Miss Saigon Revisited

In 1989, the world first heard of the tale of a young girl trapped in Vietnam near the end of the American occupation of that country. The voice of Lea Salonga, together with other Filipino talents, led the extraordinary production of a story based on a photograph of a Vietnamese mother who was seeing her daughter off at Ho Chi Minh airport. The daughter is to join her father, an ex-GI and whom she has never seen, in the United States.

The rest, as they say, is history. In 1991, it created a ruckus as the producer threatened not to show it on Broadway if he cannot have the original West End cast. Miss Saigon has been seen by over 31 million people worldwide and has made superstars out of its principal actors. It has won the Tony Awards, translated and performed in 18 languages, a testament to the universality of its theme. 17 years later and it will start a world tour of the original production. With a production re-design, it should be able to be performed in most theaters, including the now-famous helicopter scene.

So why bother now? I was busy cleaning some stuff in my closet when I ran across the programs and ticket stubs when I saw the show in West End and again, in 1991, in New York. Great memories started flooding in. I remember watching the evening performance in London and how the tears flowed, not because of the story, but because of the tremendous pride of being Filipino. There weren't a lot of dry eyes in the place that night. I swear every Filipino in London watched that show at least ten times! It was the same in New York. I think it was worse in New York. I remember my friends flying from Manila just to watch the show on Broadway. We ended up watching it three times, crying at the same parts of the show.

I guess this is one of the defining Broadway shows for my generation along with Cats, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, and A Chorus Line. I haven't heard the original soundtrack for awhile now but when I played it, I found myself remembering almost every scene and every lyric. And now, it's on my iPod..."The Last Night Of The World" has never sounded more poignant than when heard in the middle of the night.