Miss Saigon - Theatre Royal / Prince Edward / UK Tour

The blinds were the original production at Drury Lane, directed by Nicholas Hytner.

Just got in. It's a great production and seems the same quality as the West End. From memory the stage is set to be smaller than at the PE but actually i think it's the better for it as the set looks better and the stage much busier compared to sometimes a feeling of vast empty space at the PE.

Sooha Kim as Kim was great and just as i remembered her. I would maybe like some more power in her vocals at times as it tends to lean a bit too much on the side of prettiness and daintiness to me, which actually sums her whole performance up. I would have been interested to see Eva because from the clips she seems to portray a much stronger character than Sooha, also reflected in what i can gather from her voice so the contrast would have been interesting. But Sooha is great don't get me wrong and is my only frame of reference anyway as i've only seen her.

Red Conception as The Engineer....LOVED HIM! Not much more to say. I thought he was brilliant and just as good as Jon Jon in my opinion and my absolute stand out, i was always excited for him to appear. He was CRAZED. He also has a good voice and sang the score more than Jon Jon, with less 'talk singing'.

I was really pleasantly surprised by Ashley Gilmour....out of the cast he was the one i was sceptical about when he was cast. I saw him as Link in Hairspray and really didn't take to him in that at all and thought he seemed a bit wooden and lifeless.....he proved me wrong. I thought he was great, a much better voice than i anticipated and on display in Links songs,  doing justice to his songs in the score, and he portrayed a very emotional and endearing Chris. I thought he was better than Chris Peluso.

Ryan O Gorman hands down better than Hugh Maynard. I just found Hugh so annoying as John for no real reason, for some reason i just did. I liked Ryan's portrayal a lot, it felt a lot more authentic and what you would expect from a cocky American G.I but then also still naturally more sensitive later in the show, and his voice was fantastic and really powerful. He was really great and i'd be interested to see him in whatever he does next.

I didn't take to the Thuy much. His acting was fine though he didn't quite manage to be that intimidating and was constantly battling to deliver the notes, he seems to have a limited voice to me and he was seen to be trying way harder than he should be when singing. I can't recall who played him during the performance i saw in London but he was definitely a lot stronger than this tour Thuy, who lacked a real operatic voice and stature in my opinion.

Marsha great as Gigi again though i remember her Movie In My Mind (one of my faves) being more impressive when i saw her in London, but it was still good.

I liked Zoe as Ellen in the end, i was unsure at first in the elevated bedroom scene but then she later delivered a very raw Maybe and you really bought into her from then on.

There were moments i felt the emotion during the show when i didn't really in London. Maybe i was just feeling extra emotional today but i don't remember anything getting to me in London where as there were times in the 2nd act i must say i was welling up here.

From what i can gather Cameron was in today...though i didn't see him.

Question about the Prince Edward production - does anyone know why the production closed reasonably quickly? Was it simply that the demand wasn't there or was it the desire to get it over to the US? It seems strange to me that Les Mis can run for 30 years (admittedly in a much smaller theatre) and the revival of this didn't even make it to two.

So it was pretty much sold out for first 6 months then tailed off so I think it was sales that closed it. Agree had it remained highly profitable they'd have kept it running and built a new set for NYC.

Anecdotally every time I went I was surrounded by people who had seen it before and were very excited to revisit it. I think once all the return business died down it struggled. Perhaps it failed to find new fans? A great shame for an epic show. But style wise (sung through original score) it was of the 80s and sadly the appetite of the GBP for these things has waned.

Warning - this video contains a topless Ashley Gilmore. You have been warned. ⚠️ 

More interested in Ryan 😜

I saw CRM in London and thought he made a horrible Engineer.

On another note, I heard that "the dance" segment has now been cut ("My name is Kim..I like you Chris.."), and that Dreamland immediately shifts into Kim's room and into "Why God Why?"

That's what I felt in the London production too, the second act felt under-rehearsed. Especially with Eva as Kim. With Tanya it felt a bit more natural, as she's a better actress which could save some of the strange direction choices. For example, in Too much for one heart it felt like a rehearsal where Eva had no idea what to do or how to handle her lines and her acting moments. In the scene after Bangkok, where John meets the Engineer and Kim (Can you take me to Chris, I can leave here right now, one month at sea, etc) was staged very amateurish and they gave the Engineer some lines and the whole thing became very amateurish and unnatural. Then Kim walks offstage and sings the line 'Come see love, come see Chris" when she's actually already off stage and then the Engineer is waiting there for his next line. It all looks and feels messy and weird and out of focus. The focus should be on Kim there.

Also, what really bothered me, especially in the 2nd act, was that Eva avoided some beautifully written angelic high notes. For example, "He's been waiting for his father, for a long long while", or "And he's teaching him to fly, paper dragons in the sky". These angelic high notes is what makes Kim beautiful, sweet and vulnerable compared to her other, stronger side. This kind of singing makes her more like a Disney princess instead of just a strong belting highschool girl without a proper head voice. But she has never sung them. Not even in the CD version and not on the DVD version. While every other Kim I have seen did sing them, even Tanya Manalang and Julia Abueva in the Londion revival did sing them. On one day I saw Sooha Kim in London, and her voice seemed to have much more of this angelic quality than Eva's, but to my surprise she avoided the notes too! In fact, she literally copied the revival cd version of Eva, and imitated all of Eva's mistakes. It really was as if they just gave her the cd to practice.

So I am really curious if they properly rehearsed Sooha again and she now sings the right parts? Can you please elaborate on that?

Have seen Red twice as Engineer and then saw CRM on the Thrusday. So the only two I had seen play the role. Red was fantastic. CRM not so much.

Red was actually around at least for the matinee because I met him. Don't know why he wasn't on. Although he asked if I was seeing it that day, I said yes, he said I'd see Chuck.

I have only seen Sooha in the role so i don't know specifically but from memory she did sing high notes in those songs. She is general has quite a high and dainty voice doesn't she? In fact i wanted a bit more from her lower register and belt, not less.

I was going to go today and see Joreen in the role, who has got some great reviews on twitter. Sadly due to ill health (again) i won't be going, dunno if Theatre is on the cards for a while now, just as everything is on. Very sad about it.

Caught the matinee today and in my rush to catch the train back to London, I forgot to look at the cast board, so assume Joreen Bautista was on as the alternate Kim? Thought she was good, did a earnest job. Also was Red Concepcion (strange name, wouldn't like to introduce him at a dinner party) back as the engineer? If so I enjoyed his performance, he played the role differently than Jon Jon Birones, I thought Jon just edged it though, which is still very high praise.

Ashley Gilmour is the best Chris I have seen so far by a matinee mile, also loved Zoe Doana as Ellen. Ryan O'Goram played the role different from the West End, John was played wrong in the West End.

If you haven't seen the West End production, you wouldn't know any different, the helicopter was better than the West End. Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy, the director - has put his own mark on this production, some welcome, although I didn't enjoy the extra use of profanity. Don't be put off from seeing this because it is a tour. I must be getting sentimental in my old age, after seeing the original and the revival several times, this still brings a tear to my eye, as there is something very tender and humane to the story.