Miss Saigon (The Crucible, Sheffield, Personal)

 🌟 Miss Saigon 🌟

12 August 2023 at 2:10pm at The Crucible, Sheffield

★★★★★

As the musical enters it's final week at Sheffield's The Crucible, the first regional non-replica of Miss Saigon is a dominant theatrical feat, reinventing the 20th century show where the style feels incredibly modernised, without losing any of the original conventions or settings amongst the Vietnam War. Miss Saigon is well renowned for being one of the most successful musicals of all time. With Brohn's divine orchestrations in songs such as 'Movie In My Mind' and 'You Will Not Touch Him', the new found intensity and haunting visions of this production is set to go down as a revolutionary change.

This Boublil and Schönberg musical, featuring parallels to Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1970's Saigon, is typically seen with very grand, monumental sets. Although this minimalistic interpretation, designed by Ben Stones, features a more symbolic form of staging, leaving audience members with their imagination to fill the scenery, and alongside The Crucible's thrust staging, allows for a much smoother run with transitions. Ahead of this matinee performance, we went on a tour of Sheffield Theatres, where we were informed on the Greek origins of thrust staging, whereby the actors are literally forced into the audience. This heightens the sense of vulnerability for the actors and characters alike, allowing tensions to reach a new high for Miss Saigon in this arena format, really benefitting duos in particular. Anyone who knows this stage will realise that the space isn't large enough for the infamous helicopter featured in original versions. However, Jessica Hung Han Yun's lighting design emulates the immensity of the vehicle, particularly with haze and a spotlight as the atmosphere reaches boiling point. And the effervescent hues of Dreamland really add to the allure and temptations of the club scene to juxtapose the vulnerability of the Vietnamese bargirls.

Working extremely effectively alongside both lighting and set design is Mike Walker's innovative sound design, to really envision the realities of war. One moment I particularly enjoyed was the opening sequence, where the ensemble use a multitude of entrances to create a bustling, visceral cityscape, where you could close your eyes and be transported to Saigon. Amongst the crescendo of sound, including conversation and bicycles, central protagonist Kim (Desmonda Cathabel) is found. We hear of Kim's pain, losing her loved ones and forced into desperate measures to escape the broken city of Saigon. Cathabel is absolutely tremendous at not just acting this, but embodying these emotions so that they are felt and believed. She encapsulates Kim's determination yet fear with precision, which is wholly extraordinary to have seen! And staring alongside her as Chris, Christian Maynard is wonderful and dynamic opposite Cathabel. Despite the character of Chris not being entirely likeable, Maynard's intimacy separates him from the boisterous G.I.'s, in a more nurturing role, with very gentle and soothing vocals, where his love for Kim is so honestly portrayed. Together, the pair really define the beauties that Miss Saigon holds.

In terms of showstoppers, the musical has many notable moments, fearing the applause would never end sometimes! Though at the end of the performance, myself and my mum turned to each other and we both simply said "The American Dream!!". Led by Joanna Ampil as The Engineer, this number was incredibly charming, with a comical style which utterly stole my heart. For the first couple of minutes, Ampil is isolated onstage, and her stage presence fills the room with confidence, commanding the space with movement and endearing wit. The glamour of the second half was a relieving moment of joy to contradict the tensions of Act 2. Ordinarily, The Engineer is a male written part, though as my first experience of Miss Saigon in this non-replica form, I couldn't imagine an actress better than Ampil to perfect the role. I feel as if the feminine qualities allowed a greater cheekiness with the G.I.'s in Dreamland, but also holding maternal qualities with the girls, which was an investing relationship to see develop. I also wanted to give a special mention to Riley Woodford as a G.I. / Ensemble across the show, where I can really see his characterisation shine through in songs such as 'What A Waste' and 'The Heat Is On In Saigon', exactly encapsulating the excitable childishness of the American soldiers, in both funny and somewhat intimidating ways.

We were seated in seats A3 and A4, immersed on the front row to the side of the stage. At numerous moments, the ensemble come to sit in front of us on benches, surrounding the stage and facing inward a mere couple feet away from us. This is a rare convention, though I completely fell in love with this, as personally, they represented a variety of themes, whether it be ghosts of the past or the omniscience of war power, these observing roles really added to the unsettling aspects of the show. Being so close to the action, we could hear off mic conversations, really adding to the overall charm in creating more realistic settings through sound. The essence of storytelling became increasingly powerful across the musical, with movement playing a big part. A physical theatre sequence to follow the motion of a raft in water became so mesmerising, where minimalism is perhaps more successful than any previous production of Miss Saigon, using people and community as the forefront of the story. Additionally, Andrzej Goulding's video design was brilliant, especially for those new to the production to define settings and times of the scenes. It also allows for projections in a propaganda kind of style during 'The Morning Of The Dragon', which makes me shrink back into my seat with its forceful and intimidating power, alongside aggressive and sharp choreography from Jade Hackett.

With direction from Robert Hastie and Anthony Lau, The Crucible renders pure magic with Miss Saigon. This non-replica makes me consider not only the endless limitations of this musical, but reshaping how adaptable theatre is. Miss Saigon has come with many controversies during previous productions, and while it isn't necessarily my place to comment on some of these issues, amongst the programme, it shows the team have worked incredibly hard in modernising and allowing the musical to become increasingly relevant. This production is intense, incredibly daring, and altogether a show which I will remember for the rest of my life. There are so many performances and creative choices I wish I could talk about, though outside the review it will be a show I will always tell people about.

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