma and comedy to the show and his big number, The American Dream, received well-earned cheers and applause that went on and on. Other personal highlights include Bui Doi with Hugh Maynard's stunning riffs, Siobhan Dillon's heartbreaking rendition of Maybe and Chris Peluso's Why God Why- I'd not heard him sing it before but I loved the richness of his voice in this particular song.
At the end of the show the entire audience was on their feet. The applause and cheers were deafening for each and every cast member during the curtain call and you could tell that the audience were really going to miss this show. The cast were then joined on stage by Cameron Mackintosh and composers Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schoenberg. I felt really honored to be in the same room as the creative talents who wrote some of my favourite musicals. There were then speeches from all three, (if you want to watch all the speeches I found a video of them here) and included Cameron giving us some very exciting news. As was previously announced, the show is heading to Broadway next Spring but there is also to be a UK tour beginning Summer 2017. He also told us that the full show had been professionally filmed by Universal last year and this is hopefully going to be shown in cinemas around the UK in the Autumn. He finished by teasing us all a little saying that "hopefully the movie won't just be in my mind"- there's a big possibility that the musical will be adapted into a film, similar to the Les Mis movie I presume, which I would love to see happen.
Overall I think it's fair to say that this was one of my greatest theatrical experiences so far and a monumental performance that I won't ever be forgetting. Although this absolute gem of a show has now left the West End (I definitely think it deserved longer but that's a view I might discuss in the future!) do not despair if you didn't get chance to see it as I am reassured that this is far from the end for Saigon and I know that this show will live on in the hearts of many forever no matter where it goes from here.
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